Habibi (graphic novel)
Encyclopedia
Habibi is a graphic novel
by Craig Thompson
published by Pantheon
in September 2011. The 672-page book is set in a fictional Islamic fairytale landscape, and depicts the relationship between Dodola and Zam, two escaped child slaves, who are torn apart and undergo many transformations as they grow into new names and new bodies, which prove to be obstacles to their love when they later reunite. The book's website describes the book's concept thus: "At once contemporary and timeless, HABIBI gives us a love story of astounding resonance: a parable about our relationship to the natural world, the cultural divide between the first and third worlds, the common heritage of Christianity and Islam, and, most potently, the magic of storytelling."
, which autobiographically explored Thompson's Christian upbringing and beliefs, he conceived Habibi as part of his desire to better understand and humanize Islam, and focus on the beauty of Arabic and Islamic cultures, in contrast to their vilification.
In the course of producing the story, Thompson was inspired by Arabic calligraphy, interpreting that form of writing as cursive shorthand for an idea, which Thompson says, is the origin of cartooning. Each of the book's nine chapters is given a distinctive visual style, and an Arab North African talisman is employed as a framing device. The book also quotes explicitly from 19th-century Orientalist paintings, particularly those of Jean-Léon Gérôme
.
magazine called the book "as grand and sustained a performance as any cartoonist has published... and that every mark on the page can be a prayer". Lisa Shea of Elle
magazine wrote, "Thompson is the Charles Dickens of the genre... [and] Habibi is a masterpiece that surely is one of a kind" Neel Mukherjee of Financial Times
observed that the book was "executed with enormous empathy and something that in earlier times would have been called divine inspiration." Laura Miller of Salon
stated, "a big, rousing, unabashedly tear-jerking Dumas novel, with fascinatingly intricate designs and fabulous tales on almost every page." Inbali Iserles of The Independent
predicted that "The book is destined to become an instant classic, confirming the author's position among not only the most masterful of graphic novelists but our finest contemporary writers, regardless of medium." Glen Weldon of NPR
commented, "Of all the books I've read this year, the mysterious, marvelous Habibi is the one I most look forward to meeting again." Jacob Lambert of The Millions
called the book "The Greatest Story Ever Drawn." John Hogan of the Graphic Novel Reporter commented, "I don’t usually look at books in-depth here in the introduction to the newsletter, but I have to make an exception in the case of Habibi", and proceeds to call Habibi "easily the best graphic novel of the year, and probably the decade...This is a work that truly changes the game and sets a new standard for all the graphic novels that follow it."
Michael Faber of The Guardian
praised Habibi as "an orgy of art for its own sake", and calling Thompson an "obsessive sketcher" whose artwork he categorized with that of Joe Sacco
and Will Eisner
. Although Faber lauded the book's visuals and its message, he found both its length wearisome and its treatment of sex to be problematic, in particular the repeatedly sexual cruelty visited upon Dodola, which Faber felt caused the story to fold in on itself.
Natalie du P.C. Panno, writing for The Harvard Crimson
, called Habibi "exquisite", seeing Thompson's use of Arabic calligraphy and geometric designs as a third dimension that, when added to the familiar graphic novel languages of image and text, broadened the possibilities for expression, perhaps moreso for readers who do not know what it means, and must be guided in its interpretation. du P.C. Panno also praised the sensitivity with which Thompson executed his portrayal of Orientalist tropes, particular by the end of the book.
Charles Hatfield of The Comics Journal
conducted a round table discussion of the book featuring himself, Hayley Campbell, Chris Mautner, Tom Hart
, Katie Haegele, and Joe McCulloch. Most of the panelists applauded Thompson's visual storytelling, calling it "gorgeous", "mind-altering", "lavish", and singling out elements such as Thompson's use of false light, and the "poignant" image of the wooden ship in the desert. More than one panelist compared Thompson's artwork positively to that of Will Eisner
, in particular the fisherman from the story's final act. Also praised were the use of Arabic calligraphy and numerology, the intertwining of Biblical and Koranic vignettes as subplots with the main story, the scripting of Dodola's challenge to "turn water into gold", and the parallels between motifs such as chapter numbers and their content, and between the river and blood. Hatfield thought that the book's range of themes, from environmentalism to anti-Islamophobia
, to thinly-veiled allegories about water rights, racism, pollution, slavery and rape made the book "way too big for elegance". By contrast, Mautner in particular thought Habibi was a smoother read than Blankets, which he felt featured too many subplots. Hart and McCullough agreed that Thompson's tendency to delineate every little detail which such obviousness left little to the reader's imagination or interpretation. The most recurrent complaint was with the book's bleak outlook on life and humanity, and the sexual cruelties inflicted upon the characters, which some of the reviewers thought was excessive, in particular Hatfield and Haegele, who felt that Thompson was condemning such atrocities while simultaneously luxuriating in them. Haegele did not care for the depiction of black characters in the book, finding them comparable to racial caricatures, and calling them "inappropriate" and "disgusting", and pointed to the "cornball" humor in these scenes in particular, and throughout the book in general. Both Hart and Haegele also pointed to Hyacinth's use of black American vernacular as implausible. Campbell partially disagreed, saying that much of the humor was carefully used to defuse scenes of tension, singling out the flatulent palace dwarf and the fisherman, which others mentioned they enjoyed as well.
