Vol 1: Kapilavastu
By Osamu Tezuka
2006
Available now from Islington Libraries
You can reserve this item for free here:
http://www.library.islington.gov.uk/TalisPrism/
Vol 2: The Four Encounters
By Osamu Tezuka
2006
Available now from Islington Libraries
You can reserve this item for free here:
http://www.library.islington.gov.uk/TalisPrism/
You can reserve this item for free here:
http://www.library.islington.gov.uk/TalisPrism/
Vol 3: Devadatta
By Osamu Tezuka
2006
Available now from Islington Libraries
You can reserve this item for free here:
http://www.library.islington.gov.uk/TalisPrism/
I'm kinda twisting around all over the place trying to work out what the experience of reading Buddha is like.
Before I started reading it (and I put that off for quite a while before I actually gathered up enough strength to pick it up: because - gah: a massive long epic about Buddha? No thanks: I've stick to my science-fiction superheroes thanks) I'll admit that I was expecting something a lot more solemn and reverential - that's for sure. Something like the opening text of the second book maybe - "What is one man's life compared to the eternity of time and space? No more than a snowflake that glitters in the sun for a moment before melting into the flow of time." - but (ha) - as it turns out - all that sort of fancy talk is just the airs and graces draped around the - frankly - potty-mouthed and rambunctious extremes contained within.
First attempt at trying to describe what it's like: Ok - imagine a Disney movie where instead of just having one wild Robin Williams/Eddie Murphy-style-smart-talking genie/donkey-whatever making a noise on the sidelines: there was a whole motley crew of mischievous delinquents all jostling for your attention. And instead of being restricted to keeping it all safe and family-friendly: well - try and visualize what would happen if someone removed the child-safety settings: because that (as much as all that might make your head spin) is the best description I can think of as the reading experience it gives you. So: while it has all the appearance of cute and fluffy and butter-wouldn't-melt-in-it's-mouth: it only once you've wandered a few pages in that you start to realise how ramshackle (and I mean that in the best possible sense of the word) things are. The first hint of it is when a monk (looking around for the chosen one) asks a local if he knows anyone with "strange powers?" to which the local replies "you mean like ESP?" Now - there is a chance that maybe I'm completely wrong at this [1] - but previously I would have guessed that the notion of - you know - extrasensory perception wasn't one that people were kicking around lots in the ye olde ancient times: but it's an early warning for just how much disregard Tezuka [2] is paying to such quaint and rarefied concepts as "historical accuracy." [3] And then - of course - (let's give him a "warm welcome!") - one of the characters gets wee-ed on [4] and from that point on (as is so often the case when weeing on people is involved): - well - anything seems possible.
But just in case all this talk of piss is getting you confused: maybe I should mention (in case you couldn't tell from that title) that Buddha takes as it's subject: the life of the Buddha (and seeing how altogether it comprises eight volumes [5] and is something in excess of 2000 pages long - we're talking the complete life with no skipping over bits). And not in a distasteful, disrespectful or disreputable way either: actually as far as I could tell [6] it's all keeping in the spirit of the teachings of the Buddha and it's scattered with holy parables and people making wise little sayings [7] designed to nudge the reader into a life of spiritual purity (or something): or - what the hell: maybe it's just really interesting? (And I must say that I enjoyed the way that (mostly) it avoided the temptation to make easy or glib judgements: like the experience of reading it (just in case the example of the weeing didn't tip you off already) is as far from a devout sermon as you're likely to get while still remaining a story about a religious figure - if that makes sense? [8]).
