What It Is

So much fun that I returned the library version and plan to pick up the book to own. Surprisingly inspirational - when I first opened it I felt overwhelmed (I find graphic novels hard to keep track of, visually) but within a few moments I was scrawling down wee poems and thoughts for other writings and enjoying myself mightily. I suspect it will be an addition to my 'on the desk' series of books to get my writing started.
Highly recommended and not just for kids at all.

Visually gorgeous, playful, written with a light touch despite having a pretty heavy point about how people assist in killing their own creativity. It looks pretty nonlinear, but the collage bits all resonate with the narrative bits. The textbook-ish section is hilarious and supports the theory that Lynda Barry should be everyone's art teacher and/or aunt.

I'm going to give this book five stars and I am going to suggest you buy a copy for your friends, foes, family, co-workers, co-slackers, cohorts, and anyone else you can think of and I am going to rave about everything I got from it and I am going to say that it has changed the way I look at creativity and creation and I am going to say that it opened brand new worlds, thoughts, and ideas for me.

I'm going to do all of those things and, for a certain group of you out there, you are going to say that I am insane and that it is none of those things and you bought the book and it didn't work for you and it has nothing to do with business.

And I don't care, because this book has, indeed, had a profound effect on me. And it is a book I will show more keep next to me on my desk because I will be revisiting it time and again to learn, to remind, and to (yuck – I hate this word, but I'll use it anyway 'cause it is the only one I know that really fits this particular point) motivate.

If you don't know who Lynda Barry is, I cannot give you a good, succinct description. Look it up on Google and Wikipedia and whatever your favorite source of misinformation and check out Amazon and Drawn & Quarterly and search for Ernie Pook's Comeek and, maybe number one and foremost, check out "The Near-Sighted Monkey", the site where Barry shares her teachings and whatever she is doing at the time.

Among her many skills is her ability to connect with artists (and non-artists) who are struggling with the concepts of creativity. This is evident in her classes and the afore-mentioned near-sighted monkey site. This book brings much of that information together and, in so doing, is a combination "how-to" for kick starting creativity and some deep thoughts about what we even mean when we talk about the subject.

It is put together in Barry's trademark style – a combination of her distinctive drawing with a collage technique (that's it, now I've definitely lost some of you). It immediately starts in by asking big questions about creativity ("What is an idea made of? ") and then jumps into the continuing series of autobiographically toned comics. Yes, you might call this "new-agey", but I don't think that is a bad thing. Any book that makes me start thinking about such things as "When did you first notice you were bad at something? And then what happened?" or "When images come to us, where do they come from?" or "What are we doing when we are looking?" is a good book. And, no, there are no answers; but what good is a book full of answers.

The second part of the book is specific training exercises for writing - for extracting images. And that is where it all comes together to speak to how creativity can be developed.

I work with business people on the development of creativity in a business environment. And, trust me, this all speaks to what they are trying to do. Most might shy away from it. But the ideas and concepts are ones that anyone, in any environment, can use to build their creativity. Do they all want to be creative writers? No. Can they use the concepts in this book to be better business writers? Yes. Can they use the concepts to be more creative and innovative? Yes, with a number of exclamation points following.

And, if it can do that for three-piece suited, corporate types, imagine what it can do for you. show less

Genius on every page of this collaged memoir, pondering-meaning, how-to-write book. Sketches, stamps, labels and found words from old letters, textbooks, magazines, and grade-school exercises create lush, moody, playful pages. As with brillant figure-ground reversal, I found myself drawn to the text, then the art, and again to the text. Much more than a comic or graphic novel: magic!

What it is NOT is another book of funny drawings and stuff from Lynda Barry. Rather it is a tour de force of seemingly random, apparently silly, possibly pointless questions laced with potent memory shards that cut and slash with a thousand razor sharp edges.

At times you may ask yourself "Why am I reading THIS!? This is not my beautiful book!" Just when you try to put it down, the wind shifts and she takes you in hand and walks you through a world populated with Alice-like sea creatures, innocent notes from long dead children, and other flotsam that swirls around the planet in formerly unknown currents of air and sea.

Finally, it allows you to discover your own undiscovered country, to cry your own freedom, to walk your own Yul Brynner show more walk across the dusty square in some forgotten village.

When you finish and the book begins working its way through your system, you'll know that you've been through a world that no other book has ever taken you to. And there Lynda will be waiting for you at the end of your journey with a towel... because your forgot the cardinal rule.

Barry packs a real wallop with this book. show less

Lynda Barry is, along with Matt Groening and my mother, one of the few constants in my life, a source of comfort, support, and nostalgia for 20 years. A lot of people in extreme conditions or having a near-death experience will report "third man" syndrome where an unseen spirit comes and guides them out of their Arctic death-trap and into safety. This is how I feel when I read Lynda Barry, or watch that episode of the Simpsons where Dustin Hoffman plays Lisa's substitute teacher, literally touched by an angel, I swear to God!

This volume takes Lynda Barry's fiction writing courses to the streets.

The first half or so contains a memoir of her early artistic development, in the vivid style of her comics and graphic novels. What always amazes me about her work is how it makes me feel that she is a "kindred spirit," even though the time, the place, the social class, the culture, all of the gauntlets that children are made to run are entirely different. She is a sensitive, creative person in an insensitive place.

The other part of the book consists of several exercises for improving your fiction writing. In particular, Barry seeks to elicit memories and details about things in your past to create descriptive prose of them. She also provides a number of different show more activities to help you to trigger stories and images. Although her focus is on fiction and memoir, these exercises will also be useful to the practice of the poetry workshop aphorism "Show, don't tell," and her scrapbook/sketchbook approach to the book will likely inspire a number of experiments that will not fit neatly into prose.

Highly recommended. show less