Customer Reviews

Veils

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I happened to pass this book on the way to Neil Gaiman. Always fascinated with Islamic culture, particularly its female culture, I gave it a read. What a treat! THe use of traditional art mixed with photography and computer images is wonderful! Recommended!

This is a striking and visually stimulating product. Very smartly written, full of thought provoking issues, and drawn/photographed to the best of 1998's technology. The story follows a Victorian woman's journey to the "orient" and all the orient's mysteries and sterotypes. The protagonist must shed her "veils" in order to find her true calling and desires. For years, woman are preceived in certain ways and must uphold their appearance and thoughts in a certain way to uphold their status. Well, Veils does the opposite. It allows the protagonist the daring decision to liberate her feminity and desires and in the process, sheds all her outer burdens. Truely literary and deep. Deals with the orient, feminism, and of course male domination on the female body. The art? WEll, a blend of hand art and photography makes this stunning and beautiful. The reason for only four stars is because I felt this book could've been expanded with more twists. I felt some scenes were longer than necessary and at times I wanted the plot to go faster. That's what Comic Books are about, right? But overall, this is stunning and deep. Expect a good read. Not a wham bang type of comic.

Graphic novel is the name given now to beautiful full length "comics" which come in hardback or trade paperback size. What's truly unusual about this one is that it is not male-oriented. This one was meant for a female audience! The only other graphic novel I've read that does the same is Gaiman and McKean's "Black Orchid". "Veils" totally succeeds as both a story and an art work and you can't ask any more of a "comic book" than that. The art work is done by 2 different artists since 2 different media are used: actual hand drawings/paintings and computer-enhanced photography. Using both together was a brilliant idea. This story of a Victorian English woman, fleeing her abusive English husband into a Middle Eastern harem, is quite tantalizing. None of the names are familiar to me of the people who collaborated on this book but I certainly hope they all plan to work together again and soon!

The story begins when East meets West, a Victorian English ambassador brings his wife to some un-named Arabic country. It really begins, though, when women of the East meet a woman of the West.

This brief comic is about dualities: rank vs. power, public vs. closed societies, and real vs. fable, to name just a few. The dualities are so much sharper for being so close beside each other, as close and as far away as the harem behind the women's door.

Some of those dualities appear in the comic's imagery, with watercolored stories and photo narrative. I use the term photo loosely, since the images are heavily filtered, colorized, fuzzed or sharpened, and generally hand-tailored to their purpose in the story. The lettering is undistinguished, but suited to the female narrator or to the slightly fabulous story-within-a-story.

On the whole, this magazine is well done, an unusual mix of reality and fantasy. The art is thoughtful and interesting. It's not truly outstanding among comics, but it's one I enjoy and come back to.

This isn't an "adult" comic, but there isn't much here for a young reader.

This work is one of the best things I have ever read/seen. The symbolism in Veils is simply breathtaking if you analyze the value of the veils, the concept of power through anonymity (and subsequently the exploration of the meaning of the veil in Islamic/Asian cultures from a less problematized perspective), fate, karma, etc. It's a poets delight, really. I can rant on nerdily, but the truth is that this book is simply gorgeous to look at. I do love the possible reference of Vivian's name back to Desert Hearts, the first American lesbian film ever made, which actually bears some similarities in plot. All in all, I feel like I am going to be spending a ton of time picking this book apart symbolically, and I'm going to love every minute of it. If you like House of Leaves, Neil Gaiman, Poe... or anything beautifully postmodern, get this now.

On the most basic level, Veils is a story of a Victorian British gentlewoman coming to the Orient with her husband. Once there, she is invited to meet the ladies of the local Sultan's harem. Through this experience, she learns new truths about herself, her husband, even her basic beliefs.

There is also a story-within-a-story in Veils. While Vivian is visiting the harem, she is told the story of another European lady, and her adventure in a harem. This tale is told in a style quite different from Vivian's story, and gives an added dimension to the novel as a whole.

On a deeper level, this is a story about veils, both literal and figurative, and the positive and negative impact of the various veils that are worn throughout life. It is very thought provoking to look back at the story, after reading, and find the many instances of veils, and to think about veils in one's own life.

Veils is a novel told in both traditional graphic art style (drawn) and with photographs and computer graphics. The traditional art is simply stunning, done in a dreamy style with soft colors, with frames shaped into designs that fit the harem style so beautifully.

Vivian's story is told in actual photographs, with CG backgrounds. While original (and for 1998, most certainly so), this is the weak link of the novel. The composition of the photos is fantastic, the models do a wonderful job of showing emotions, and the use of shading and effects is well done. But the photos are so new and crisp, that they fail to convey the feeling of the Victorian age. They feel fake and therefore appear what they are--photo ops of models in Victorian era clothing--rather than looking like scenes from a Victorian adventure. Each frame is jarring, reminding the reader that this is not really happening, and absolute immersion in the story is impossible.

Except for that flaw, Veils is an interesting story with strong social and gender issues, and the reader is left with much food for thought.

Note: this novel does contain images of marital and consensual sex and discussion of same sex relationships.

like nothing you've ever seen