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Argen\u00adtin\u00adian illus\u00adtra\u00adtor Pablo Bernasconi (born 1973) has been nom\u00adi\u00adnat\u00aded three times for the Hans Chris\u00adt\u00adian Ander\u00adsen Awards, but I was\u00adn\u2019t famil\u00adiar with him before. I was imme\u00addi\u00adate\u00adly drawn to him after read\u00ading his two hilar\u00adi\u00adous sci\u00adence pic\u00adture books, \u201cThe Big Bang,\u201d which he wrote and illus\u00adtrat\u00aded. He pre\u00adtends the books are the diaries of the eccen\u00adtric yet imag\u00adi\u00adna\u00adtive Cap\u00adtain Arse\u00adnio, then deliv\u00aders his seri\u00adous non\u00adsense, sup\u00adple\u00adment\u00aded by Leonar\u00addo da Vin\u00adci-like dia\u00adgrams of his inven\u00adtions. These books are both hilar\u00adi\u00adous and rich in sci\u00aden\u00adtif\u00adic knowl\u00adedge and spir\u00adit! I could\u00adn\u2019t help but won\u00adder, what kind of per\u00adson is this Pablo?<\/p>\n
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Now, after read\u00ading these six books of \u201cUnre\u00adstrict\u00aded Minds,\u201d Pablo\u2019s imag\u00adi\u00adna\u00adtion has once again amazed me; he tru\u00adly has a bound\u00adless imag\u00adi\u00adna\u00adtion. For exam\u00adple, in \u201cWhere the Line Ends,\u201d as the pages turn, a series of quirky yet gen\u00aduine\u00adly adorable ani\u00admals appear, each devel\u00adop\u00ading their own bizarre inter\u00adpre\u00adta\u00adtions of the line, piqued the read\u00ader\u2019s curios\u00adi\u00adty. I could\u00adn\u2019t guess what the line was until the very end, but once the truth was revealed, I burst out laugh\u00ading. How\u00adev\u00ader, while the sto\u00adry is 70% absurd and hilar\u00adi\u00adous, it also boasts a sol\u00adid log\u00adic and a lin\u00adger\u00ading after\u00adtaste. Espe\u00adcial\u00adly among these quirky ani\u00admals, despite the occa\u00adsion\u00adal mis\u00adun\u00adder\u00adstand\u00adings and play\u00adful encoun\u00adters, their curios\u00adi\u00adty, warmth, and mutu\u00adal care remain the core themes. For exam\u00adple, in \u201cThe Over\u00adslept Polar Bear\u201d and \u201cThe Warm\u00adheart\u00aded Crow,\u201d the hilar\u00adi\u00adous sto\u00adries are woven with themes of friend\u00adship and coop\u00ader\u00ada\u00adtion, and the broad\u00ader con\u00adcept of \u201cfam\u00adi\u00adly.\u201d<\/p>\n
Per\u00adhaps it\u2019s not entire\u00adly coin\u00adci\u00adden\u00adtal that Pablo shares the same name (but not the same sur\u00adname) as Pablo Picas\u00adso, whom Bernasconi idol\u00adized and who devot\u00aded his life to learn\u00ading to draw like a child. His artis\u00adtic style is steeped in sur\u00adre\u00adal\u00adism, and he favors col\u00adlage, employ\u00ading every\u00adday mate\u00adri\u00adals in unex\u00adpect\u00aded com\u00adbi\u00adna\u00adtions and shapes to cre\u00adate child\u00adlike images, often cre\u00adat\u00ading bizarre crea\u00adtures. Take, for exam\u00adple, \u201cThe Strange Gol\u00adlum.\u201d Who can quite explain what Gol\u00adlum is? Yet, it unex\u00adpect\u00aded\u00adly forms a deeply inspir\u00ading alle\u00adgo\u00adry about the process of self-dis\u00adcov\u00adery and cog\u00adni\u00adtion, the diver\u00adsi\u00adty of beau\u00adty, and the pro\u00adfound need for tol\u00ader\u00adance. The rel\u00ada\u00adtive\u00adly young Pablo, a book\u00adworm obsessed with fan\u00adta\u00adsy from a young age, declared that the chil\u00addren\u2019s books he cre\u00adat\u00aded were those he him\u00adself want\u00aded to read as a child but nev\u00ader got to. Per\u00adhaps this is why read\u00ading his pic\u00adture books is so relat\u00adable.<\/p>\n
My favorite of these six books is \u201cThe Face\u00adless Giraffe.\u201d It shares a sim\u00adi\u00adlar\u00adi\u00adty with \u201cMove Over! The Lions Are Com\u00ading\u201d in that both explore the issue of accep\u00adtance and being accept\u00aded. In the lat\u00adter, a dachs\u00adhund believes he is a lion and hopes to be accept\u00aded as such by his com\u00adpan\u00adions. How\u00adev\u00ader, after a series of ratio\u00adnal argu\u00adments and proofs, he fails. Ulti\u00admate\u00adly, thanks to the lioness\u2019s almost \u201cblind\u201d accep\u00adtance, he final\u00adly achieves his wish and becomes a lion. Indeed, we can jok\u00ading\u00adly say that love is blind. But \u201cThe Face\u00adless Giraffe\u201d earnest\u00adly demon\u00adstrates how endear\u00ading \u201cblind\u00adness\u201d can be! While peo\u00adple are accus\u00adtomed to look\u00ading at them\u00adselves in the mir\u00adror and see\u00ading oth\u00aders\u2019 appear\u00adances with their eyes, a mole, so near\u00adsight\u00aded that she can only see a few of the giraf\u00adfe\u2019s legs, can actu\u00adal\u00adly see the giraf\u00adfe\u2019s heart and the qual\u00adi\u00adties she is most proud of. This actu\u00adal\u00adly sub\u00adverts the moral of the tra\u00addi\u00adtion\u00adal sto\u00adry \u201cThe Blind Men and the Ele\u00adphant,\u201d encour\u00adag\u00ading and empha\u00adsiz\u00ading the impor\u00adtance of see\u00ading with the heart.<\/p>\n
Over\u00adall, the \u201cUnre\u00adstrict\u00aded Mind\u201d series show\u00adcas\u00ades Pablo\u2019s extra\u00ador\u00addi\u00adnary cre\u00adativ\u00adi\u00adty and impres\u00adsive illus\u00adtra\u00adtions. Its sig\u00adna\u00adture artis\u00adtic style and nar\u00adra\u00adtive inter\u00adest not only make the sto\u00adries more visu\u00adal\u00adly impact\u00adful, but also pro\u00advide read\u00aders with more room for diver\u00adgent think\u00ading. Chil\u00addren\u2019s imag\u00adi\u00adna\u00adtions can be ignit\u00aded here, and adults may also find top\u00adics they are will\u00ading to explore in depth.<\/p>\n
Writ\u00adten in Bei\u00adjing on Decem\u00adber 6, 2023<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Thoughts on Bernasconi\u2019s \u201cUnre\u00adstrict\u00aded Mind\u201d series<\/p>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"wp_typography_post_enhancements_disabled":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[13,12,1],"tags":[8,5,6],"class_list":["post-547","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-book-review","category-ajia-review","category-thoughts","tag-8","tag-5","tag-6"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ajia.site\/blog\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/547","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ajia.site\/blog\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ajia.site\/blog\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ajia.site\/blog\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ajia.site\/blog\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=547"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/ajia.site\/blog\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/547\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":596,"href":"https:\/\/ajia.site\/blog\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/547\/revisions\/596"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ajia.site\/blog\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=547"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ajia.site\/blog\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=547"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ajia.site\/blog\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=547"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}