Unflattening: Against the Hegemony of Text

One of the most important strands in Unflattening is Sousanis' concern with the routines of education. From the first image, he imagines education - and by implication, society itself - trapped by the past, following paths that have been well-worn by previous scholars and, consequently, limiting the possibilities of research and perception.

Perhaps Sousanis' main worry is the assumption that 'the word' is more important than the image. In Judeo-Christian culture, the primacy of the word could be traced back to John's Gospel, which associates Christ (the manifestation of God in the physical universe) with the logos.

The privilege afforded to words manifests across anglophone culture: Christian fundamentalism stresses the literal truth of The Bible (an obsession reflected or originating in the status of The Koran in Islam), the primacy of the script in theatre (thank you, Shakespeare), the oaths sworn in the legal system, Plato's collected works (despite Plato's ambiguity about the written word).

Sousanis recognises this hidden assumption, and counters that words can be enriched by images - not as illustration, but as a competing and complimentary presence. He draws an analogy with the way that academic training, through an emphasis on appeals to authority (footnotes, accepted boundaries of discourse), reduces education to a rote process.

Unflattening itself is an example of how words can be challenged. The placement of words within a comic book text, and their relationship to images, attacks their simple semiotic reading. Rather than 'a word' being defined within its own system (by other words), it shifts into a conversation with the image and the overall design. 

It also contains a powerful expression of how words define experience without drawing attention to themselves. In the chapter Strings Attached, a happy puppet suddenly realises how their actions are determined by invisible guides... but far from being discouraged by this revelation, the puppet realises that awareness of the strings suggests a new way to play.

It's Mayhem

I have seen a few shows, but I have had far more in the radio studio. In fact, I intend to spend the rest of the Fringe in the studio, making episodes of Subcity of the Fringe, only leaving to buy Chinese food and alcohol.

After the first day of recording, I am not sure I could pick out a mere top five - listen to the show and see who sounds friendly - but I had fun listening to Bob Slayer's outrageous life stories, was charmed by Clout Theatre (Lecoq gags ahoy) and was astonished by Christine Bovill's versions of Piaf's signature songs. However, I want to take a moment to remember a show that I saw before it came to the Fringe, and I know is lurking outside of the studio, somewhere in Summerhall.

Puppet. Book of Splendour is not something to slip into between comedy shows: stands ups might pretend to be soulful, but against the depth of feeling in Puppet, they'd ruin your appetite. Based around the Book of Job, with added caballa, it is a journey through the life of Polish theatre legend Kantor, with added angels in afro wigs and the darkest projections onto the darkest set. Astonishing, frightening and life affirming (as long as that live can accept a God beyond understanding), it's the kind of theatrical mayhem I adore.

Summerhall, 8 -13 August 2012

While I am on the mayhem tip, let's go for the Wau Waus. They have a new show - naked as they day they were born, apparently - and are in La Clique Royale. The Waus Waus once said that they chase the moment where everything is falling apart, when the act is on the edge of collapse: they have certainly smashed most of the boundaries that keep cabaret and performance art apart. Their erotic strategies are inspired by a punk ethos and a feminist intelligence, and they usually upset somebody by the end of the Fringe.

The Famous Spiegel Tent, 8- 26 August

Since I am now sitting in Dance Base, I reckon bANGER is worth a shout. It's Very Metal, a one woman take on the pleasures of being a young male, stuck in the bedroom and playing the games that always come along when the volume goes up to eleven. Warfare, rockin' out, a glance at the way a youth's mind can follow the beat into fantastic worlds. I am outside the studio as it is being performed right now, and it made my hair grow long when the tunes kicked in.

Dance Base, Various Times, 3 - 12

While I am on the Dance Base tip, I did chat to Alan Greig out of GOD (Grumpy Old Dancers) and Gary Clarke (A Beautiful Hell). It's a typical smart Dance Base double bill that does something original with pairing up distinctive masculine works. GOD works through the hilarious mismatch of the dancers (Greig does the camp, Andy Howett is the most macho man ever to front a Gaelic TV show about dance). Gary Clarke's choreography grows beauty from brutality and, after last years's solo, has pulled together a group of young dancers to flesh out his energetic, passionate vision of a life lived at full tilt.

Dance Base, Various Times, 3 - 12


So - there are my predictions for the most chaotic (but watchable shows), short of the car crashes and the big Polish action pieces in the Quad (I'll be getting to them soon). But, of course, the real mayhem is on the Royal Mile where I am doing my one man show Get Out of My Way, I Don't Want a Flyer. The bit where I punch a nun was described by the police as the most shocking moment you'll see all year: sadly, they didn't give me five stars but a five year suspended sentence.