Derik Badman's Journal

I have a review of some comics by Peony Gent up at The Comics Journal today. I'm a fan. You can see more of her work here.

Reread (for the who know how many times) Queneau's Sunday of Life over the past few days. There are authors I really love and then there are the subgroup of authors I can pretty much always just pick up, read, and enjoy. Queneau being at the top of that list. This time around (it's probably been a few years since my last read of it) I noticed how much the protagonist, Valentin Bru, seems to be replicating a kind of zazen at points in the story. He sits in his shop (picture frames) when it is quiet and watches the clock, trying to see the minute hand move. He can only ever get through a few minutes before he starts thinking too much, seeing images, essentially daydreaming, but he keeps trying to sit there and just see time pass. That seems essentially the concept of zazen and "thinking the non-thinking." I need to check some of my Queneau books to see if he had any interest in Zen or Buddhism (not finding anything relevant online so far).