“Thoreau at Walden” by John Porcellino from the writings of Henry David Thoreau

I think I was supposed to be charmed by this graphic novel depicting the story of Thoreau’s two years at Walden Pond. I wasn’t. The book is drawn in a simplistic manner that was highly reminiscent of Charles Schultz. The color scheme is black and white with tan shading. I think the idea was to keep the drawings basic so that the reader could focus on the ideas of Thoreau (the majority of the words are direct quotes). Townspeople are sometimes drawn incompletely, sometimes just as bouncing heads, perhaps to visually enforce Thoreau’s isolation. I postulated that the brown shading was an homage to Thoreau’s connection to the earth (or an attempt at creating a historical feel with sepia-toned images?) and the clean line drawings a symbol of his commitment to living with less. But it didn’t work (IMHO). The first problem is that the cartoonish style will not draw in younger readers because the ideas are still Thoreau’s. Older readers won’t want to read this boiled down version of philosophy, either. I disagree with the premise that Thoreau’s ideas can be explained in a drawing of a tree or a leaf. His ideas appear straightforward, but are also layered and subtle, which is what makes his reflections so interesting. The bottom line is that the images in a graphic novel should add something to the words, in this case I think they take away from the concepts. They infer that all you have to do is sit by the water or write in a cabin by candlelight and you will get it. When Thoreau says “A lake is the landscape’s most beautiful feature … it is earth’s eye looking into which the beholder measures the depths of his own nature.” I wanted to see something besides a brown lake with odd little infinity signs floating across it. If my mind is filling in visual images that are not provided in the graphic novel, then something is clearly missing. I think that the author knew this on some level, as he provided a lengthy introduction (written by D.B. Johnson) and an equally lengthy “Panel Discussion” section at the end. If you have to put this many explanations into a graphic novel then you haven’t figured out the power that a good graphic novel can convey. Marjane Satrapi’s “Persepolis” for instance, only uses black ink drawings, but the images brilliantly create an emotional tone for the words – words and pictures work in a partnership. In this book the words and images seem to create a tension with each other. At times, they become almost comical, with Thoreau looking rotund and having a sagging bottom … further distracting from the text. So, I’m not a fan. Others are welcome to disagree!