Robyn Creswell of The New York Times
called the book "a work of fantasy about being ashamed of one’s fantasies", an anxiety that she attributed to American comics produced by white males in general, pointing to elements in Habibi that recall the work of R. Crumb in particular. Echoing some of the Comics Journal roundtable's complaints, Creswell took fault with the book's depictions of racism and sexism, and its apparent exotification of the Muslim world without differentiating between fact and fantasy, saying, "It’s often hard to tell whether Thompson is making fun of Orientalism
or indulging in it...Thompson the illustrator is...apparently unable to think of Dodola without disrobing her...it is a conventional sort of virtuosity, in the service of a conventional exoticism."
Nadim Damluji of The Hooded Utilitarian called the book "an imperfect attempt to humanize Arabs for an American audience", taking issue with Thompson's ignorance of the Arabic language, his depiction of Arab culture as "cultural appropriation
", and the revelation in the later chapters of a modern, Westernized city in proximity to a primitive harem palace typified by sexual slavery. Though Damluji expressed awe of Thompson's technical skill, and found his artwork "stunning" and his ideas derived from his research "fascinating", he observed that Dodola and Zam arrive are given depth by contrasting them against "a cast of extremely dehumanized Arabs", and summarized the work thus: "Habibi is a success on many levels, but it also contains elements that are strikingly problematic...The artistic playground [Thompson] chose of barbaric Arabs devoid of history but not savagery is a well-trod environment in Western literature....The problem in making something knowingly racist is that the final product can still be read as racist."
Graphic novel
A graphic novel is a narrative work in which the story is conveyed to the reader using sequential art in either an experimental design or in a traditional comics format...
by Craig Thompson
Craig Thompson
Craig Matthew Thompson is a graphic novelist best known for his books Good-Bye, Chunky Rice , Blankets , Carnet de Voyage and Habibi . Thompson has received four Harvey Awards, two Eisner Awards, and two Ignatz Awards...
published by Pantheon
Pantheon Books
Pantheon Books is an American imprint with editorial independence that is part of the Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group.The current editor-in-chief at Pantheon Books is Dan Frank.-Overview:...
in September 2011. The 672-page book is set in a fictional Islamic fairytale landscape, and depicts the relationship between Dodola and Zam, two escaped child slaves, who are torn apart and undergo many transformations as they grow into new names and new bodies, which prove to be obstacles to their love when they later reunite. The book's website describes the book's concept thus: "At once contemporary and timeless, HABIBI gives us a love story of astounding resonance: a parable about our relationship to the natural world, the cultural divide between the first and third worlds, the common heritage of Christianity and Islam, and, most potently, the magic of storytelling."
Publication history
Thompson began working on Habibi at the end of 2004. Although informed by his previous work, BlanketsBlankets (graphic novel)
Blankets is an autobiographical graphic novel by Craig Thompson, published in 2003 by Top Shelf Productions. As a coming-of-age autobiography, the book tells the story of Thompson's childhood in an Evangelical Christian family, his first love, and his early adulthood...
, which autobiographically explored Thompson's Christian upbringing and beliefs, he conceived Habibi as part of his desire to better understand and humanize Islam, and focus on the beauty of Arabic and Islamic cultures, in contrast to their vilification.
In the course of producing the story, Thompson was inspired by Arabic calligraphy, interpreting that form of writing as cursive shorthand for an idea, which Thompson says, is the origin of cartooning. Each of the book's nine chapters is given a distinctive visual style, and an Arab North African talisman is employed as a framing device. The book also quotes explicitly from 19th-century Orientalist paintings, particularly those of Jean-Léon Gérôme
Jean-Léon Gérôme
Jean-Léon Gérôme was a French painter and sculptor in the style now known as Academicism. The range of his oeuvre included historical painting, Greek mythology, Orientalism, portraits and other subjects, bringing the Academic painting tradition to an artistic climax.-Life:Jean-Léon Gérôme was born...
.
