Cover of The Revenge of the Books by Tom Gauld
Photo: Modern Edition. All rights reserved.
Who hasn’t asked themselves this while reading a novel by a hitherto unknown young Estonian author that has been the subject of hymns in the features section: “Either this is a quiet masterpiece that describes the gentle rhythms of everyday life in a way that is as subtle as it is meticulous, or it’s just super boring.”
This train of thought from a pensive reader was captured by Tom Gauld in one of just over 140 cartoons. What comes along as a merry joke is at the same time a powerful reckoning with a literary business that is weakening itself from all sides: publishers who are always only after (literary) lifestyle fads; Critics who yearn to always fish out from the pool of uncountable publications the one great novel that finally gives our time a symbolic contour; Finally, readers who constantly want the same thing, shy away from style judgments and fear boredom like half a day without WiFi.
The Scottish illustrator Tom Gauld is an advocate of the simple line. His cartoons highlight the world of academia and bourgeois farces, and are often styled like fact charts. It doesn’t even need to be profound. Example: “Henry James writes such a long and convoluted sentence that James can’t find his way out for three days”. One strip is called “Waiting for Godot at the Zoom Meeting” – and the headline is already the whole joke.
One can smile at Gauld’s excerpts and share the criticism of the intellectual sluggishness of intellectual strongholds. All this remains a little harmless for those who are among the few people who buy more than four books a year. And for everyone else, illustrations of swaying stacks of unread books next to the bed or James Joyce’s visits to his publisher are probably not material for extensive laughter. However, after reading it, one gets the urge to look for a thin-print edition of Melville’s “Moby Dick” in the antiquarian bookshop. Or to ask a question at a reading that is guaranteed to draw the author out of his reserve.
ROLLING STONE presents an excerpt from Tom Gauld’s Revenge of the Books
