Book Review
Attempted Not Known
Sanjevni first spotted the book while another classmate was looking at it and asked if we could see it after they were done. We were bored of the books that looked like actual books and wanted to see a book that broke the definition. The appearance of this book was incredible. More like an art piece than a textbook it looked exactly like a cassette tape from far away. Grace was the first one to open the book. Since it was in a plastic case, the ones tapes typically reside in, it took a few moments to figure out how to open it. It was amusing to see that since the millennial generation doesn’t interact with tapes on a regular basis it looked like an archeologist trying to figure out how ancient civilizations used such tools.
Once it was opened up you were able to notice that it was a hand drawn little book. The detailing was impressive! We took turns passing it around and examining it. I (Katharina) appreciated the attention to detail that the author/creator gave to drawing the covers and inside of the covers of the book. It resembled a cassette tape perfectly, even with the list of chapters where the songs would normally be on the case. Flipping through the book revealed that it was a comic book, and in comic book style, there was a series of short stories. The unique packaging and size of the book was the most interactive part of the book from my perspective, the content was fun to flip through but not as memorable as the physical book. Conrad’s book is the size of a cassette tape: approximately 4.25 inches long x 2.75 inches wide x .6 inches height. The hand drawn details along with the added layers to the outside of the book easily fool the eye into assuming this is a real tape. The back of the cassette case lists the titles of 13 chapters/short comics similar to actual cassettes.
Finally prying open the elaborately made tape you see comic book images with minimal word usage; unexpected for a book. At first glance, the comics are seemingly obscure and unconnected. One can begin to connect the stories with the one prior to create a coherent story. Without any guided analysis our team assumed the comic tells the story of a young child and the events that he experienced: a conversation he had at school about bats, or his dad getting him a cassette recorder, etc. It’s a little bit of a mystery why the cassette player means so much to this kid but the reader can infer that it is significant. One interpretation concocted was that each event depicted has a musical element attached to it, i.e. the child correlated a song to this memory. For example, the entire album from said artist reminds the listener of their different stages recovery since their breakup.