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books2023-01-14 03:37 am
ysabetwordsmith) wrote in books2023-01-14 03:37 am
Review: The Tale of Tal
This season's holiday shopping on Kickstarter went very well.
Amazon: In addition to the thing you actually asked about, here are 20 more books that all sound the same.
Me: Meh.
Kickstarter: Here is a book about an autistic Yeti. Or perhaps you'd prefer a Neanderthal comic book?
Me: Shut up and take my money!
So, the Neanderthal comic book arrived today: The Tale of Tal: a Neanderthal graphic novel by Dr. Gianpaolo di Silvestro and Luca Vergerio. It includes introductory materials by Prof. David Caramelli from University of Florence ("The Neanderthals"), Dr. Fabio Bona from University of Milan ("The Cave Bears"), Dr. Fabio Fusco, a researcher/consultant palaeontologist ("Flora and Fauna"), and Prof. Mauro Mandrioli from Unimore ("Science and Graphic Novels"). These parts are bilingual in Italian (black text) and English (blue text). The scientific bibliography is all in black, but a mishmash of languages since it draws on publications from diverse countries.
I am particularly charmed by the descriptions of Neanderthals in the flyleaves. "Neanderthal was an alternative way of being human, with all its diversities and fragilities." Not less than human, just differently human. It reminds me of what we lost, when we lost our cousins on the hominid family tree: a concrete example of wholly different, yet equally functional, ways of being human. We know that three species cohabited in Africa. Modern humans carry DNA from at least three relatives: Neanderthals, Denisovans, and one unknown ("I didn't get his name, but wow what a night!"). We just tend to ... forget.
There are spoilers below.
The story itself is wordless, with no captions or speech bubbles. It was made by scientists; since they don't know how Neanderthals communicated, they're not making up a substitute. It's all landscapes, action, and body language -- and that tells a pretty clear story. This means that even if you don't know English or Italian, it works just fine. You can use this with very small children, or with people who don't speak the same language, or for practicing any language or combination of languages.
The artwork is exquisite. Most is done in watercolor, with a nice balance between soft and bright coloring. A few images in front have the look of pen or pencil. These images are clear enough that it's easy to identify plant and animal species, if you are familiar with Paleolithic Europe. I had fun looking for things I recognized. Among these are snowdrops, a hare, birch trees, evergreens (less detailed, but probably pines and spruces), cave bears, a large soaring bird (likely a hawk or an eagle), a speared bird (probably a ptarmigan), willow, two capercaillies in display, a greatdeer, and three mammoths. There is a very clear butterfly on one page, but I have no idea what type.
Note that everything in this volume is intended for scientific accuracy, which means the humans are partially clothed at most, and there are nude scenes. Most of these are cultural nudes; there's really only one scene with sexual context, and it has no copulatory details, just people admiring each other's bare bodies. The subsequent activity is merely implied. Genetics are solid: a red-haired woman and a brown-haired man have a blond son, who mates with a red-haired woman and has a red-haired son. Some Neanderthals had red hair, but based on small sample sizes thus far, it seems to be a different version.
Minor quibbles:
1) I'm not sure there is quite enough body hair on those humans, but at least they have some.
2) Those look like circumcised penises to me. Intact penises are smoother and pointier. I have not seen reference to Neanderthals practicing circumcision, and I doubt that type of soft-tissue detail would survive to be discovered at this late date.
3) Stocky is one thing, pudgy is another. Some human characters have visible fat rolls, rather than being lean as hunter-gatherers tend to be. However, this may be justified if they represent a successful clan, which is reasonable given the amount of food illustrated. The Venus figurines suggest that at least some early humans were fat and this was likely admired.
4) People debate whether or not Neanderthals could swim. Some feel that bone and muscle density would have made it difficult or impossible. Given the amount of fat on these very successful individuals, I'd call it plausible in this case.
Some storytelling details that caught my eye:
The layouts vary considerably in terms of size, shape, frame or frameless, and elements continuing across frames. Many elements exist in parallel between the humans and the cave bears, and on some pages these are presented in parallel frames across a landscape in the middle.
One method of showing how time passes is the illustration of a birch tree. I looked up birch ages and found references from 30 years to over 300, but many birches are pioneer species with fairly short lifespans, and it's common for birches to live 60-90 years -- which is old for a historic human, but not impossible in a very successful clan.
