stories about us

A good story burrows beneath an anecdotal façade to capture some kind of truth about our humanity. That’s why we can’t get enough of stories. We live them, we learn from them and we carry them around with us like a name-tag. Some are true; others are creations from imaginative ventures. Stories help us define and understand ourselves.

Shaun Tan, now an Academy Award winner, is one of my favourite author/illustrators. His tales, a stunning combination of narrative and art, are the kind of ones that make me wonder if he may have peered into my head while I was sleeping, picked out my emotions, fears and dormant hopes then furiously created a heart-breakingly beautiful masterpiece of a book. Read some of his books – do you feel the same thing?

I could be a lone soldier on this one – but even if I were, one of his books, now short-film, The Lost Thing, would make me feel okay about that. (See, this guy is freaky-good!)

The illustrations below come from a little book called ‘Eric’, a brief account of an exchange student who finds himself in an alien place.

This tale reminds me that even when new things seem overwhelming and completely foreign, we still have the adeptness to create or offer something that is just as individual as we are.

images sourced here

So try new things, I say. Just do it. Give negative nelly a stern talking to and step out.

Go and experience a ‘metaphorical’ life exchange and leave a fan-flippin-tastic footprint. Dare ya!

(note to self: take my own advice.)

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