47. Five Minds for the Future

By: Howard Gardner

Five Minds for the Future is an interesting book to read alongside Daniel Pink's A Whole New Mind- as they take a similar approach to preparing the next generation of thinkers, and even reach similar conclusions. Pink identifies six senses, Design, Story, Symphony, Empathy, Play, and Meaning. The cultivation of these senses, he claims, will prepare people with the types of skills that will be most needed in what he calls the "conceptual age". As opposed to the 'information age' which is about the control and accumulation of knowledge, the 'conceptual age' is about how that information is understood and managed.

Gardner identifies five minds, and there is some overlap with Pink's senses (although there is some conflict as well) - the disciplined mind, the synthesizing mind, the creating mind, the respectful mind, and the ethical mind.

Obviously, the attributes of Gardner's 'respectful' and 'ethical' minds have some similarities with the attributes Pink ascribes to 'empathy'. They also reach similar conclusions in their ideas about the 'synthesizing mind' (Gardner), and 'symphony' (Pink). They diverge slightly more in other areas- Gardner refers to the 'creative mind' as one of the five, where Pink identifies creativity as a basis for all six of his senses.

Interestingly, Gardner (attributing Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi) describes creativity in a way in which I'm not terribly comfortable- and I feel awkward even criticizing his definition, as he's shaped so much of what we understand about critical pedagogy. However, this is the part with which I disagree:

According to Csikszenmtihalyi, creativity occurs when- and only when- an individual or group product generated in a particular domain is recognized by the relevant field as innovative and, in turn, sooner or later, exerts a genuine, detectable influence on subsequent work in that domain. This perspective applies to the full range of creations, across spheres and across various degrees of innovation (from the littlest c to the biggest C). (p.81)

This seems to me to be a surprisingly narrow and elitist view of creativity! He goes with an example of life in the United States in the 1980s:

Everyone wanted to be creative: too many persons believed that they were creative, even though they had scarcely begun to master a domain, and even though no expert in the field would have judged them as creative. (p.85)

It sounds like he is describing innovation, not creativity. If not, this must ring false to any art teacher who has seen the burst of creative energy in a student who has simply managed to discover that red and blue make purple for the first time. However, this complaint is indeed just a tangent. You don't need to accept or agree with his definition of creativity to appreciate his overall message.

The critical conclusion that both books reach is the same- there is a new skill set that will define success in the 21st century. More importantly, whether we refer to these disciplines as "minds" or "senses" - it is clear that traditional modes of learning are no longer adequate for navigating an interconnected and rapidly changing world. Both Gardner and Pink suggest that these new perspectives are necessary for progressing forward.

Both of these books hold deep significance for all teachers, but specifically, they embrace the kind of learning that takes place in art classrooms- an unending investigation into new possibilities.

46. The Riddle-Master of Hed

By: Patricia A. McKillip

Despite glowing reviews on Amazon, and a high recommendation from Meezly, I found this book to be tedious and rough around the edges. I didn't find the world that McKillip created to be that interesting, the characters didn't seem very well defined- even the writing seemed awkward at times. Theres very little that's descriptive, which I find necessary in creating a believable fantasy world. Finally, as Joseph Campbell points out, many heroes refuse the call when it is first brought to them- but our hero from Hed refuses the call way to long, to the point of which it becomes the main focus of the first book. That being said, I'm curios to go on to the second book because one of the first reviews on Amazon suggests that the first book is by far the weakest link in the series...

@Meez- did you find this to be true?

On the other hand, because of the praise this series has received, I thought I must be missing something, and so I plowed on. The book does have an interesting cliff-hanger ending that would lead me to consider reading further. I'll wait for Meezley's answer about the other two books as far as that goes. In the meantime, however, I'll put this one down for now.

45. War of the Worlds

By: H.G. Wells
Illustration by: Ian Edington D'Israeli

At first I wasn't so impressed by the faithful reproduction of H.G. Wells' War of the Worlds in graphic novel form. The familiar opening that I once read not so long ago, and saw reproduced in three movie versions didn't seem to hold any new insights into this classic. The illustration didn't strike me as anything special, and this graphic novel came quickly on the heels of the second installment of The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen- a unique and new retelling Wells' story.

