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| Wednesday, January 20, 2010 08:59 PM |
| Book Report - Hypothetical Lizard |
 by Fëanor |
Hypothetical Lizard is a strange graphic novel/prose combination that Peccable lent me. It's a black and white comic book adaptation of an Alan Moore novella with the novella itself in the back. I read the novella first, then went back and read the comic. The story is brutal and powerful. It's set in a brothel called the House Without Clocks. The employees are all unique oddities. The brothel is in the middle of a fantasy city called Liavek. The plot is concerned with three characters, all of whom work in the brothel. The first character we meet is Som-Som, the mute witness to the story. She has her mind split in two so that she cannot speak of anything that she sees. This is to ensure that she will keep the secrets of her customers - all wizards. Som-Som's friend is Rawra Chin, a man who walks as a woman, and who has dreams of leaving the House and going out on her own as an actress. Chin's lover is Foral Yatt, an actor of even greater talent than herself. The story is about Som-Som witnessing the twisted relationship between Chin and Yatt. Part way through the story, the titular puzzle is introduced: a small golden ball which cannot be opened, and which may or may not contain a tiny baby lizard. This becomes the central metaphor of the story, and can be applied to Chin and Yatt, but also to Som-Som. A hypothetical lizard may sound like an odd thing to base your story around, but it's an intriguing concept and a powerful image. In fact the story is full of incredible ideas, perhaps the most incredible being Som-Som herself, the bride of silence, who can speak only in non sequiturs and only about the life she led before her mind was split in two. She is the most fascinating character, but the relationship between Chin and Yatt is also fascinating - in the way that a car accident is fascinating (a comparison that Chin herself makes, sort of). The story is artfully written and ultimately quite devastating. Also, be aware that Moore includes plenty of weird sex, as is his wont.
The comic book, which credits Antony Johnston with the "sequential adaptation," and Lorenzo Lorente and Sebastian Fiumara with the art, is kind of pointless and dull. All of the prose and dialog is lifted directly from the story, and very little of it has been left out, so you end up with a lot of narration boxes that are simply describing the picture that they're sitting on top of. The art is mostly crude and uninspired. I can see how a comic book adaptation could work, but it would require someone who had the courage to discard the great majority of Moore's excellent prose and replace it with eloquent drawings. It's a graphic medium! Let the pictures tell the story for you! Show don't tell! I'm just saying. |
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