brave new world

I don't want to be a tourist in my kids' world.

According to Stephen Colbert, "Librarians are hiding something." Could they be hiding a fear of technology? I asked the WMS librarian if the kids actually used the dusty encyclopedias (from 1997). She kinda hedged an answer with some blah blah blah about research topics. If, dear one-- we recall the educational theorist Marc Prensky who contends that students actually absorb knowledge faster & more readily than we did-- and apply his ideas to the The Invention of Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznic--you may get some insight as to why I am reading Samurai Champloo graphic novels backwards. Okay I am not actually reading them backwards but like some other languages (Arabic--& I believe Japanese) the direction of the text printing is reversed from that of standard English. But what about the complete loss of words? Contemplate the replacement of ideas with EU like "international visual symbols"? Let's go beyond the vaguely skirted figure on the piss room door and consider a new genre. One that is visual--Ukiyo or Manga--a more commercial medium...easily accessible. Oh Herr Gutenberg what did you start?

According to the New Zealand Herald; my fave dead white guy is now getting the manga treatment. "Manga is a perfect medium because it is a dramatic and a visual medium," said Emma Hayley, director of publishing company Metro Media, who came up with the concept of manga Shakespeare plays two years ago. Manga versions of Romeo & Juliet and Hamlet were launched in Britain on March 1. They are also being published in the United States and Japan, Hayley said. She will next release The Tempest, Richard III and Midsummer Night's Dream, with an ultimate goal of publishing the whole set.
The popularity of manga along with a love of Japanese food such as sushi and growing appeal of Japanese fashion is serving to demystify Japan, said Professor Marie Conte-Helm, director general of the Daiwa Anglo-Japanese Foundation, a charity that supports links between the Britain and Japan."

I am contemplating introducing Zoli to my old faves: Gaimin's The Sandman or Frank Miller's Dark Knight,guess I better blow the dust off 'em.