However, after a bit of time with it, it delivers. I'm a big fan of the original novel and the classic film (and I have to say, as stupid as it it, I did enjoy the Tom Cruise remake for pure giant-machines-blowing-shit-up factor). Hohttp://www.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gifwever, neither film visualize the original Victorian setting that Wells described, and League of Extraordinary Gentlemen doesn't focus on the story in the same way. There was another terrible movie adaptation of the original story, but its not even worth mentioning as a serious effort. In fact, I showed it to my students one day as a joke.

Once D'Israeli's version gets rolling, the imagery brings new life to the story. The panels are often drawn from extreme angles that give a sense of how small the humans are compared to their massive invaders.

The nice thing is, that the whole graphic novel is available online for free. Thanks, Dark Horse!

44. Snake Agent

By: Liz Williams

Detective Inspector Chen's latest case is to find a missing girl. The problem is, that the missing girl is dead. That wouldn't be so unusual, except that her death isn't the mystery- its what happened to her after she died- and that wouldn't be as unusual, except that its not her body that is missing, its her ghost.

Detective Chen is The Singapore 3 (Singapore is now a chain city) police department's Snake Agent, the one who deals with their supernatural cases.

SA is an interesting book, the problem is that it crosses too many genres. Its sort of Blade Runner, meets The Matrix meets John Constantine. If that sounds like a lot of genre bending, let's remember that Blade Runner is also Film Noir meets Sci Fi, The Matrix is cyberpunk meets hong kong action.

In other words, Snake Agent is a Hard-Boiled-Sci-Fi-Cyberpunk-Kung-Fu-Film-Noir-Fire-and-Brimstone-Fantasy. Theres even a little Lovecraft "ancient gods" thing thrown in there for good measure.

Yes, its a little too much of everything.

The universe that Williams' creates is so dependent on all of these different worlds working together, which I'm not entirely sure that they do. The cyberpunk theme gets kind of lost in the middle, the Noir comes and goes. The Constantine-in-Asia thing gets most of the attention, and some of the other pieces just get distracting.

The characters are familiar and flat, and talk in smart dialog as if they expect to be in a movie version soon.

That being said, the book is still an enjoyable read. The plot is certainly original, the smart dialog is... smart. I'm not sure that I'll run out to get the next "Inspector Detective Chen" novel, but if it looks like it finds its ground a little better, I could be persuaded to pick it up.

43. Marvel's Eternals

By: Neil Gaiman
Illustrated by: John Romita Jr.

The Eternals is Gaiman's re-envisioning of a Marvel franchise from the 60's, about immortal guardians of the earth with super human powers- more powerful than your average super-hero - but significantly less powerful than the giant god-like Celestials that come back to visit earth to check on things every once in a while.

Although familiar to the superhero genre, Romita's beautiful panels do take a step above your run-of-the-mill comic. His compositions have great depth and color, and the scenes with the gargantuan eternals and puny humans are fantastic.

Gaiman's writing is engaging and he certainly breathes new life into the series (it seems as if this is just the beginning). However, he certainly doesn't take the same risks that he took in re-imagining Sandman, which remains unchallenged by The Eternals as his masterpiece.

42. Demo

By: Brian Wood and Becky Cloonan

I've read a good series of great to decent graphic novels this year after being deprived of anything from that medium for about 10 months. Demo represents the end of that run.

The idea behind Demo is that its a series of unrelated vignettes about kids with superpowers who are struggling to make sense of their lives when they reach some kind of crossroads. Sounds like an ok premise- a Gen Y (or is it Z now?) alternative take on the superhero topic. Guarenteed to have some angst and sullen teens with super powers.

However.

The stories start off pretty well. A young girl who can't control her destructive power begs her boyfriend to take her away as she weans herself off the meds that keep her in check. Kids and their angst about overprescribed meds. I can buy that one.

