You still don't know the infinite narrative possibilities of the Comic and you still think that they only work to talk about super heroes? we recommend you read Burmese Chroniclesby Guy Delisle. In this article we talk about its plot and narrative development.
The Canadian cartoonist and animator tells us about his experience during his time in Burma
Burmese Chronicles Plot
Guy is an excellent chronicler, who uses the letter to show the landscape and drawing to nuance it. Due to his skill with pen and brush, he could not find any other means of literary expression than the graphic novel, a genre that is not only dedicated to the feats of super heroes and extraordinary beings, with authors like Guy broadening the spectrum of themes develop.
En Burmese Chronicles, is the third installment in this format of the writer-caricaturist-animator, we delve into his passage through the controversial Burma, formerly known as Myanmar.
In his walks through the city of Rangoon, he tells us about the presence of the rude, frantic and permanent hand of the dictatorship that is dedicated to covering headlines and cutting out photographs from the foreign press.
The relationship of his need to express himself with the same ease with which he was trained in Canada. The presence of the militia in the daily environment, the location of the dissidence and the repression before the possible new cells. Corruption as a livelihood and a necessity. And the impossibility of even finding cyber freedom.
For Guy, it's not just walking and observing how native life develops in Brimania, it's also seeing the complicity and lack of sensitivity of foreigners who make life in the country. This author tries to talk about international relations with the Burmese government, through his direct interaction with NGOs.
As well as that of the foreigner who is only passing through the country, of those who work in oil exploitation and of the transnationals that operate in the country.
The blind gaze of those who still negotiate with the country are for the chronicler, accomplices of the corruption that devastates the nation and perpetuates power. One of the events that he lives and recounts in the chronicle of him Guy, is the transfer of the capital from Rangoon to Napyidó and highlights the folkloric relationship between power and the number 11.
Get to know the socio-cultural and political reality of an Asian country from a Western perspective, thanks to this wonderful writer
About Guy Delisle and his work
Born in Canada in 1966. He studied animation at Sheridan College in Toronto and then migrated to Europe to make a living from his profession. In search of the exercise of the profession, he began his life as a gypsy having periods of life in Germany, Spain, North Korea, Vietnam, China and Israel. Each experience fueled his eagerness to recount his personal experiences with each country in political, cultural and social terms.
Guy directed his first animated short film in 1994 and went on to produce a number of animated television series. After that period, in his creative search, he began to leave on paper his travel stories, experiences and experiences in the places he visited for work. Not expecting them to become best sellers, he developed his first travel comics with Shezhen and Pyongyang in 2005.
The 2008 Burmese Chronicles and 2009 How to Do Nothing were both bestselling books from his short but quite interesting collection of animated memoirs. In 2010 Luis goes to the beach and in 2011 Chronicles of jerusalemThey hit the shelves. Bad Father Guide 2013, Inspetor Morini 2014, Escaping 2016 precede the production in 2018 of Graphic Novel and Asterix Generation of 2019. His latest adventure book told in Chronicles of youth of 2021.
The doors opened by Burmese Chronicles
Some years ago there was serious talk in Hollywood of making the Pyongyan Chronicles a movie. A film that would be directed by Gore Verbisnki and starred in the role of Guy by Steve Carell, but due to his look at the internal life of North Korea and the political implications that films like The Interviwe with James Franco and Seth Rogen had already had , its production and the dream were paralyzed, for fear of starting another world war.
Certainly this author does not use a narrative genre whose main characteristic is the ability to sustain speeches of social reflection, certainly the graphic format seems far removed from this context. However, the format and the narrative allow a certain flexibility in the duality of the external and internal discourse, in addition to the possibility of communicating with the image.