Books on MEMOIR

The Secret to Superhuman Strength

Also, I’m only half way though, but the most recent Alison Bechdel book The Secret to Superhuman Strength is fantastic. Wierdly, a reading exprience most similar to watching a prime era Jonathan Meades documentary.

The Times I knew I was Gay

I stumbled across a zine, a kind of first draft of this book, in Gosh comics many years ago and I was immediately charmed. I hadn't thought about it much in the years since, I was vagueuy aware that it was to be expanded and published "properly" but it hadn't relly crossed my mind until I stumbled upon it in our local library whilst J was reading chemistry revision books (this is a semi-regular saturday mornig activity for us). Anyway, I do kind of miss the nervy sketchyness of the earlier versions drawings but this is still a great example of the surprisingly crowded comic-memoir genre.

What is it about comics that lend themselves to this kind of light autobiographical writing I wonder? Relatedly, I really loved Alison Bechdel's The Secret to Superhuman Strength

Spent Light

I didn't get into this one as much as This Is The Place To Be which I liked enogh to buy for a couple of people. It's kind of a psychogeography thing but with objects instead of places, everything freighted with meaning, the longer Pawson looks at things the more stories and memories and associations unfurl. Whilst I wasn't enthralled it was interesting to me specifically because I find the opposite; the more I stare at stuff the more it seems to loose meaning and asscocation. Kind of like semantic-satiation, after a while things just turn into shapes and light and dark and what they "are" or "mean" evaporates.