Then it begins to go downhill. A superstrong guy stops a robbery. Ok. A girl finds out she can't die when her brother proves it to her by driving into a tree after their father's funeral. Meh. As the stories wind down, we find one story where its unclear if the teen has a super power or is just super-manipulative. The last two stories don't even have characters with super powers in them. I'm not even sure that they have a point.

As to the artwork, Cloonan's style goes back and fourth between gritty and edgy to anime-inspired, which is anything but versitle. If the story is serious, its gritty. If its humorus, its anime.

Somewhere along the line this writer/illustrator team had a good idea. Then they tried to make a series out of it. The stupid thing about this is that there are so many possibilities how does the well run dry after just a few? Sloppy. Lazy.

Skip it. Go watch Heroes instead.

41. Jailbird

By: Kurt Vonnegut


You have to wonder about someone as briliant as Vonnegut. If he never wrote Slaughterhouse Five or Cat's Cradle or Breakfast of Champions - would his lesser known works stand out as masterpieces with no greater work by their author to overshadow them? I wonder, because in comparison to those (as well as one of my favorites, The Sirens of Titan), Jailbird is not particularly remarkable. However, although it is absent the Science Fiction that makes Vonnegut's books so bizzare, it is still chock full of its own vonnegoodness.

I'm spacing out the last few Vonnegut books I haven't read yet (since there will be no more), and I started this one because I wanted to see what wisdom his book about a corrupt government official would reveal. Would this book, written in 1980 still be relevent today?

"You know what is finally going to kill this planet?" I said.

"Cholesterol!" said Frank Ubriaco.

"A total lack of seriousness," I said. "nobody gives a damn anymore about what's really going on, what's going to happen next, or how we ever got into such a mess in the first place".

Bingo.

40. A Whole New Mind

By: Daniel Pink

As more people develop a a design sensibility, we'll increasingly be able to deploy design for its ultimate purpose: changing the world.

That was the statement that most resonated with me from this book. Its a powerful thought and a challenge to art educators, as we consider how to prepare students for the "real world".

Here is how he supports that statement: he discusses design as the meaning that is added to the function. His example - the toaster. The toaster spends about 1% of its existence in its functional role - making toast. It spends the other 99% of its existence in its design role- looking nice in your kitchen. Design, therefore drives economy. Design changes history- had the "butterfly ballot" in Palm Beach County, Florida been designed better, residents would not have mistakenly voted en-masse for Pat Buchanan over Al Gore, affecting the entire future of the country. Design is how we shape the world, and how we give meaning to our lives, as Pink describes it "To be a designer is to be an agent of change".

What an amazing challenge for art education.

Pink's book serves as a road map for educating students in the 21st century. At the end of the information age, the need for rote memorization and fact recall becomes less important. The internet brings facts instantly to our fingertips. Now, in what Pink refers to as the dawn of the Conceptual age the ability to synthesize information is the key to success as we prepare students for both business and in life.

Pink describes six aptitudes that are necessary for this synthesis, and for surviving in the conceptual age. Here's the 'cliff notes' version:

Design: The ability to create something that is beautiful and meaningful.
Story: The ability to communicate and become self-aware.
Symphony: The ability to see the big picture.
Empathy: The ability to understand others.
Play: The ability to engage humor and balance seriousness.
Meaning: The ability to pursue purpose.

Of course, that quick description doesn't do his thesis any justice. I may be preaching to the converted, but Pink's book is a must read for all educators, especially art educators.

39. American Born Chinese

By: Gene Luen Yang

ABC is a fantastic combination of three separate stories, the myth of the monkey king, a teenager who is troubled by his cousin "Chin-Kee" the embodiment of chinese stereotype, and a young boy uncomfortable with his identity. Wonderfully conceived, the stories are simple and humorous, and yet reflect and play off each other in a surprising manner.

Although this isn't an autobiography, its great reading to follow Persepolis and Blankets as a graphic novel about identity. Add in Art Spiegelman's Maus and you've got enough a nice little series of personal tales in graphic novels- A girl growing up in Iran during the revolution, a man struggling through the holocaust (and later a son in America who is trying to relate to him), A young man struggling with hypocrisies and abuses in middle America, and a Chinese American struggling to decide who he is.

