What It Is

by Lynda Barry
What It Is
book data
475 ratings, 4.31 average rating, 172 reviews (more data...)
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published
May 13th 2008 by Drawn and Quarterly

binding
208 pages

isbn
1897299354    (isbn13: 9781897299357)

description
How do objects summon memories? What do real images feel like? For decades, these types of questions have permeated the pages of Lynda Barry’s compo...more




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jess
06/11/08
jess rated it: 5 of 5 stars

Read in June, 2008
recommended to jess by: lynda barry
recommends it for: everyone
THE ORDINARY IS EXTRAORDINARY. i love this book like i have never loved a book. i want to make out with it, caress it, sleep with it near my pillow and wake up clutching it after a bad dream.


this book is related to the Lynda Barry writing class WRITING THE UNTHINKABLE! which i took in april. this class and book are for people who think they want to write, but don't know where to start. it's also for people who never thought about writing, people who already write, and people w...more
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Kevin Fanning
08/28/08
Kevin Fanning rated it: 5 of 5 stars

bookshelves: totally-worth-owning
Read in November, 2008
I got this from the library but will be buying myself a copy post-haste.

This is what a book about writing should be. It was really interesting to read this so soon after Stephen King's "On Writing", because it really underlined how far short of the target his book fell.

A book about writing should do the following things:
* inspire you
* provide insight/discussion on the tools a writer needs
* offer framework for developing the skills of creativit...more
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  3 comments

Jennifer
07/15/08
Jennifer rated it: 5 of 5 stars

bookshelves: adult-books
Read in July, 2008
What It Is by Lynda Barry is a fascinating memoir/scrapbook/writing guide that almost defies definition. The first half of the book contains melancholic comic panels about Barry's alienated childhood and how drawing and writing saved her from loneliness interspersed with large one and two page spreads of collages that contain great writing prompts, like "Do thoughts move?" "What is a secret? What is it made of? Where is it kept?" "What is a monster? Do we need them?"...more
Like this review?   yes   (2 people liked it)
  8 comments

Montambo
10/23/07
Montambo rated it: 3 of 5 stars

Read in May, 2008
recommended to Montambo by: Me, Myself & I
recommends it for: Artists and Writer, People who had crappy moms.
"You know when kids play act their terrible, horrible, no good anger or icky sexual frustration by knocking two dolls together?*"

Well, "One Hundred Demons," one of my top 5 ever, is like what would happen if you knocked "The Greatest of Marlys" together with "What It Is." They would procreate and produce one of my favorite books of all time. "Marlys" is super groovy, "What It Is" is super arty. I gotta say, though it kills m...more
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  4 comments

edh
12/16/08
edh rated it: 5 of 5 stars

Read in December, 2008
Lynda Barry takes readers on a visual exploration of insecurities and uncertainties about the world in What It Is. Barry's obsession with storytelling and authenticity shines as she reflects on incidents in her life that led her to express herself through words and drawings. She reflects on whether childhood is a place or a time in one's life, and whether the past isn't an integral part of your present experience that you can draw on to help the creative process. The book contains many ideas,...more
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Jessica
07/29/08
Jessica rated it: 5 of 5 stars

Read in July, 2008
We saw Lynda Barry speak about this book at ComicCon. She sang and danced and told jokes and reminded us all what it was like to play when we were really little. Then she signed the book for us and told Shawn and me that we "looked good!" She rocks.

Apart from that, this is a gorgeously illustrated book based on classes that she teaches. It explores the nature of art as play, how when we're kids we draw and write and sing and dance for the fun of it, and then suddenly in pu...more
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Meredith
09/29/08
Meredith rated it: 3 of 5 stars

bookshelves: gn, ya
Read in September, 2008
I would put this into the hands of anyone who wants to explore the creative process. This book is about memory and inspiration and drawing and writing and self-doubt and criticism (for good or bad), and it has questions that prompt a writer or an artist to think big thoughts and writing exercises to help focus things onto the page. She talks a lot about the relationship of objects to memory and to images...and a lot about her creative process and plus, the book just looks cool, period.
I ...more
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Alex
01/09/09
Alex rated it: 5 of 5 stars

I get more and more out of this book the more I read it. It's a compendium of activities, musings, rabbit holes, and nothings. My ideal book for leafing through when I'm stuck in my work. Furthermore, she is completely hilarious.
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  3 comments

Phoebe North
01/17/09
Phoebe North rated it: 3 of 5 stars

bookshelves: comics
Read in January, 2009
Lynda Barry's latest is more of an artist journal/workbook than a comic book. There are only about thirty pages, maybe, of comics, which are very close to the style and autobiographical content of One Hundred Demons. The loose story of the comics, the surrounding pages, and the instruction manual for journaling that takes up the book's final third, surrounds the maturation of both Barry's creative process and her burgeoning childhood self-consciousness. In the workbook "section", she t...more
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Sarah
12/16/08
Sarah rated it: 5 of 5 stars

bookshelves: on-writing
If you opened a can of beans and a genie came out and said, Wow, thanks for letting me out of that can! Now, let me release you from your can, in return! What would you say?

If the genie explained that he could free you from a dull, canned life, but that it wouldn’t make you rich or famous or even really cute – it would just provide you with a feeling of aliveness – would that be enough?

I think Lynda Barry is that genie. And this little scenario is how she begins t...more
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Kate
12/18/08
Kate rated it: 5 of 5 stars

Read in December, 2008
I can remember loving to draw and write and imagine as a child. I can also remember a later time when I stopped doing those things; when there were the good drawers and writers and the rest of us just stopped trying. I can't remember what changed in between those times. What was the event that made me stop drawing and writing and making stories? Lynda Barry examines that question in her own life in What It Is.

