Graphic Novel Review: Habibi by Craig Thompson
Quote: -afloat on the ocean of sand. The desert is a graveyard for man and beast and man-made refuse. Habibi found this stranded boat and we made it our home.
Lot of 'nothings' happen at the same time in this mockepic 600 plus pages hardbound graphic novel! It's dipped in orientalism that's exoticized to the point of melodrama.
A wide-eyed fair-skinned girl child, Dodala is sold to marriage for water, from one master to another she is raped and abused and consumed like a commodity. She runs away with a toddler boy slave, Zam, of African origin and eventually they are separated by Sultan's scavengers.
The art is ambitious but the story a failure. In an imaginary middle-eastern country, Wanatolia, where all the stereotypical notions about Arab world gets illustrated. The pot-bellied lusty sultan with golden harem and private zoo, the hairy legged broad shoulder gold chain wearing paedophiles, men fucking eunch prostitutes, the oppressed meek Islamic women and the African-American slaves reduced to subhuman treatment.
The constant philosophical musing between stories of the Bible and Quran felt phoney, despite the gloriously detailed Arabic calligraphy and inking. And it's time western writers be done with their Scheherazade hangover, while Dodala speaks of Eden and Solomon to comfort Zam and later the Sultan, she sells herself to passing caravans for food to protect Zam breaking the idyllic mirage of security.
Though gorgeously drawn, I am disappointed with Craig's constant lack of empathy in it. His positioning of a naked Dodola in every other page was not free of male gaze while she got raped in the pages or when she is sick. While Zam who witnessed Dodola getting raped can't stop fantasizing about it and punishes himself drastically.
A mourning Dodala in Burqa is drawn wrong it's accentuating her body which is exactly the opposite purpose of a Niqab.
Themes of environmental degradation, population explosion, human rights abuses make cameo the story, the author couldn't tell a tragic tale well.
I agree with my friend Naomi who summed it up as: "It's like they took everything Edward Said found out and distilled into the worst stereotypes."
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