38. Blankets

By: Craig Thompson
Blankets is an interesting book to follow Persepolis, as it is also an autobiographical graphic novel - although the similarities between the books are few. In Persepolis 1 & 2 I felt the child-like drawings and lack of a real integration of words and images disengaged me from the story. The drawings did nothing but illustrate what the narrator described. in Blankets, however, Thompson's expressive style and use of images to communicate ideas that words cannot (and vice versa) make this work much more engaging. This was important, becase Blankets is not the kind of story that I could see myself easily getting in to. The story bounces back and fourth between the author's life as a fifth grader and a high school student. We find that as a child he is abused and feels like a failure for being unable to prevent his brother from the same abuse. As a high school student, he is caught between his first true love and his love of God.

Yeah, not my cup of tea. And the whole thing about falling out of love with god because you realize that the people who are preaching to you (a) don't walk the talk, (b) walk the talk and are therefore small minded, or (c) downright hypocrites - is obvious and familiar. And so if we're going to read another story / watch another movie / listen to another song about this sort of thing, it has to be unique in other ways.

And here, it is. Thompson's inner struggle is realized in the comic form in a way that it couldn't be represented in any other medium -and it is a perfect example of why comics should be taken seriously - because it is simply another form of expression. A painting exists in one medium, movies exist in one medium - and "good comics" have often been seen only as a prelude to a movie or TV version.

Basically, its an overly sentimental, somewhat familiar, story of a first love, which adds up to something that I'd probably have avoided it had I read a synopsis first. That being said, it was actually quite good.

37. Ancient Shores

By: Jack McDevitt

McDevitt is a master of writing engaging, suspenseful, science fiction that never falls outside of a reasonable suspension of disbelief. He also likes archeaology and works it into his novels quite well. Now all he needs is a publisher who will provide him with some decent cover art. Look at this book! What junky typeface! Whats with the 1980's Grace Jones haircut? Who put a red and yellow title on a gray book with a splash of green and purple in between?

Honestly, I wouldn't even have picked this up if I hadn't noticed "Author of Engines of God" in the little print under his name.

I had picked up Engines of God, McDevitt's debut novel, a few years back when it first came out. I knew nothing about it (and the cover was slightly less appalling), but whatever bookstore I was at was highlighting it because he had just done a big signing.

Anyway, I picked it up, and tore through it- Engines of God was a brilliant story about archeology in the future, as an ancient mysterious alien civilization is uncovered. Absolute page turner from beginning to end, highly recommended. I had lent the book out at some point, and forgotten the author's name, and he'd fallen off my radar- it seems that he's written a few books in the intervening years!

Ancient Shores is almost as good. Great story, engaging from the beginning, and while the ending isn't bad, its a little bit clunky- and it veers in a slightly less interesting direction than the book would previous indicate.

The story opens as a farmer and his son dig up a small triangular object on their farm that reveals a larger yacht... only there hasn't been a lake for sailing in the vicinity for 10,000 years- and the boat is in perfect condition.

35 & 36: Persepolis 1 & 2

By: Marjane Satrapi

These two books comprise the autobiography of author Marjane Satrapi's life growing up in Iran. Persepolis 1 is the story of her life as a child, growing up during the cultural revolution. Persepolis 2: The Story of a Return is about Satrapi's return to Iran as a teenager after being sent to Austria to escape the lunacy of the regime.

Both books provide an excellent and in depth view of life in Iran in a time when it is caught between fundamentalism and westernization. It portrays the country in a way rarely seen in the west- from the point of view of a child who wants to listen to rock music and dress in modern fashions. Whose immediate family opposes the mullahs in secret, and whose relatives do in the open, and pay the consequences. The illustration however, doesn't seem to add much to the story. Satrapi's images are very plain, with most drawn from a similar point of view and distance from the subject. The illustrations simply support the story. Unlike Moonshadow, the images and the text do not seem to be inexorably linked.

Overall a good read, specifically for the insight into life in Iran, over the period of about 20 years; but as a graphic novel, it doesn't have a life of its own.

