Heroes Not Zombies

I always look forward to reading John Berger, ever since his classic four part documentary and book, entitled Ways of Seeing (see them all here)

I love his description of story where he looks up at the stars and sees story as the creation of the invisible lines which turn stars into constellations and how those constellations and their stories then influence the way we live (even at a simple level of navigation), and his other, related telling of how story joins up the steps we take to create a path, or a journey. Those ideas and descriptions have become such a part of how I see the world that, probably, I now realise, he didn’t exactly say either of those things, but the essence of his ideas has embedded itself in my psyche and the details now are more more personally mine.

His latest book is Bento’s Sketchbook (ISBN 978-1-84467-684-2) and I’ve had it on Amazon pre-order since I first became aware of it. It’s one of those books where you take it out of its cardboard packaging and immediately, I mean immediately, begin to read it. I took it everywhere with me, reading it on trains, in cafes, at work and in my house. I loved it. Completely loved it.

The book is based around the story that Spinoza, the philosopher carried around and drew in a sketchbook, but the actual book has never been found. John Berger decided, on receiving a blank sketchbook one day, to create the book Spinoza might have created. He does this by influencing the way he sees the world by bringing Spinoza’s writings to the front of his mind….in other words, he sort of puts himself into Spinoza’s shoes and sees the world from a Spinoza-Berger stance. (Oh, I’m not sure that really captures it!)

The book is about seeing. It’s about being aware, and really experiencing the present moment, and using drawing as a tool to enable that. This book completely inspires me to try to draw. I’ve had that thought many times, but can’t get the old school teacher’s judgement that I had “no artistic ability” out of my head. Time to banish that after all these years, I reckon. After all, what do you think? Don’t you think my photos show at least some artistic ability??

I normally include a few quotes from books I’ve loved but I’m not going to do that here. I don’t want to reduce it to quotes. This book is an experience and one which can’t be felt without seeing John Berger’s own sketches which heavily illustrate the words.

I can’t recommend this book highly enough. It is an inspiration and a call to wake up……go on, become a hero, not a zombie! (my words, not his!)