Second attempt: ok - so try to visualise the most kindly-looking, gentle, twinkly-eyed grandfather you can possibly imagine. Like: Werther's Original spilling out of his pockets, a sly little grin constantly dancing at the corner of his lips. He's a Buddhist yeah - but he never really talks about it until the day comes that he puts you on his knee and solemnly informs you that he's going tell you the story of a man called Siddhārtha Gautama. Ok - you say: you're game. I mean: (oh did I not say this?) because now you're sitting closer you realise that this grandfather is actually Osamu Tezuka: who (to quote his wikipedia page) is world-renowned as the "Godfather of Anime" [9] (and is often considered the Japanese equivalent to Walt Disney) he's the one who came up with frigging Astro Boy [10] and basically was so on top of his game that - well: he spent over ten years [12] writing a massive epic about the life of the Buddha and had it become massively successful (Vol 1 has apparently sold over 20,000 copies) all the way back in the 1970s when - hell: comics where still dismissed as children's entertainment [13]: so - yeah: sure - you say: tell me this story.
So he starts to tell you this story. And - at the start it's all so very grand and stately that you can almost hear the classical music playing in the background (so much so - that you're worried that you're going to fall asleep) and then - I dunno - some point around the weeing: he really starts to get into it. Like: you realise that your grandfather is no longer a sedate and docile old man: but is suddenly somehow turned into a impish teenage boy: of which the most obvious manifestation would be (and it's best to keep things simple I guess) all the almost-delirious cussing and swearing that happens every dozen pages or so: "You filthy bastard!" "Asshole" "Holy Shit!" I mean - it's never really gratuitous or out of place or anything like that: but man - it's still - I dunno: strangely exhilarating (?) to come across something that seems kinda designed for that universal all-ages appeal (the best example of recent times of course being Pixar films) not being at all afraid to revert to the language normally reserved for sailors (close your eyes and imagine watching a film where Mickey Mouse got so angry that he flipped someone off and you're getting close to the effect).
The thing is tho: while I understand that from this description it sounds like maybe it's a Garth Ennis version of Buddha (or something): all crude and gritty and whatever: the cumulative effect is actually the opposite. Like I said - it feels like it's your grandfather who's the one who's telling you the story - so it doesn't feel scuzzy or dirty or anything like that: rather it's more like a joyful embrace of the messiness of life: warts and all. I mean (just to hammer the point home): there's a whole lot of nude people prancing around all over the pages of these books: but none of it is really done in a titillating way: it's more like the matter-of-factness of a nudist beach rather than the bump and grind of: well - all the contexts you usually find nakedity in. And altogether it's just - I dunno - lovely. Like the feeling of sunshine on your skin. If you haven't read it - well: I'd recommend that you do.
[1] Anyone care to do any rehearse to find out one way or the other? (Actually - balls to that: I just did a quick google and it turns out that the term "Extrasensory perception" was first adopted by Duke University psychologist J. B. Rhine (and seeing how he was only born in 1895 I'm guessing it wasn't kicking around in common use all the way back in ancient India where Buddha is (dur - obviously) set).
[2] Or the translators at least. I mean - speaking as someone that doesn't speak a word of Japanese: I must point out that maybe the original is totally different and whoever was in charge of converting it into English just thought - what the hell: let's go crazy: but somehow I doubt it.
[3] In fact - the only thing that really comes close to how it feels would be the "Time Masheen" ride from Mike Judge's Idiocracy. (This of course - and let's not be mistaken here: is a good thing).
[4] "Wee-ed"? Is that right? Or am I mangling my English? I dunno....
[5] Eight volumes you say? Then why are there only pictures of three volumes up at the top there? Well: as Islington is a public library that can't afford absolutely everything we don't actually have the other five volumes (well - at least not yet: anyone care to put in an order?): but hey - you can read the first three and although (obviously) it's not the complete story: it can still show you a pretty damn fine little time (and each book is about 400 pages long: so it doesn't feel like you're getting short-changed or anything).
[6] Me of course being someone who knows next to absolutely nothing about Buddha or Buddhism. (Apart from the small bits I gleaned when (as a massive young fan of the band) I used to read about where Nirvana got their name from: and somehow it feels like that maybe doesn't properly count?)