34. Moonshadow

By: John Marc DeMatteis
Illustrated by: Jon J. Muth

I was thinking about this book when I went home for the summer and dug it out of my piles of packed-away books because I had an intense desire to read it again. After reading it the first time, it quickly became one of my favorite graphic novels (along with the Sandman series and Maus). And yet, I liked it even more this time.

One thing that I hadn't liked about Moonshadow was the inconsistency - Muth's beautiful watercolors are often broken up by ridiculously proportioned cartoons- however, this time however, I enjoyed that aspect of it more. Where on first reading I found the variations in style distracting, this time I appreciated more how his changing images better supported the changing tones of the story.

Moonshadow was born in a Zoo, but not just any zoo. A human zoo, kept by a strange race of sentient orbs called G'L-Doses - their only trait besides their odd appearance is their penchant for chaos. They act without reason, without moral code, or even an adherence to the laws of physics (or reality, for that matter). In one such act of random chaos, one of the G'L-Doses marries a human and fathers the son that will one day be Moonshadow.

From the Zoo, Moonshadow embarks on an epic journey that takes him across the universe with a few different companions. The most notable of these is Ira, a Cousin-It looking thing with a bowler hat and a penchant for anything inappropriate. Moon's journey takes him through encounters with death, war, love, religion gone wrong, capitalism gone wrong, and capitalistic religion gone very wrong.

The real gem of the story though, is the epilouge, the content of which I won't spoil here. It is unexpected, unlike the rest of the book, and beautifully done by both artist and writer.

Moonshadow tells a story that is unique through its combination of the surreal, the tragic, and the humorous in an epic story. However, it is also the beautiful artwork by Jon Muth that really sets this one apart - almost every page is a masterpiece.

33. The Crystal Cave

By: Mary Stewart

What I find most remarkable about this book, which has easily slipped into the list of my favorite fantasy books of all time- is that there is actually very little in the way of fantasy at all. For a book about one of the most famous wizards of all time, there is almost no magic. Not one spell cast, no mention of faeries, no goblins or elves. There is only the mysterious visions of the crystal cave, the uncontrolled premonitions, and a single glance in a crystal ball.

Just as ironic is the fact that I happened to love a book is predicated on something I have absolutly no belief in - a divine will, a master plan, an unquestioning surrender to the will of god. What makes Mary Stewart's writing so brilliant that she can write a nearly magic-less story about a magician, and enthrall a staunch believer in free will to a story of fate? It must be magic.

Thanks, Castaway, for reminding me about this one. I'm glad I got into this series after failing to breech it years ago back in middle school. The only problem now is finding a copy of The Hollow Hills in China!

32. 99 Ways to Tell a Story

By: Matt Madden

Matt Madden's book takes a cue from Scott McCloud's Understanding Comics by using comics to teach about comics. Of course, the book is really about style, and can be applied to any art form.

The image at the side here is not the cover, it is the "Template" comic, which Madden recreates 99 times in 99 different styles. His approaches vary from truly interesting reinterpretations to hackneyed tributes to other artists. Overall, however, this is quite a useful book for students or artists who need a reminder that any given creative problem has an unlimited number of approaches and solutions.

31. Stardust

By: Neil Gaiman

Here's another book I rushed to read before the movie version... and I probably should have just left it on the shelf. Sure, the movie looks terrible, but hey, its Neil Gaiman - author of Sandman, one of the few comics to breakthrough and rise above the sea of crap that was out there in the 80s. Gaiman has a brilliant imagination, but this one just falls flat.

Tristran is this guy who happens to be half-fairy, which amounts to being totally inconsequential to plot or character. His goal in life is to retrieve a fallen star in order to win the heart of his one true love. Of course, as soon as the star turns out to be a female star (who would one day be played by Claire Danes), we know from that point on that he will at one point loose interest in his one true love and fall for the star (no pun intended), because as we know, if Clare Danes is in a movie with another no-named actress, the lead has to fall for her instead.

There is very little in the way of action, plot, or character- and Gaiman, who is a master of crafting and returning to his unique worlds adds nothing to them in this book. Moreover, having watched the trailer for the movie again after having finished the book, its hard to recognize almost any plot elements or characters. The character that Robert DeNiro is playing is in the book for almost two pages, and I can't even figure out who Ricky Gervais' character is supposed to be.