In one scene, a human and a cave bear face each other across a river. They are both fishing, thus competing for the same resource. But they also both recognize the other as dangerous. Fights between apex predators have a high risk of serious injury or death. They mutually decide to walk away rather than fight over the fish, which is prudent -- and an apt representation of dominance theory. Two individuals who judge each other equal may decide to fight, but they may also decide that the potential gain just isn't worth the risk because neither is confident of winning.
I greatly enjoyed this book. It's a fast read the first time, following the narrative. But I've gone back over it at least half a dozen times, and I keep spotting new details. I'm a nerd. I'm a huge fan of scientific illustration, and science in general. I've long been fascinated by the deep past. I love science-based paleofiction and I love sequential art. I'm so happy that I found this, and excited that I got to help put it in print. Crowdfunding is awesome.
I would love to see more materials like this. This kind of format is fantastic for putting raw scientific data into a format that more people can enjoy and understand. Though I would've liked more detail in the backnotes. Part of the charm is that this book combines many different sources and branches of science to create one cohesive narrative, a detailed picture of life in the past. The way people looked, the tools they used, the plants and animals, their behaviors -- these all come from diverse bits of evidence revealed by scientists who probably don't know each other. I'm used to reading across many disciplines and assembling the big picture in my head, but not a lot of people do that, most people who are really into this stuff are specialists. But when we put it all together like this, it shows us more than the individual bits do. The whole is greater than the sum of its parts. And science is beautiful.
If you're a prehistoric history buff, and you skipped the pr0n pages in Jean M. Auel's Earth's Children books to read the habitat descriptions, rather than vice versa, then you will love this graphic novel. Also if you enjoy scientific illustrations in general, you will probably love these very pretty watercolors. The style is very field journal, just with narrative. If you have a high level of body modesty, or rely on text more than images in storytelling, this may not be the book for you. It's good for nerdlings if you don't mind answering questions about the bodies on display, the messy hunting scenes, or the entire biosphere of Paleolithic Europe; I would've adored this when I was little, and it's very much the kind of thing my hippie parents would've brought home from a museum gift shop. Most highly recommended.
Amazon: In addition to the thing you actually asked about, here are 20 more books that all sound the same.
Me: Meh.
Kickstarter: Here is a book about an autistic Yeti. Or perhaps you'd prefer a Neanderthal comic book?
Me: Shut up and take my money!
So, the Neanderthal comic book arrived today: The Tale of Tal: a Neanderthal graphic novel by Dr. Gianpaolo di Silvestro and Luca Vergerio. It includes introductory materials by Prof. David Caramelli from University of Florence ("The Neanderthals"), Dr. Fabio Bona from University of Milan ("The Cave Bears"), Dr. Fabio Fusco, a researcher/consultant palaeontologist ("Flora and Fauna"), and Prof. Mauro Mandrioli from Unimore ("Science and Graphic Novels"). These parts are bilingual in Italian (black text) and English (blue text). The scientific bibliography is all in black, but a mishmash of languages since it draws on publications from diverse countries.
I am particularly charmed by the descriptions of Neanderthals in the flyleaves. "Neanderthal was an alternative way of being human, with all its diversities and fragilities." Not less than human, just differently human. It reminds me of what we lost, when we lost our cousins on the hominid family tree: a concrete example of wholly different, yet equally functional, ways of being human. We know that three species cohabited in Africa. Modern humans carry DNA from at least three relatives: Neanderthals, Denisovans, and one unknown ("I didn't get his name, but wow what a night!"). We just tend to ... forget.
There are spoilers below.
The story itself is wordless, with no captions or speech bubbles. It was made by scientists; since they don't know how Neanderthals communicated, they're not making up a substitute. It's all landscapes, action, and body language -- and that tells a pretty clear story. This means that even if you don't know English or Italian, it works just fine. You can use this with very small children, or with people who don't speak the same language, or for practicing any language or combination of languages.
The artwork is exquisite. Most is done in watercolor, with a nice balance between soft and bright coloring. A few images in front have the look of pen or pencil. These images are clear enough that it's easy to identify plant and animal species, if you are familiar with Paleolithic Europe. I had fun looking for things I recognized. Among these are snowdrops, a hare, birch trees, evergreens (less detailed, but probably pines and spruces), cave bears, a large soaring bird (likely a hawk or an eagle), a speared bird (probably a ptarmigan), willow, two capercaillies in display, a greatdeer, and three mammoths. There is a very clear butterfly on one page, but I have no idea what type.