[7] My personal favourite being: "My teacher said once that every man faces seven enemies in his lifetime, sickness, hunger, betrayal, envy, greed, old age, and then death..." (Of course they missed out the eighth which is "internet" but I guess there are some things which are beyond even the Buddha's infinite wisdom....).
[8] Although - what with all the trumpeting about the birth of the king of kings and everything that happens towards the end of the first volume I couldn't help thinking of the following passage from by Kurt Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse-Five: "It was The Gospel From Outer Space, by Kilgore Trout. It was about a visitor from outer space... [who] made a serious study of Christianity, to learn, if he could, why Christians found it so easy to be cruel. He concluded that at least part of the trouble was slipshod storytelling in the New Testament. He supposed that the intent of the Gospels was to teach people, among other things, to be merciful, even to the lowest of the low. But the Gospels actually taught this: Before you kill somebody, make absolutely sure he isn't well connected. So it goes. The flaw in the Christ stories, said the visitor from outer space, was that Christ, who didn't look like much, was actually the Son of the Most Powerful Being in the Universe. Readers understood that, so, when they came to the crucifixion, they naturally thought...: Oh, boy — they sure picked the wrong guy to lynch that time! And that thought had a brother: "There are right people to lynch." Who? People not well connected. So it goes. The visitor from outer space made a gift to Earth of a new Gospel. In it, Jesus really was a nobody, and a pain in the neck to a lot of people with better connections than he had. He still got to say all the lovely and puzzling things he said in the other Gospels. So the people amused themselves one day by nailing him to a cross and planting the cross in the ground. There couldn't possibly be any repercussions, the lynchers thought. The reader would have to think that too, since the Gospel hammered home again and again what a nobody Jesus was. And then, just before the nobody died, the heavens opened up, and there was thunder and lightning. The voice of God came crashing down. He told the people that he was adopting the bum as his son, giving him the full powers and privileges of the Son of the Creator of the Universe throughout all eternity. God said this: From this moment on, He will punish anybody who torments a bum who has no connections!" (But then I guess you can't blame Osamu Tezuka for this - seeing how he's working on the story of someone who was born hundreds of years before Jesus rocked up: and I guess there was only so far people were (are?) willing to go...).
[9] Also: "the father of manga", "the god of comics" and "kamisama of manga". (don't believe me? Fine: go check his page out for yourself).
[10] And - ok - yeah: here in the west Astro Boy is barely remembered (if at all) as a 2009 kid's film (featuring the voices of Kristen Bell, Nathan Lane, Eugene Levy, Matt Lucas, Bill Nighy, Donald Sutherland, Moises Arias, Charlize Theron and Nicolas Cage!) that even I haven't seen. But on the other side of the world he's an icon on the same level as Mickey Mouse - which just goes to show (I dunno): how fickle people can be? Or maybe it's just that western audiences just aren't ready for a story that begins with a scientist building himself a robot boy to replace his dead son? (and I love this little nugget from the Astro Boy wikipedia page which specifies: that said dead son ran away in the 2003 anime and was vaporized in the 2009 film: sucks to be him I guess [11]).
[11] Just a random thought: wouldn't it be great if it had the same thing on Batman's wikipedia page? "Bruce Wayne decided to become Batman after - as a child - he witnessed the death of his parents (ran away in the 2003 anime; vaporized in the 2009 film)." No? Just me? Ok then.
[12] "The series began in September 1972 and ended in December 1983, as one of Tezuka's last epic manga works."
[13] Which - actually (come to think of it) kinda does make sense: seeing how Alan Moore and Frank Miller hadn't really made any waves at that point: but whatever: that's a whole other story right? Right.
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Links: Book Slut Review, Home Made Mech Review, AV Club Review, Comics 212 Review: Manga Milestones 2000-2009: 10 Manga That Changed Comics #5.
Further reading: Habibi, Jimmy Corrigan, the Smartest Kid on Earth, Astro Boy, American Born Chinese, Akira, Solanin, The Sandman: The Dream Hunters, Rudyard Kipling's Jungle Book Stories.
All comments welcome.
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