Every sound must be a jewel, just as every human soul is a jewel.—Arvo Pärt
As much as I love art and to read I don’t care for graphic novels. I do, however, love to learn so when I came across an article highlighting two graphic novels—one about Arvo Pärt, the other about Dorothy Day—my curiosity was piqued and I had to check them out. After school last week I walked over to Comic Quest downtown to see if they carried these books. They didn’t so after spending some time looking at their music and biography sections I went back to that article to read it in full as well as look up the two novels online.
While the article didn’t make a graphic novel enthusiast out of me I did come away with an appreciation for them, seeing them as “a kind of written cinema” where I, the reader, gets to “[interpret] the material and [control] the pace of its narrative flow,” as Michael Centore wrote in the article that first intrigued me.
In comparing the lives of Arvo Pärt and Dorothy Day, one an Orthodox musician, the other a Catholic champion of the poor through a graphic novel, Centore shows how their love of God was a central part of who they were and what they did. As Day wrote in 1952: The final word is love...We cannot love God unless we love each other, and to love we must know each other. We have all known the long loneliness and we have learned that the only solution is love and that love comes with community.
Showcasing SHA talent: Brayden would make a great graphic novel illustrator.
God bless,
Mrs. Alhadef
4th grade Aide
Campus Minister