Wil Eisner’s “The Building”
This is a sentimental but somehow unforgettably real tale, spanning the life of single corner building in NYC. Eisner introduces the graphic short story by saying he is sure that buildings—“barnacled with laughter and stained by tears”-- have souls. He tells 4 residents’ stories, each full of ordinary ambitions, blockades to happiness, struggles to find contact and mutual respect, and lonely decline. Well, as a prophet once said, “You are not required to finish.” But each of these people does heed a still small voice to begin to recover what is lost and scattered, although none reach the citadel. And as a literary prophet (Kafka) wrote, “The possibilities of salvation are as real as the hiding places from it.” Hasidic mysticism at the heart of 4 life-stories that are as melancholy as the four downcast ghosts that the denizens of The Building become.
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This is a sentimental but somehow unforgettably real tale, spanning the life of single corner building in NYC. Eisner introduces the graphic short story by saying he is sure that buildings—“barnacled with laughter and stained by tears”-- have souls. He tells 4 residents’ stories, each full of ordinary ambitions, blockades to happiness, struggles to find contact and mutual respect, and lonely decline. Well, as a prophet once said, “You are not required to finish.” But each of these people does heed a still small voice to begin to recover what is lost and scattered, although none reach the citadel. And as a literary prophet (Kafka) wrote, “The possibilities of salvation are as real as the hiding places from it.” Hasidic mysticism at the heart of 4 life-stories that are as melancholy as the four downcast ghosts that the denizens of The Building become.
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