Originally published at: Pretty sure 'The Alchemist' graphic novel was illustrated for the male gaze | Boing Boing
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I don’t remember any women in the book. Talk about a retrofit to suit certain tastes.
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There are various things that distinguish a “graphic novel” and a “comic book” in my mind. Those images? That’s pure comic book.
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Mr. Coelho was a great psychdelic rocker. He wrote good songs for His friend, Mr. Raul Seixas.
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Reminds me of Heavy Metal magazine.
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I’ll bet this The Alchemist would love to be the subject of a graphic novel illustrated for the male gaze:
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yeah… Imma go with comic book? most comic books have redonkulously over-sexualized lycra clad super-powered-underwear-perverts. Boils and goils. Graphic novels generally not so much?
I mean, I errr, ahhh enjoy looking at it tbh, almost like a Mucha drawing? I enjoyed Den from Heavy Metal back in the day (hehe they’re all naked! even the ugly bad guys and monsters! whoa dude! but Moebius is the absolute mind-boggling best imho)
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Yeah, I’m wondering if this has to do with the fact that The Alchemist made a big run through the Man-o-sphere and that side of the internet a few years back.
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I read the book and found it kind of off putting. To be fair it was presented to me as this amazing work of fiction that would inspire/change the way you view the world and well it came across as kind of uninspiring and somewhat pretentious.
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really? I mean I feel like the man-o-sphere is full of pseudo-spiritual clap trap so I guess this tracks. Just still surprising.
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Hmm. I don’t remember that part…certainly not like that.
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“There are two novels that can change a bookish fourteen-year old’s life: The Lord of the Rings and Atlas Shrugged. One is a childish fantasy that often engenders a lifelong obsession with its unbelievable heroes, leading to an emotionally stunted, socially crippled adulthood, unable to deal with the real world. The other, of course, involves orcs."
John Rogers
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The bit about Narcissus is a one-page thing that may have been introduced at the beginning of later editions of the book.
But of course the original story had a woman – a complete nonentity whose life is centered entirely around waiting at the oasis for her Man of the Desert, or something along those lines.
I just got around to reading it a few months ago for the first time. I didn’t find it as loathsomely awful as some reviews made it out to be, but I can see how some of it might be more than a little problematic. Maybe if I had found it twenty years ago I may have even found it somehow inspiring, but it’s hard to see it that way now. On the whole I found it to be fluff.
Also now I am wondering if each and every one of the men in this edition is half-naked and rippling with muscle, or something.
ETA: Scrolling through the Google image results, it seems everyone is actually fully clothed and that these pages are not representative. I guess someone figured they were more likely to boost sales to people who would otherwise be unlikely to buy the book, than they would be to lose sales to people who would find these pages discouraging.
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A crack like that could make a person wonder:
Have you ever been outside of one?
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Even if they are, it isn’t the same thing. Muscular Men are a Male Power Fantasy. Swim-suit Models are a Male Sexual Fantasy*. I don’t think there’s not much room in there for Het Women.
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I never read any Ayn Rand. I kind of want to just to know what the fuss is but I also don’t want to taint my brain. I haven’t read it but are the themes in Atlas Shrugged similar to the themes in the Alchemist?
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