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One of the books I currently have from the library is a graphic novel called The Explorer’s Guild. I borrowed it because one of the co-authors is the actor Kevin Costner. I wouldn’t call myself a huge Costner fan, he is a good actor but I haven’t seen all of his movies and have no plans to do so. I borrowed the book because I was curious.
The book looks really nice and sets the mood for the story. A heavy chunkster with an old-timey looking adventure story cover, when you open it the paper is a pleasant creamy “old book” color slightly darker around the edges than in the middle of the page. And the drawings are a sort of monochrome palette and highly detailed laid out in a comic book fashion. There are also pages of text, usually one or two, integrated between the comic panels with little illustrations. It is a pleasing look and feel.
However, after one chapter I am not so sure I want to keep reading because I don’t really care for the story. It is made clear from the start that the Explorer’s Guild is made up of all men, mostly of the gentlemanly sort. And while the story takes place during WWI, I don’t know why the Guild has to be all men. Paging through the book there is a woman who appears much later, an actress known to have many affairs, so I am not certain what sort of role she has in the story.
Also, the story is set, at least in the beginning, in “Arabia” and the company of British soldiers is worried about being attacked by two thousand “Turkmen” and angry looking “Mohammedan” armies wearing turbans and carrying scimitars. Um…
That this adventure story is set during a time of racism and colonialism is one thing, that it plays into it is bothersome to me. If I keep reading, maybe the story redeems itself in some way, but then it might not.
When I started writing this I thought perhaps it would end up convincing me to keep going for at least one more chapter. But now, I think I am going to mark it down as DNF and return it to the library. I fell better already.
Man! I’m a pretty big Kevin Costner fan, but it sounds like a bit of a drag. I hate books where women are all on the periphery. Also hate the “Laurence of Arabia” or “Khartoum” type books that feature the savage Arab.
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Brown books, yeah given all the female superhero comics and other graphic novels with lots of women and diversity in them I have been reading lately this one felt like a slap in the face in many ways. And yeah, the “savage Arab” is something no one should be writing these days.
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It took my longer than I care to admit to get OK with not finishing a book. But now… yeah, I’d probably give up on a this one, too. Who has time to read books that rely on tired and out-dated tropes when there are so many inventive and interesting things being written? I’ll even stop reading a short ebook these days. And some of those only take me an hour or two to read. I’ll certainly stop reading a full length book. I’m not wasting days or weeks of my precious reading time. No way.
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Tungsten Hippo, sometimes I am willing to stick out a book for 30-50 pages, even sometimes 100 before giving up on it but the more I thought about this one, the more I realized the racism and the sexism was not going to get better because the adventure ends up being a search for a mythical Buddhist city. It’s good to give yourself permission to not waste time on something you are not enjoying! It took me a long time to be able to do it too!
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SIGH. I’m reading Neal Stephenson’s novel Quicksilver right now, which *does* only feature one woman and makes references to “the Turk”, but in a completely self-aware, slightly-mocking-of-the-era sort of way. (Also, the woman ends up becoming a superpowerful stockbroker in 17th-century Amsterdam.) I totally feel you about authors who just don’t interrogate those assumptions at all; sounds to me a bit like a Boy’s Own/vanity project type of thing for Costner. Fling it from you!
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Elle, sigh is right! I haven’t read Quicksilver yet but the instances you are citing I could be ok with. This graphic novel definitely has that Boy’s Own thing going on, really disappointing. It has been returned to the library!
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When I was teaching 7-11 yr olds the standard policy was that they should finish any book that they started. Well, I wasn’t having any of that. Can you think of a better way to put children off reading for life? So, my rule was that after roughly 20% of a book if they could tell me what it was about it that they didn’t like they could put the book to one side. You have told me what it is you don’t like. You may put the book back!
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Alex, you are so right! Making anyone, especially children who are still new to reading, finish a book they do not like doesn’t help anyone. In my particular instance, the book has been returned to the library and I feel much better for it!
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I saw this book at a Book Fair recently and I did debate about buying Fortunately I was busting my budget, so I did not even bother to browse through and giving it a longing glance I left! Turns out it was fortuitous…I do not want to read anything so narrow and limiting!
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cirtnecce, it looks enticing and I wanted to like it, who doesn’t enjoy a good adventure? But I don’t like adventure stories that partake of cultural prejudice. You can be glad you left the book behind at the book fair!
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Poor Kevin Costner! Now he’s probably thinking, why isn’t she a big Kevin Costner fan? 😉 I would agree you made a good decision setting this one aside!
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Laurie, ha! You made me laugh!
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I second your decision, Stefanie. 🙂 This sounds terrible. I am glad you made that bold choice to stop reading.
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Deepika, thanks! No sense in wasting precious reading time on something I was not enjoying!
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Clearly this shows that , despite many pronounce,nets otherwise, not everyone has a book in them. Costner should stick to directing films and acting of course.
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BookerTalk, you are very likely right about that!
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Very interesting Stefanie. I’m wondering how I’d feel. I think that if I read books about that time written at that time, I’d expect the sort of situation and language you are describing. However, if I’m reading historical fiction, I like to think that it is in some way reflecting on the period. “Genre” historical fiction probably doesn’t do that, but, literary-snob me tends to look for “literary” historical fiction and, while I don’t expect (or want) it to be anachronistic, I look for thoughtfulness about the era being described. That can come in different ways – perhaps the tone, or the angle being taken, for example – something that tells me the author chose to write about this era for something they wanted to expose/explore.
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whisperinggums, the back of the book calls it a Kipling-like adventure. Well, as you suggest, it is one thing to read Kipling who wrote during the time such colonial and racist attitudes were acceptable, it is another thing for modern writers to do. As far as I could determine for the little I read, there was no irony or awareness that such an attitude is wrong. To me it seemed like they wanted to write an old-fashioned sort of adventure and just didn’t think about how some of those pieces might not be good anymore.
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Thanks Stefanie. Yes that’s how it sounded from what you said. A shame but in one sense useful as we can see how ingrained certain attitudes still are that the creators didn’t seem to think!
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I probably wouldn’t pick it up because I don’t really like graphic novels. However I wouldn’t find the other issues you raise off-putting. What I ask from a book is that it is well-written and interesting. Pretty basic. But I do agree that if you are not enjoying a book, put it down and read something else. Life is short.
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Grad, you just haven’t found the right graphic novel yet! 😉 The book has been returned to the library and I have moved on!
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The “look” of the book, covers and paper, sound very nice but too bad the story wasn’t as appealing. I don’t think I would have continued much into it either.
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Iliana, the look of the book is great, but yeah, too bad the story had to turn out how it did.
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Oh yikes. I was already on board with DNFing it when you said it was all male characters (that’s what put me off The Manhattan Projects, which I generally hear really good things about), but the racism really feels like the final nail in the coffin.
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Jenny, the all-male cast got my hackles up right away but I was still willing to give it a chance until the panel with the angry Arabs in turbans came along 😦
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I practically LIVE in a bookstore [I’m even in one right now] — and this is a book I have picked up often in here, mostly because, as you say, it is aesthetically interesting. Like, it LOOKS good.
After reading your comments about it, yeah — I’ll just leave it where it lies.
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Cipriano, it is a lovely book to look at, it screams read me, but unfortunately the story is just not a good one.
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Retro imperialist nostalgia sounds a bit grim……in different guises there is quite a lot of it about.
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Ian, retro imperialist nostalgia — you nailed it!
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