It was wonderful to see illustrator and author Brian Selznick again. Bill and I saw him at the now closed Borders in Westwood several years ago when The Invention of Hugo Cabret was first published. Not only did he give us another brilliant presentation on his new book, Wonderstruck, but we got to talk about the upcoming film Hugo, which is based on his book. Ahh-sum!
As you may know, Bill is a magician and he fell in love with The Invention of Hugo Cabret when he discovered it was about a mysterious automaton. Hugo was inspired by a passage in the book Edison’s Eve by Gaby Wood which tells of the collection of automata that belonged to Georges Méliès. After Méliès death, the museum that he donated them to tossed them! Seriously? Brian Selznick wondered what might have happened if an orphan had stolen a mechanical man from the garbage….
Selznick combined his intense illustrations and writing to create this delightful story which is not quite a picture book, nor a graphic novel, but a unique storytelling experience. One inspiration was Where the Wild Things Are, but Hugo takes us far beyond, expanding our entertainment as over 500 pages unfold before the enchanted reader. And thankfully director Martin Scorsese took great efforts to ensure the film stayed true to the book.
In spite of Hugo’s success, Selznick was eager to tell us about his new book, Wonderstruck, which takes this “narrative experiment” one step further. “I had this idea to try to tell two different stories,” he said. “What if I told one story just with pictures, and then told a completely different story that was set 50 years later with words? And then had these two separate stories weave back and forth until they came together at the end?”
Selznick said the idea for the Wonderstruck developed when he watched a documentary about deafness and deaf culture. Ben, a young boy and Rose, a deaf girl, live years and worlds apart. By the end of the story, we learn they have a special connection as Ben loses his hearing when he is struck by lightning. Rose’s story is told almost entirely through silent illustrations, as she experiences the world, while Ben’s story is told in the written word.
Selnick shared some hilarious stories and we know without his editor these books would not exist. He showed us pages of text which were so red lined by her they looked like a murder scene… he confided that she has actually made him cry! But obviously they make an amazing team and created works of storytelling art for us all to enjoy forever.
Click here to see all the photos from the Brian Selznick signing.
Until our next autonomic adventure…
P~
