Seán Michael Wilson

2019-05-11: Meh. It's still the Tao Te Ching but it's a very leftist translation. Instead of just taking the wonder of the Tao Te Ching they shoved it through the filter of their dogma to get a version that supported their world view.

If you have a dogma you're not a liberal, you're a conservative.

PS. Having pictures doesn't make it a graphic novel. Novels have narrative, a story. The Tao Te Ching could be retold as a story but that would likely obscure the message. Regardless this did NOT have a narrative and is not a novel, it's the Tao Te Ching with pictures and leftist dogma.

PPS. I may be overly harsh above regarding dogma but that's how I remember it. I'll try to take another look.


2023-12-02: I didn't remember it and checked it out again, we'll see how that goes.

2023-12-06: I'm basically reading it as I pass through the kitchen. I'm at #4 (5?). #1 was way off. #2 or 3 compared Mao (a murdering ass clown) to the Master. Yeah, I'm not sure they read the same Tao Te Ching I did.

2023-12-29: It went back last weekend. I did a quick flip through and I don't think anyone involved has read the Tao Te Ching with any understanding.… (meer)

Note: I received this book for free from the publisher in exchange for an honest review through NetGalley.com.

"Enjoy" is not the right word, but I am glad that I read this. I had no idea about the Minamata disaster, and this briskly tells the tale, provides context of the time, and shows the personal long-term effects of those caught up in the wrong place at the wrong time. I wish that I got to know the main character a little better, because I do think this could have been expanded out into a more fleshed out A and B plot, whereas the way it is set up, the protagonist doesn't have much of an arc or that extensive of a life going on around him. He is essentially a framing device with the research about Minamata being the main plot. Despite this, I still love what I read.… (meer)

Literature's original fuckboy gets to bring his bed-hopping and human-trafficking lifestyle to the graphic novel format.

I bought the original book for a college course back in the 1980s, but I never read it through, just flipping through it for the parts I needed for class. It seemed dull. This adaptation cements that impression.

But I don't think I was aware what a creep Genji is, kidnapping and adopting young girls and grooming them to become sexual partners on top of his general infidelity. This is a boring day-to-day soap opera of way too many characters crushing on and sexually harassing or raping others. The art is okay, but sometimes it was hard to distinguish between the many too-similar characters. Too often I'd think, which mopey, horny guy in a robes and a hat is this one again?… (meer)