Guy Delisle

It's quite an authorial feat to write about a visit to the authoritarian dystopia of North Korea and to leave the impression that you, the author, are the most unsavoury element in the book!

I'm overstating it, I guess, but Delisle's graphic bio of his two month sojourn to North Korea overseeing an animation sweatshop (little evidence of his awareness of the exploitative nature of this) is characterised by his sneery arrogance and lack of empathy for the oppressed Korean people required to show more work with him, and then there's the instances of unsavoury sexism 🤢

There is still interest in his depiction of life amongst the Western enclave of corporate employees, diplomats and NGO workers in the North Korean capital, but sadly marred by a compassionless, supercilious authorial voice. 2.5⭐ show less

I have mixed feelings about Eadweard Muybridge, a 19th century photographer dubbed by some as the "father of the motion picture," but my feelings about this engaging biography of him are quite clear and positive.

Muybridge was born in England, but first came to notice for his nature photography in remote areas of the U.S.A. Then he managed to overcome the slow and cumbersome process of photography of his era to capture the first rapid-fire series of sequential photographs of a horse show more galloping. He then showed his dozen pictures in a loop, creating one of the world's first GIFs.

But the dude also seemed to suffer from a traumatic brain injury following a stagecoach crash that possibly affected his personality, making him perhaps a bit unpredictable, obsessive, and aggressive, culminating in him getting away with a little bit of murder. Yikes!

Guy Delisle covers a lot of ground quickly, but I never felt lost or bored as he zeroed in on the crucial moments and included the actual photographs being discussed. show less

Pyongyang is subtitled ‘A Journey in North Korea.’ Journey might be overstating is somewhat: for the most part, Delisle is stationed in Pyongyang, where he is working for a French animation company, occasionally being escorted on day trips further afield. However, his experiences and commentary are fascinating and beautifully illustrated and, occasionally, hilarious. I think it is this humour that made the book special for me: the subject matter is far too depressing otherwise, if I show more hadn’t been able to laugh every few pages I probably would have abandoned it mid-way. Happily, I was hooked quite early when, immediately after arriving in Pyongyang, Delisle is reading a passage about the thought police from 1984 in his hotel bedroom and subsequently becomes somewhat paranoid about his room being tapped. This is also where I first realised the power of images over text, as the episode is conveyed without commentary.

Delisle’s experience is the same of any foreign entering a communist country. He is assigned a translator and a guide, both of whom chaperon all of his excursions outside of the sterile hotel-zone. Like all foreigners, he attempts to get his translator to admit to feeling stifled and scared by the communist regime. Like all foreigners, he fails. He is outraged by the propaganda that pervades throughout the country: his field trips are all to such inspiring sights as The Children’s Palace, the Museum of Imperialist Occupation, and the Pyongyang subway, which foreigners are only allowed to ride from one stop to the next. As Delisle notes in frustration: “there’s a banner on every building, a portrait on every wall, a pin on every chest.” Naïve to be surprised by this perhaps, but his documentation of the various forms of propaganda is fascinating nonetheless. I know so little about North Korea that any glimpse of it is fascinating and Delisle handles the little details exceedingly well – everything from the make-work projects civilians ‘volunteer’ for to the disgusting, soiled tablecloths that can be found in all restaurants.

All in all, an intriguing glimpse into a very private country and a wonderful introduction to a talented illustrator. I’m already eager to get my hands on a copy of Delisle’s The Burma Chronicles.

Full review: http://thecaptivereader.wordpress.com/2010/04/03/pyongyang-guy-delisle/ show less

In the late 1990s, a French NGO administrator called Christophe André was kidnapped from his posting in Ingushetia, a breakaway region in the Caucasus. Guy Delisle's art conveys André's experiences during his three months of captivity—the dim gloom of being chained up indoors, the monotony of repeated panels, the feeling of being unmoored in time and place. André is resilient, but not an action hero—he's one person with no weapons surrounded by a number of people with many of them, show more with no knowledge of Chechen or where he is. Delisle's recreation of his experiences are a meditative act of empathy, asking what you, as an ordinary person, would do if you too found yourself in such extraordinary circumstances. show less