Saturday, March 7, 2009

The Seed, last two pages


Ah, the seed is growing.

This story, I think, has a Japanese feel to it. When I saw the Japanese film Nausicaa by Hayao Miyazaki, I was very surprised by the idea that there were large, destructive creatures in it that were not The Enemy, but in fact friends that could be called on to help, if you knew how to give them what they needed. American animated stories, at least the ones I grew up with, had clear Good and Evil, and nothing inbetween.

In this story of Seth's, there are no Enemies. The technological society that takes over the primitive people is not evil, in fact, the two peoples seem to blend well. But for the (formerly) primitive people, no matter how good the machine society was, there was always something they longed for.

5 comments:

j_ay said...

Interesting stuff!

You're mentioning a (Japanese) film made me then think of a (Japanese) book...
I can very much envision Seth doing some drawings based on the novels (or even some of the good short stories) of Haruki Murakami...

Vicki said...

Murakami! It's so interesting that you would mention him. My brother has been reading Murakami, and so has Seth's wife Hisako. His stories, from what they have told me, are all a bit odd, and you don't necessarily know what is going on until pretty far into the book. In The Wind-Up Bird Chronicles, Hisako said that even at the end she was not sure that she understood exactly what had gone on. But she was engaged the whole time. Yes, his stories may have been a good match for Seth.

I really wanted Seth to do graphic novels of literary quality. Seth was game, and wrote to Michael Chabon--who at that time was still accessible by e-mail--and showed him his work, asking if he would be interested in collaborating on a novel. It was right after Chabon's great success with The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay, so we knew he had a relationship with comic books. But he wrote back and said that he had other things on his plate at the time, but wished Seth well and all.
I always wanted to write to him after Seth died and tell him that he really blew it, that he missed his chance to work with one of the most creative individuals he would ever meet, to co-create something bigger and better than either one could do alone... or some such thing.

j_ay said...

Nice to see you’re familiar with Murakami. He’s real fun to read, you should give him a try some time.
I envy Hisako getting to read the original Japanese! Although HM seems pretty pleased with the English translations, so much that he even has other languages translate from the English as opposed to the original Japanese.
And she should never fret it she didn’t totally comprehend what HM was doing with the story…it’s not the usual linear story.
*Especially* Wind-Up Bird. It’s the kind of thing whole books could be written on, discussing the work, meanings, etc.

Interesting that Seth communicated with M Chabon (I’m not a fan (he desperately could use an editor…and seems a bit too in love with himself).
Oddly enough, Chabon did eventually start doing some comics, something to do with a character in Kav and Clay (The Escapist?).

I’d match Seth more with…Paul Auster. Although he’s terribly hit or miss.

But regardless, yet another interesting thing to ponder about in the What IF projects Seth could have done.

Vicki said...

Jay,
I agree with you on both counts about Michael Chabon, but he has a sort of manic creativity that is really fun to read, that I think would translate well into graphic novels (I've only read Kavalier and Clay). With, as you said, a good editor--or a collaborator--I think he could do great stuff.
I am not familiar with Paul Auster. I have not been reading novels much lately. I'll look him up.

j_ay said...

I’m only familiar with pre-Pultizer Prize Chabon; his early short stories and then the (dreadful) novel Mysteries in Pittsburgh. So that bad start didn’t get me excited to delve into his more recent works, all which seem to need over 600 pages to tell the story….

As for Auster, I don’t want you to accidentally pick up one of his ‘misses’…so let me whisper in the Easter Bunny’s ear and see if s/he can’t find something for you...