The first half of this beautiful graphic novel is a short autobiograp...more
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Jane
02/03/09
Jane rated it: 5 of 5 stars

bookshelves: visual-narratives
Read in March, 2009
Barry does it again! I love the free way she uses collage along with her more customary brush and ink work. Meet the Magic Cephalopod who guides us to our imagery,Sea-Ma, the nonjudgmental writing instructor, and the Near-Sighted Monkey who likes to clip magazines while watching TV and drinking beer.

6/16/09 I now own a copy of this book with my very own personal inscription from the author! She even drew a near-sighted monkey for me!

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Maré Odomo
11/14/08
Maré Odomo rated it: 4 of 5 stars

Has a copy to sell/swap — Read in November, 2008
recommended to Maré by: Kevin Fanning
recommends it for: Me
The number of stars is subject to change, depending on whether or not this book's exercises release me from the whatever forces bind me from writing/comicking.

Actually, I don't know if that's fair. I am busy and these exercises are probably really helpful and a necessary part of the experience.

Lynda Barry seems like a pretty smart lady. I've never read any of her books before. I'm pretty unfamiliar with her work. I've picked up bits and pieces about her from my visits to ...more
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Jay
08/25/08
Jay rated it: 2 of 5 stars

Read in August, 2008
What It Is began with a philosophical bang. Are dreams autobiography or fiction? Do imaginary enemies exist? And while I appreciate these existential debates for the duration of a conversation, my mind was not in it for the long haul. I can't fault the book for being ambitious. I'm just a simple guy.
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Terry
02/24/09
Terry rated it: 3 of 5 stars

bookshelves: non-fiction
I love, love, love Lynda Barry with a kind of helpless, adoring love.

If I am remembering correctly, this book sort of picks up on writing/art/creativity "advice" (can't think of another word at the moment) she explores briefly in 'One! Hundred! Demons!' and expands it into a full-length book. This is sort of The Artist's Way, but for, you know, VISUAL people. It's a meditation on creativity and art and autobiography and imagination, along with some exercises. Honestly, if ...more
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Vicki
06/07/09
Vicki rated it: 5 of 5 stars

bookshelves: graphic-novels
Read in May, 2009
Neko Case described this book as generous, and as with so many things she says, writes and sings, I identify with that. I follow Barry's comics, and this book looks very much like those little funny, quirky strips. This book is about writing, but it's also about where inspiration starts, when you get down to it. Barry explains what she thinks an image or an idea is by just putting both of those things out there. She intersperses thoughts on creating art with the realities of her life, and, y...more
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Joe
11/12/08
Joe rated it: 4 of 5 stars

Read in December, 2008
This is a big, beautiful book full of page after page of gorgeous collages Lynda Barry created, I'm supposing, while trying to actually write a autobiographical comic of her life. But that's all it is. If you're expecting the new adventures of Marlys and Maybonne, Freddy and friends you will be disappointed as I initially was.

Barry peppers her collages with brief comics chronicling her unhappy childhood and creative awakening, so my guess, after finishing the book, is her collages ...more
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Susan
06/14/09
Susan rated it: 3 of 5 stars

Shelved as a YA Graphic Novel, this is a hard to catagorize book as it seemed more an adult memoir of how the author became an artist/writer than a YA, completely non-fiction (so Novel doesn't work even though it seems anything with a comic book feel illustration now is called Graphic Novel). So call it an Art Inspiration Memoir. While it has suggestions on following your art bliss (writing prompts of a sort, ditto art), it is primarily a heavily illustrated memoir, very sincere, and one that ...more
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Indra
12/28/08
Indra rated it: 5 of 5 stars

Read in January, 2009
I wish I could afford to buy this for so many people I know...what a shot in the arm for anyone who wants to remember how creative they really are. There really is no other book like this one...I have a feeling I will wear my copy of "What It Is" out by going back to it often. The reader gets to see an amazing mind at work and learns to have more respect and hope for their own. For me, it definitely plucked some strings I'd forgotten I had, which Lynda Barry's work always does. "T...more
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Rae
01/29/09
Rae rated it: 5 of 5 stars

Read in January, 2009
Lynda Barry is another genius of image. Reading this book is kind of like simultaneously undergoing art therapy and running a highly refined experiment about the meaning of image itself. She manages to illuminate a lot of key points, but I suspect that most people who find themselves drawn to this book will find that most of what gets illuminated in the reading is mostly personal stuff - the exercises and the personal narrative will get you going at some point, somewhere. I found it a very invol...more
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quotes from this book

"There are certain children who are told they are too sensitive, and there are certain adults who believe sensitivity is a problem that can be fixed in the way that crooked teeth can be fixed and made straight. And when these two come together you get a fairytale, a kind of story with hopelessness in it. I believe there is something in these old stories that does what singing does to words. They have transformational capabilities, in the way melody can transform mood. They can't transform your actual situation, but they can transform your experience of it. We don't create a fantasy world to escape reality, we create it to be able to stay. I believe we have always done this, used images to stand and understand what otherwise would be intolerable." More quotes...


groups with this book

Oly Reads






Cruddy: An Illustrated Novel (Paperback) by Lynda Barry
One Hundred Demons (Paperback) by Lynda Barry
The Greatest of Marlys (Paperback) by Lynda Barry
The Good Times Are Killing Me (Paperback) by Lynda Barry
The Freddie Stories (Paperback) by Lynda Barry

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