I’m very excited to be invited to Bangkok for a few days to speak and give a workshop. It’s been 25 years since I was here last and I’m looking forward to my visit!
Year: 2017
Review on the CBC’s “The Next Chapter”
http://www.cbc.ca/radio/thenextchapter/rupi-kaur-eliza-robertson-jen-sookfong-lee-1.4342103/the-powerful-stories-jen-sookfong-lee-found-in-writing-from-immigrant-women-1.4342216
Things I read in the London Guardian
A few weeks ago I turned my iPhone off for 24 hours. I enjoyed the feeling of clarity so much that I left it off for another 10 days (although I had email on my Mac for anything work-related). Basically I just went dark, and outside of my husband and kids, the only way to contact me was old school – the house phone or email. Instead of Google Maps I printed driving instructions out at home. I listened to the car radio (or drove in silence). I checked my calendar on my desktop instead of relying on push notifications. While working, I listened to podcasts already downloaded and only checked my email 3x a day.
At first I was anxious and twitchy, but as the days passed, I started to enjoy the complete lack of distraction. Just like going on a food fast, I felt lean and clean. And by the way, before this, I was not someone who was in the least bit addicted to my phone. I would check it maybe every couple of hours, I’d already disabled all my notifications apart from text messages, and I turned it off every night at 9 pm. So this wasn’t done out of desperation or panic. I guess it was the equivalent of someone who already meditates every day for 20 minutes but actually goes on a 10 day retreat and the experiences that brings.
It was great. I felt like my old self, I remember how it felt 20 years ago when I would be unreachable while traveling. I stopped thinking of who might be contacting me, or what would be happening on Twitter. I basically purged myself of any craving tendencies, much like someone who goes on a complete sugar fast.
I’m aware I was only able to do that because all my work correspondence is through email or apps like Trello which I can access on my desktop. But even with those, I only made it a point to check and respond once in the morning, once after lunch, and once after supper. I missed a couple of invitations from friends for an evening out but nothing I can’t live with. When I went out for errands, my husband or children couldn’t reach me, and it turns out that was no big deal. It was just like the old days. And I really really enjoyed that feeling of absolute clarity.
So here are some things I read in the London Guardian that make me think I should be doing this more often:…
“The technologies we use have turned into compulsions, if not full-fledged addictions,” Eyal writes. “It’s the impulse to check a message notification. It’s the pull to visit YouTube, Facebook, or Instagram for just a few minutes, only to find yourself still tapping and scrolling an hour later.” None of this is an accident, he writes. It is all “just as their designers intended”.
It is revealing that many of these younger technologists are weaning themselves off their own products, sending their children to elite Silicon Valley schools where iPhones, iPads and even laptops are banned.
Most of the tech insiders questioning today’s attention economy are in their 30s, members of the last generation that can remember a world in which telephones were plugged into walls.
Justin Rosenstein banned himself from Snapchat, which he compares to heroin, and was particularly aware of the allure of Facebook “likes”, which he describes as “bright dings of pseudo-pleasure” that can be as hollow as they are seductive. And Rosenstein should know: he was the Facebook engineer who created the “like” button in the first place.
Eyal confided the lengths he goes to protect his own family. He has installed in his house an outlet timer connected to a router that cuts off access to the internet at a set time every day. “The idea is to remember that we are not powerless,” he said. “We are in control.”
Technologies can affect the same neurological pathways as gambling and drug use.
A Busy Month!
So much has been happening this month that I haven’t been able to update fast enough!
On November 9th I was invited by Erin Churchill from the Department of English to do a talk at Vanier College in Montreal as part of their English symposium.
It was a great experience and I enjoyed dong a Q&A with the students and members of the faculty afterwards.
On November 20th I did a two-hour workshop on Narrative Art and Sequential Storytelling with grade 11 students at Villa Maria high school. This was arranged by their teacher Nancy Long who is a fellow Alfred Hitchcock fan. We used two short stories: “A Lamb to the Slaughter” by the great Roald Dahl, and “Vendetta” by Guy De Mauppausant. We had the girls break down parts of these stories and then sketch them out in comic book fashion. I’d love to do this kind of thing for all the English high schools in the area.
