Oh boy. Hoo boy.
I’ve been avoiding talking about this graphic novel. It’s kind of my guilty pleasure. It’s a story with so much character diversity, aesthetic beauty, and emotional value… but many consider it problematic. Me? I’m not the one that should say. I’m neither from the Middle East nor some kind of comics connoisseur. But I can compare and synthesize what other critics — better qualified critics — have said, and use that to build a personal, informed opinion that absolutely should not be taken seriously.
Okay then. Now that that’s out of the way, let’s talk about the author.
Craig Thompson was once a rural Wisconsin small-town boy raised in a highly conservative Christian family. Since childhood, almost every piece of media he consumed was carefully filtered, from movies to music. The only medium that wasn’t censored were comics. After all, comics are for little kids, right? He attributes his early affinity for comics to this. In high school, he was a young vegetarian feminist enchanted by Jesus Christ but disenchanted by the Church who wanted to live a hippie lifestyle. His comics — mainly his magnum opus, Blankets — were his way to communicate to his parents that he didn’t consider himself a Christian anymore. This made his relationship with his parents grow tense. [4]
Thompson began his career as a comic artist with his official debut, Good Bye, Chunky Rice, published by Top Shelf, which stars an anthropomorphic turtle and mouse and follows a semi-autobiographical plot. This debut got him a Harvey award and an Ignatz nomination. He followed it with small projects like Bible Doodles and Doot Doot Garden, but his next great autobiographical work, Blankets, was the one that got him the most praise and catapulted him to fame in 2003. After this, Thompson battled physical and mental health problems and even published a sort of travel journal, Carnet De Voyage, before his next great success: Habibi. [3][4] His last work is the middle grade comic, Space Dumplins. [6]
Before continuing with the inspiration behind Habibi, let’s keep talking about Thompson’s general works. One could say he’s an author centered in his personal experiences. This is my hypothesis. However, there’s exceptions; Space Dumplins and, the star of this review, Habibi. While Space Dumplins is a sci-fi work, for which he can take more liberties, Habibi is set in an orientalist fantasy for which he required intensive investigation.
But was it enough?
Let’s start with the parts that really stuck. And by that I mean the parts that really stuck with me.
[HEAVY SPOILERS AHEAD]
Chapter 4: Mirage
This is the chapter that tells since Dodola’s arrival to the sultan’s harem until she solves the challenge of turning a jug of water into gold (through wit and trickery). I think this is the chapter that most reflects Thompson’s investigation about Islamic tradition. At least to me, a person who doesn’t know about Islam and the Quran, it was a great first impression.
In these pages, Dodola dives into the world of chemistry and alchemy, in which the Arabs were pioneers, to solve the sultan’s challenge. In addition to this, during the 70 months that the sultan gave her to solve the challenge, she carried and gave birth to a child. But she gave herself to drugs and was careless with her child, who soon died; it’s not clear whether from her own carelessness or an assassination. Also in this chapter (it’s worth mentioning that it’s not narrated in linear fashion), Dodola finally tricks the sultan into trading her a jug made of gold for her jug of water.
These are the most notable events. The ending was what stuck with me, since it proves Dodola’s wit, but I can’t help but think all that alchemy and chemistry she learned were for nothing. Just to impress the reader. But well, that’s just my impression.
Chapter 5: The Hand of Fatimah
In this chapter we learn about Zam’s side of the story. Since his misadventures in the desert and the city, through his stay with the hijras (a South Asian and Middle Eastern term for what we know as intersex or trans people; a gender unknown to western societies)[5], and until his reunion with Dodola.
Maybe you’ll have guessed by now that what fascinated me in this chapter was the representation of LGBT+ identities as three-dimensional characters. While the rest of the novel is fairytale-esque, this struck me as a particularly realistic part (not that others aren’t; this is just the one that stuck with me the most) which shows the difficulties of the people outside traditional gender and sex roles, and the injustice with which they are perceived.
But well, I can’t dance around it anymore. What’s wrong with Habibi?
[ONLY MILD SPOILERS AHEAD]
It’s a fantasy in which the merits of the characters is being western in a non-western world. The conventional notions of love, sex, gender, maternity, etc., and this is just inside the story. Outside, in a more meta way, I can say I personally dislike the nearly morbid use of sexual violence as a plot device; the nearly bizarre caricaturization of dark-skinned characters; and Dodola’s perpetual status as a damsel in distress. However, all of this can be countered. One could say Thompson is open with topics seldom talked about such as sexual assault; one could say it’s not caricaturization, but effective and distinctive character design; one could say Dodola is a representation of the Middle Eastern woman. I sincerely don’t know. As I said, I shouldn’t be the one to judge. See: [1] and [2].
Despite all this, I liked Habibi. I understand why it’s problematic, but honestly, it’s a visual gem.
Craig Thompson, in general, is a clearly dedicated artist. I admire his dedication, with Habibi as much as Blankets, and his courage in writing such evident parts of himself in his craft. Not everyone can, and from those who can, not all of them manage.
In the case of Habibi, I think Thompson deserves a golden star for at least trying.
To wrap things up, let me direct you to this piece by one of my favorite composers, Pyots Ilyich Tchaikovsky; one of the pieces from the Nutcracker suite. I guess you could consider it, like Habibi, an orientalist piece. And like the novel, its aesthetic value has no match.
Finally, I’d like to invite you to read these key pieces of my opinion-building process. In the meantime, I’ll go back to reading some more comics. Thanks for making it here!
Sources:
[1] Damluji, N. (October 4th 2011) Can the Subaltern Draw?: The Spectre of Orientalism in Craig Thompson’s Habibi. The Hooded Utilitarian. Retrieved from http://www.hoodedutilitarian.com/2011/10/can-the-subaltern-draw-the-spectre-of-orientalism-in-craig-thompsons-habibi/
[2] Hatfield, C. (October 27th 2011) A Habibi Roundtable. The Comics Journal. Retrieved from http://www.tcj.com/a-habibi-roundtable/
[3] Heater, B. (May 7th-28th 2007) Interview: Craig Thompson (parts 1 and 2). The Daily Cross Hatch. Retrieved from: http://thedailycrosshatch.com/2007/05/07/431/ (part 1) and http://thedailycrosshatch.com/2007/05/28/interview-craig-thompson-pt-2-of-2/
[4] Mechanic, M. (2011) Graphic Novelist Craig Thompson on Parental Censorship, Leaving Christianity, and His Epic, “Habibi”. Mother Jones (Sept/Oct 2011 issue). Retrieved from https://www.motherjones.com/media/2011/09/craig-thompson-blankets-habibi-interview/
[5] Pandeia. (2018) Hijras And Bangladesh: The Creation Of A Third Gender. Pandeia. Retrieved from http://pandeia.eu/region/inter/hijras-and-bangladesh-the-creation-of-a-third-gender/
[6] The Blog of Craig Thompson. (2018) Books. Retrieved from http://www.craigthompsonbooks.com/
R. M. Sayan: JustSomeCynic 