Noah Van Sciver

In a bit of "have your cake and eat it too"-ism, Noah Van Sciver recounts the tall tales of Paul Bunyan while throwing in a few pages criticizing Bunyan as a lumber industry mascot whose very existence was propaganda for the disastrous clearcutting and deforestation that changed the face of the North American continent and displaced indigenous populations. I'm sure some segments of the readership will be eager to denounce this as a woke version of Paul Bunyan.

Around Van Sciver's graphic novel are several text pieces by indigenous writers touching on the colonialism that Bunyan represents that really add more depth to what Van Sciver is getting at in his story. I wish Van Sciver had kicked his tale up a few grade levels and added more pages to more fully integrate the additional material into the narrative, because you just know a lot of readers are going to skip the pages without word balloons.

Anyhow, I appreciate this take on Bunyan and how it made me see him in a new light. And it gave me an excuse to spend some time googling information about folklore vs. "fakelore."

Also, now I really want to read a book mentioned in the endmatter: Nenaboozhoo and Paul Bunyan.

FOR REFERENCE:

Contents:
• Introduction: The Power of Storytelling / Lee Francis IV (a/k/a Dr. IndigiNerd), writer
• Paul Bunyan: The Invention of an American Legend / Noah Van Sciver, writer and illustrator
• Postscript: The Invention of an American Legend / Deondre Smiles, writer
• Tree-Dwelling Little People / Marlena Myles, writer and illustrator
• Important Plants & Trees
• About the Authors… (lisätietoja)