Perhaps the movie will only be as bad as the book, in which case you can save yourself sometime in not only avoiding the book, but the movie as well.

30. Brave New World

By: Aldus Huxley

"The optimum population," said Mustapha Mond, "is modelled on the iceberg- eight-ninths below the water line, one-ninth above".

"And they're happier below the water line?"

"Happier than above it."

Imagine my surprise to find my good friend Mustapha Mond here in a Brave New World! The selected quote is the one I decided best represents our current state of affairs.

29. The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam

Translation by: Edward Fitzgerald

Well, the cover doesn't make the best blog graphic, but I'm surprised I even found a copy of it on the 'net. The book, I found this at a flea market down by the beach (beautiful edition from the 40s for 1 dollar), and my father seems to think that this was a book I had ought to have heard of- a book, he said, that my grandfather used to quote quite often.

The set of 100 quatrains that can be boiled down to "Carpe Diem" has been so thoroughly altered and augmented by Fitzgerald, that as this edition warns, it is no longer possible to determine where Khayyam ends and Fitzgerald begins- indeed, it is better to think of them as co-authors. It is odd, because this attitude of appropriation seems like it wouldn't be as happily accepted today.

The Rubaiyat would have been quite the heretical volume in its days- written by a man in an Islamic society in the 12th century and translated by one in a 19th century Christian society, the subject matter is that of enjoying your life since there is nothing when you're finished- eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow we die - that sort of thing. And the drinking theme is revisited a couple of times in fact. And despite the fact that it was appropriated and altered by someone else 700 years after it was first written, and despite the fact that the message is simple, it is quite an enjoyable and inspiring read. Highly recommended.

28. The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test

By: Tom Wolfe

This is the second book that I found in the beach house to add to my summer reading list. Anything written before 1980 in paperback or before 1950 in hardback is acceptable to be left to occupy beach house bookcases.

Have to admit- I've always meant to read this book, and it didn't quite live up to my expectations. Not that its not great to have such a close first hand account of the Merry Pranksters and now I feel as if I knew Ken Kesey personally, but there was something about the writing that just seemed false to me. Perhaps if I wasn't familiar with Tom Wolfe and some of his modern somewhat conservative opinions, and ultra conservative dress, I wouldn't have noticed. But it was weird to read a book that is so lyrical and free from the same guy who wears a collar that is taller than the remainder of his shirt- and the most recent article I've read by him was a diatribe against multiculturalism.

So I'm biased. Anyway, I think that's what made the book ring false for me in some kind of 30 years later retrospect. He talks the talk, but because he never mentions his role in the exploits of the pranksters (and maybe there were none, but I find that hard to believe because this group didn't seem like the kind that would let anyone 'sit one out')- it seems more like imitation than engagement. That being said however, its a rich piece of history that gives a lot more insight and depth to a different generation.

27. Meet Mr. Mulliner

By: P.G. Wodehouse
As a rule, summer beach homes are required to be well stocked with musty smelling hardback novels and thrillers from the 70s and 80s. These serve only to give purpose to what would be otherwise empty bookshelves. So, when we went to stay with my aunt at the beach this year, I decided to add a few to my summer reading agenda.

The first one, Meet Mr. Mulliner is a series of short stories strung together through their narrator, who is of course, the title character. Mulliner comes into the local bar and regales anyone who will listen with stories about various members of the Mulliner family. The stories each contain some variation of a man overcoming some obstacle in the wooing of a woman- either she is uninterested, he is uninterested, someone else is uninterested for them, or the circumstance is conspiring against them. Theres also a story of a bishop and a headmaster who get high on a miracle tonic and decide to paint a statue.

Although the plots manage to be both simple and contrived, they are actually quite enjoyable. The humor is of the dry British quirky sort. For example, when the bishop and the headmaster decide in their altered state to paint the campus statue, the bishop feels that it might be impolite to suggest that they paint the statue pink instead of blue seeing as its the headmaster's school and he doesn't want to be rude- even though pink would be funnier.