Hello!
This week I have read:
Eric by Shaun Tan
The Wolves in the Walls by Neil Gaiman and Dave McKean
The Divided Self by R.D. Laing
Collected Poems of Li-Po and Tu-Fu
Again it’s been a mixed week. I read two children’s books with work by my favourite illustrators- Dave McKean and Shaun Tan. It hit me that their styles are actually very similar. They also often look at similar themes: using surreality as a way into depression. They both take the bizarre imagination that writing for children allows to the extremes. Their plots are always indecipherably illogical, and I love them for it. They appeal to a child’s sense of the world- the insecurity of seemingly arbitary rules that only grown-ups understand and control.
Illustration from Shaun Tan’s “Eric”
Neil Gaiman and Dave McKean’s “The Wolves in the Walls”
I’ve been meaning to read The Divided Self for a long time now. It is the book that led to the common misconception that schizophrenia was synonymous with Dissassociative Identity Disorder. Instead Laing is suggesting that issues with identity- the creation of a false self that covers for a true self- lead to the odd thinking patterns and behaviour found in the psychotic. He posits that the creation of a false self that (usually) exists to serve/please other people leads to increasing detachment from the ‘true’ self and seems to result in reality becoming an increasingly surreal prospect. This detachment from reality leads to the psychotic break of schizophrenia. It is a fascinating interpretation of psychological evidence. Although, like Freud, Laing’s theories depend heavily on unique case studies, they seem to be more throughly researched than Freud’s works (and also Laing has the sense to not use himself as a case study, unlike Freud) and so can’t be entirely critiqued by the same brush.
I throughly enjoyed the poetry of Li-Po and Tu-Fu. I usually find it difficult to read (and write) poetry because of its tireless intensity. These poems were so beautiful that I found I had to read them aloud to myself (I waited until no-one else was in the house). I prefer Tu-Fu’s writing, especially his poems about war and pacifism. He seems to have more of a grasp of social issues than the older Li-Po, yet still manages to write with the same vivid imagery. I am going to include one of the poems in the film script I am writing. It is relevant to the characters as traditionally Li-Po and Tu-Fu are seen as intwined figures- Li-Po as a poet of the night and Tu-Fu as a poet of the day.