Story
Habibi takes place in the present day, albeit in a fictional "Orientalist landscape", which Thompson conceived in order to create a sprawling fairy tale that would allow him to depict a clash of the old world and the new, while allowing him to avoid depicting guns or warfare. While it is located in a Islamic country and features such elements as Arabic writing, Thompson is reluctant to say that it takes place in the Middle East, preferring to emphasize that it is a mythical landscape, and that the characters vaguely Muslim as a result of the context in which they grew up. Thompson explains that he borrowed elements from different geographies, and infused them with the elements that he wanted. The book intersperses stories drawn from the Koran with the main narrative that follows Dodola, a young girl who, despite being intelligent and literate, is prized for her beauty, and the younger Zam, a boy whose guilt-ridden relationship with his surrogate mother leads to destructive choices.Reception
Habibi has received mixed reviews. Douglas Wolk of TimeTime (magazine)
Time is an American news magazine. A European edition is published from London. Time Europe covers the Middle East, Africa and, since 2003, Latin America. An Asian edition is based in Hong Kong...
magazine called the book "as grand and sustained a performance as any cartoonist has published... and that every mark on the page can be a prayer". Lisa Shea of Elle
Elle (magazine)
Elle is a worldwide magazine of French origin that focuses on women's fashion, beauty, health, and entertainment. Elle is also the world's largest fashion magazine. It was founded by Pierre Lazareff and his wife Hélène Gordon in 1945. The title, in French, means "she".-History:Elle was founded in...
magazine wrote, "Thompson is the Charles Dickens of the genre... [and] Habibi is a masterpiece that surely is one of a kind" Neel Mukherjee of Financial Times
Financial Times
The Financial Times is an international business newspaper. It is a morning daily newspaper published in London and printed in 24 cities around the world. Its primary rival is the Wall Street Journal, published in New York City....
observed that the book was "executed with enormous empathy and something that in earlier times would have been called divine inspiration." Laura Miller of Salon
Salon.com
Salon.com, part of Salon Media Group , often just called Salon, is an online liberal magazine, with content updated each weekday. Salon was founded by David Talbot and launched on November 20, 1995. It was the internet's first online-only commercial publication. The magazine focuses on U.S...
stated, "a big, rousing, unabashedly tear-jerking Dumas novel, with fascinatingly intricate designs and fabulous tales on almost every page." Inbali Iserles of The Independent
The Independent
The Independent is a British national morning newspaper published in London by Independent Print Limited, owned by Alexander Lebedev since 2010. It is nicknamed the Indy, while the Sunday edition, The Independent on Sunday, is the Sindy. Launched in 1986, it is one of the youngest UK national daily...
predicted that "The book is destined to become an instant classic, confirming the author's position among not only the most masterful of graphic novelists but our finest contemporary writers, regardless of medium." Glen Weldon of NPR
NPR
NPR, formerly National Public Radio, is a privately and publicly funded non-profit membership media organization that serves as a national syndicator to a network of 900 public radio stations in the United States. NPR was created in 1970, following congressional passage of the Public Broadcasting...
commented, "Of all the books I've read this year, the mysterious, marvelous Habibi is the one I most look forward to meeting again." Jacob Lambert of The Millions
The Millions
The Millions is an online literary magazine created by C. Max Magee in 2003. It contains articles about literary topics and book reviews.The Millions has several regular contributors as well as frequent guest appearances by literary notables, including Rosecrans Baldwin, Josh Bazell, Mark Binelli,...
called the book "The Greatest Story Ever Drawn." John Hogan of the Graphic Novel Reporter commented, "I don’t usually look at books in-depth here in the introduction to the newsletter, but I have to make an exception in the case of Habibi", and proceeds to call Habibi "easily the best graphic novel of the year, and probably the decade...This is a work that truly changes the game and sets a new standard for all the graphic novels that follow it."
Michael Faber of The Guardian
The Guardian
The Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...
praised Habibi as "an orgy of art for its own sake", and calling Thompson an "obsessive sketcher" whose artwork he categorized with that of Joe Sacco
Joe Sacco
Joe Sacco is a Maltese-American comics artist and journalist. He achieved international fame through the 1996 American Book Award-winning Palestine, and his graphic novel on the Bosnian War, Safe Area Goražde.- Biography :...
and Will Eisner
Will Eisner
William Erwin "Will" Eisner was an American comics writer, artist and entrepreneur. He is considered one of the most important contributors to the development of the medium and is known for the cartooning studio he founded; for his highly influential series The Spirit; for his use of comics as an...
. Although Faber lauded the book's visuals and its message, he found both its length wearisome and its treatment of sex to be problematic, in particular the repeatedly sexual cruelty visited upon Dodola, which Faber felt caused the story to fold in on itself.
Natalie du P.C. Panno, writing for The Harvard Crimson
The Harvard Crimson
The Harvard Crimson, the daily student newspaper of Harvard University, was founded in 1873. It is the only daily newspaper in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and is run entirely by Harvard College undergraduates...
, called Habibi "exquisite", seeing Thompson's use of Arabic calligraphy and geometric designs as a third dimension that, when added to the familiar graphic novel languages of image and text, broadened the possibilities for expression, perhaps moreso for readers who do not know what it means, and must be guided in its interpretation. du P.C. Panno also praised the sensitivity with which Thompson executed his portrayal of Orientalist tropes, particular by the end of the book.