Today Nov. 26 was another busy day. This morning I dropped by Expozine in downtown Montreal where Conundrum was exhibiting their books. It was great seeing Andy Brown after Toronto, and meeting Kris Bertin and Alexander Forbes, the creators of “The Case of the Missing Men”, Conundrum’s latest graphic novel. I really need to read it when I get a chance! I signed a few books and apparently the day before there was a woman who was very weirded out when she saw my book because of all the parallels with her own life. Too bad I missed her!
Afterwards I headed to the Montreal Pop-Up Book Fair where I was a guest reader, one of 20 writers in Montreal. We each had 2 minutes to read from our work, and then afterwards contributed some lines to a text which was read out loud to the amusement of all. I realize I should really be writing these posts before but never seem to have the chance or remember! Anyway it was fun and I met a few people, including Karen Nesbitt who wrote “Subject To Change” , a YA book I am curious about.
That’s all for now! I’m trying to finish a bunch of manga deadlines before we leave on a trip to Asia. Cheers.
Stratford Writers Festival
I’ve been invited to the Stratford Writers Festival to be part of a panel called “My Life: Memoirs as Told By Grief” on Saturday Oct. 21, 2017. It’s my first time in Stratford and I’m really looking forward to seeing the town and checking out the other events.
Here is an interview they did with me prior to this visit.
http://digiwriting.com/festival/qa-with-stratford-writers-festival-author-lorina-mapa/
Review in the Hamilton Review of Books
Here’s a review by the writer and artist Joe Ollmann, for the Hamilton Review of Books, which I particularly liked because I felt he really got the essence of my book, which is that it is for the most part light-hearted, silly and tongue-in-cheek, with some dramatic bits thrown in. It’s basically an Asian version of a 1980s John Hughes film complete with a new wave soundtrack.
“Duran Duran, Imelda Marcos and Me, is a really nicely-drawn, sad and funny book full of honesty and heart. Mapa’s book is cool because she doesn’t try to be cool, she just speaks from her heart and maybe sincerity is the new irony.”
Full review here:
http://hamiltonreviewofbooks.com/joes-graphic-novel-roundup/
I’m also reviewed alongside Jillian Tamaki and Emil Ferris (who created the sensation “My Favorite Thing is Monsters”). I mean, talk about excellent company!
Featured on the CBC’s 17 Writers to Watch in 2017
http://www.cbc.ca/books/17-writers-to-watch-in-2017-1.4238186
From the CBC: “The 2017 edition of CBC Books’ annual writers to watch list is here. Be sure to get to know these writers before their careers enter the stratosphere.”
Publisher Weekly’s Review
“In her debut graphic novel, Mapa returns to Manila, her childhood home, for her father’s funeral. Her past rushes back to her, not at the taste of a madeleine but with the rhythms of the ’80s pop songs she grew up with. Her memoir of life in the Philippines is both touching and joyous, with vivid recollections of food, matriarchy, family, and politics told in an Hergé-inspired style that’s deceptively simple but apt for its subject. As she assembles the jigsaw puzzle of her Filipino life, Mapa recollects both pop culture touchstones and her upbringing against the turbulent background of the 1986 Fernando Marcos/Corazon Aquino “Snap Election” and its resultant People Power Revolution. As with Sonny Liew’s more complex The Art of Charlie Chan Hock Chye, Mapa uses the directness of comics to introduce a history and culture most Americans are unfamiliar with.”
DDIMAM nominated as a Great Graphic Novel for Teens by ala.org
YALSA (Young Adult Library Services Association), a division of the American Library Association, has nominated my book in the category of Great Graphic Novels For Teens (non-fiction). This is an amazing honour!
http://www.ala.org/yalsa/ggnt/nominations