Note that everything in this volume is intended for scientific accuracy, which means the humans are partially clothed at most, and there are nude scenes. Most of these are cultural nudes; there's really only one scene with sexual context, and it has no copulatory details, just people admiring each other's bare bodies. The subsequent activity is merely implied. Genetics are solid: a red-haired woman and a brown-haired man have a blond son, who mates with a red-haired woman and has a red-haired son. Some Neanderthals had red hair, but based on small sample sizes thus far, it seems to be a different version.
Minor quibbles:
1) I'm not sure there is quite enough body hair on those humans, but at least they have some.
2) Those look like circumcised penises to me. Intact penises are smoother and pointier. I have not seen reference to Neanderthals practicing circumcision, and I doubt that type of soft-tissue detail would survive to be discovered at this late date.
3) Stocky is one thing, pudgy is another. Some human characters have visible fat rolls, rather than being lean as hunter-gatherers tend to be. However, this may be justified if they represent a successful clan, which is reasonable given the amount of food illustrated. The Venus figurines suggest that at least some early humans were fat and this was likely admired.
4) People debate whether or not Neanderthals could swim. Some feel that bone and muscle density would have made it difficult or impossible. Given the amount of fat on these very successful individuals, I'd call it plausible in this case.
Some storytelling details that caught my eye:
The layouts vary considerably in terms of size, shape, frame or frameless, and elements continuing across frames. Many elements exist in parallel between the humans and the cave bears, and on some pages these are presented in parallel frames across a landscape in the middle.
One method of showing how time passes is the illustration of a birch tree. I looked up birch ages and found references from 30 years to over 300, but many birches are pioneer species with fairly short lifespans, and it's common for birches to live 60-90 years -- which is old for a historic human, but not impossible in a very successful clan.
In one scene, a human and a cave bear face each other across a river. They are both fishing, thus competing for the same resource. But they also both recognize the other as dangerous. Fights between apex predators have a high risk of serious injury or death. They mutually decide to walk away rather than fight over the fish, which is prudent -- and an apt representation of dominance theory. Two individuals who judge each other equal may decide to fight, but they may also decide that the potential gain just isn't worth the risk because neither is confident of winning.
I greatly enjoyed this book. It's a fast read the first time, following the narrative. But I've gone back over it at least half a dozen times, and I keep spotting new details. I'm a nerd. I'm a huge fan of scientific illustration, and science in general. I've long been fascinated by the deep past. I love science-based paleofiction and I love sequential art. I'm so happy that I found this, and excited that I got to help put it in print. Crowdfunding is awesome.
I would love to see more materials like this. This kind of format is fantastic for putting raw scientific data into a format that more people can enjoy and understand. Though I would've liked more detail in the backnotes. Part of the charm is that this book combines many different sources and branches of science to create one cohesive narrative, a detailed picture of life in the past. The way people looked, the tools they used, the plants and animals, their behaviors -- these all come from diverse bits of evidence revealed by scientists who probably don't know each other. I'm used to reading across many disciplines and assembling the big picture in my head, but not a lot of people do that, most people who are really into this stuff are specialists. But when we put it all together like this, it shows us more than the individual bits do. The whole is greater than the sum of its parts. And science is beautiful.
If you're a prehistoric history buff, and you skipped the pr0n pages in Jean M. Auel's Earth's Children books to read the habitat descriptions, rather than vice versa, then you will love this graphic novel. Also if you enjoy scientific illustrations in general, you will probably love these very pretty watercolors. The style is very field journal, just with narrative. If you have a high level of body modesty, or rely on text more than images in storytelling, this may not be the book for you. It's good for nerdlings if you don't mind answering questions about the bodies on display, the messy hunting scenes, or the entire biosphere of Paleolithic Europe; I would've adored this when I was little, and it's very much the kind of thing my hippie parents would've brought home from a museum gift shop. Most highly recommended.
no subject
You're welcome!
no subject
I recommend it highly much better than cave-po*n.
Thoughts
Honestly, I skipped the pr0n scenes for years, being more interested in the descriptions of Paleolithic Europe. Most people seem to have skipped the milieu scenes in favor of the pr0n. *ponder* Which likely explains the series popularity.
Re: Thoughts
"The Old Way" is Quite good.
Her books about dogs were nice.
" The hidden life of dogs"
"Tribe of Tiger" about cats