Anthem as a Graphic Novel
This has been mentioned here some months back. The book got negative reviews.
"Adapted from Rand's 1938 novella, Staton's art is oddly crude for such a veteran artist, but oddly well suited for Rand's clumsy, hectoring story. The product of a time when authoritarian regimes seemed destined to prevail, written by a refugee from the Russian revolution, Anthem might have been a valuable reminder of what happens when ideology trumps humanitarian concerns, but sadly, Rand was not up to the task; Santino and Staton do what they can with this dismal tribute to egotism, but the result is still a hard slog." Publisher's Weekly.
"Santino relates the story in the present tense, robbing some of its mythic feel. Staton's unvarying three-panel page layouts fail to emphasize the story's more dramatic moments, and his cartoony style (with monochrome art rendered in uninked, sometimes sketchy pencils) fails to match Rand's fierce and poetic language. This short Anthem is hardly forbidding as a literary work—readers should stick with the original."— Library Journal.
As I said in my review, I would have preferred that it had been colored, not just drawn. However, it remains an important addition to the library of any Rand fan.
I learned long ago not to criticize the book the author did not write; and to be careful about criticizing the book I could not have written.
This work stands on its own merits.
"Adapted from Rand's 1938 novella, Staton's art is oddly crude for such a veteran artist, but oddly well suited for Rand's clumsy, hectoring story. The product of a time when authoritarian regimes seemed destined to prevail, written by a refugee from the Russian revolution, Anthem might have been a valuable reminder of what happens when ideology trumps humanitarian concerns, but sadly, Rand was not up to the task; Santino and Staton do what they can with this dismal tribute to egotism, but the result is still a hard slog." Publisher's Weekly.
"Santino relates the story in the present tense, robbing some of its mythic feel. Staton's unvarying three-panel page layouts fail to emphasize the story's more dramatic moments, and his cartoony style (with monochrome art rendered in uninked, sometimes sketchy pencils) fails to match Rand's fierce and poetic language. This short Anthem is hardly forbidding as a literary work—readers should stick with the original."— Library Journal.
As I said in my review, I would have preferred that it had been colored, not just drawn. However, it remains an important addition to the library of any Rand fan.
I learned long ago not to criticize the book the author did not write; and to be careful about criticizing the book I could not have written.
This work stands on its own merits.
Then you ARE "Dancing with the Canards".
But the other day on the bus, I saw a guy reading 1984. With cameras on drones and cameras on street corners and cameras on traffic lights, what was "over the top" fifteen or twenty years ago is suddenly very real...
I agree, re-reading the book via the drawings, that it would be easy to criticize many of the elements. Several times, I caught little glitchs: "if that's true, then how come?..." But Anthem has been called a "prose poem" and I accept it on that level.
The specifics of that society are not relevant to the message. You do not have to look too far to find the great we here and now. I have never watched "Dancing with the Stars" or "Jersey Shore." I keep my homepage on CNN just so that I know that such things exist, but I do not attend the nightly theater with my brothers.