story telling

Because I love reading in bed, I bought a paperback copy of Arabian Nights at Barnes and Noble.  I thought that this text was especially appropriate to read in bed before sleeping.  I was with the king and the younger sister, a fellow listener.  The stories distracted me to the point of losing sleep or oversleeping the next morning.  The interlaced serial nature of the text was incredibly addictive.  I found myself craving another tale and another tale after that.  A like bites of a cake, each forkful delicious...

While watching the movie the other night, I noticed that while many scenes were copied from the graphic novel, they were executed in a style that utilized the medium of film. 

Think, for example, of the scene in which Satrapi recaps the history of the Shah for the viewer. In the graphic novel, the panels depicting this scene resemble (parody?) the flat art style from ancient works. 

The film depicts this scene in a different manner. No longer are the Shah and England flat, immobile representations. They are animated as a kind of puppet one would hold by a stick and jostle to move the arms and head. The scene is like that of a puppet theater. the background and the people look as though they could be made out of paper or cardboard. 

I just finished reading Philippe Petit's book, "Man on Wire"   This text chronicles Petit's multiyear long project to perform a high wire walk across the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center.  There is a significant amount of autiobiographical information, including Petit's childhood passion for horseback riding.  Interspersed throughout the text are black and white images of Petit, his accomplices, and the Twin Towers.  Some are photographs, others are sketches and notes in