Charles Hatfield of The Comics Journal
The Comics Journal
The Comics Journal, often abbreviated TCJ, is an American magazine of news and criticism pertaining to comic books, comic strips and graphic novels...
conducted a round table discussion of the book featuring himself, Hayley Campbell, Chris Mautner, Tom Hart
Tom Hart (comics)
Tom Hart is an American comics creator best known for his Hutch Owen series of comics.-Career:Tom Hart began making mini-comics while living in Seattle in the early 1990s...
, Katie Haegele, and Joe McCulloch. Most of the panelists applauded Thompson's visual storytelling, calling it "gorgeous", "mind-altering", "lavish", and singling out elements such as Thompson's use of false light, and the "poignant" image of the wooden ship in the desert. More than one panelist compared Thompson's artwork positively to that of Will Eisner
Will Eisner
William Erwin "Will" Eisner was an American comics writer, artist and entrepreneur. He is considered one of the most important contributors to the development of the medium and is known for the cartooning studio he founded; for his highly influential series The Spirit; for his use of comics as an...
, in particular the fisherman from the story's final act. Also praised were the use of Arabic calligraphy and numerology, the intertwining of Biblical and Koranic vignettes as subplots with the main story, the scripting of Dodola's challenge to "turn water into gold", and the parallels between motifs such as chapter numbers and their content, and between the river and blood. Hatfield thought that the book's range of themes, from environmentalism to anti-Islamophobia
Islamophobia
Islamophobia describes prejudice against, hatred or irrational fear of Islam or MuslimsThe term dates back to the late 1980s or early 1990s, but came into common usage after the September 11, 2001 attacks in the United States....
, to thinly-veiled allegories about water rights, racism, pollution, slavery and rape made the book "way too big for elegance". By contrast, Mautner in particular thought Habibi was a smoother read than Blankets, which he felt featured too many subplots. Hart and McCullough agreed that Thompson's tendency to delineate every little detail which such obviousness left little to the reader's imagination or interpretation. The most recurrent complaint was with the book's bleak outlook on life and humanity, and the sexual cruelties inflicted upon the characters, which some of the reviewers thought was excessive, in particular Hatfield and Haegele, who felt that Thompson was condemning such atrocities while simultaneously luxuriating in them. Haegele did not care for the depiction of black characters in the book, finding them comparable to racial caricatures, and calling them "inappropriate" and "disgusting", and pointed to the "cornball" humor in these scenes in particular, and throughout the book in general. Both Hart and Haegele also pointed to Hyacinth's use of black American vernacular as implausible. Campbell partially disagreed, saying that much of the humor was carefully used to defuse scenes of tension, singling out the flatulent palace dwarf and the fisherman, which others mentioned they enjoyed as well.
Robyn Creswell of The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
called the book "a work of fantasy about being ashamed of one’s fantasies", an anxiety that she attributed to American comics produced by white males in general, pointing to elements in Habibi that recall the work of R. Crumb in particular. Echoing some of the Comics Journal roundtable's complaints, Creswell took fault with the book's depictions of racism and sexism, and its apparent exotification of the Muslim world without differentiating between fact and fantasy, saying, "It’s often hard to tell whether Thompson is making fun of Orientalism
Orientalism
Orientalism is a term used for the imitation or depiction of aspects of Eastern cultures in the West by writers, designers and artists, as well as having other meanings...
or indulging in it...Thompson the illustrator is...apparently unable to think of Dodola without disrobing her...it is a conventional sort of virtuosity, in the service of a conventional exoticism."
Nadim Damluji of The Hooded Utilitarian called the book "an imperfect attempt to humanize Arabs for an American audience", taking issue with Thompson's ignorance of the Arabic language, his depiction of Arab culture as "cultural appropriation
Cultural appropriation
Cultural appropriation is the adoption of some specific elements of one culture by a different cultural group. It describes acculturation or assimilation, but can imply a negative view towards acculturation from a minority culture by a dominant culture. It can include the introduction of forms of...
", and the revelation in the later chapters of a modern, Westernized city in proximity to a primitive harem palace typified by sexual slavery. Though Damluji expressed awe of Thompson's technical skill, and found his artwork "stunning" and his ideas derived from his research "fascinating", he observed that Dodola and Zam arrive are given depth by contrasting them against "a cast of extremely dehumanized Arabs", and summarized the work thus: "Habibi is a success on many levels, but it also contains elements that are strikingly problematic...The artistic playground [Thompson] chose of barbaric Arabs devoid of history but not savagery is a well-trod environment in Western literature....The problem in making something knowingly racist is that the final product can still be read as racist."
External links
- "From Habibi, a graphic novel". Guernica. September 2011