Book Club discussion

I'm really into graphic novels. Or at least Habibi and Pyongyang have been really good books. I really like the medium and the possibilities that it opens up. It has its limitations, the stories end up being shorter because it takes longer to tell them. But writing the story as a travelogue works very well. I like travel books and have tried to include them as a genre in the book club, but sometimes they can be a grind to get through, having the situation animated allows for a different type of story to be told.

I don't know that the book has much of a message, I think it's written more as a travelogue. The author writes a little bit about his attempts at "subversion" of the state. Trying to get to know the locals, bringing in a copy of 1984, making the locals walk home. Also he shares with the reader some of the "subversive" things which he does not say. But his acts seem to have no impact on the local populace. The system he is opposed to is wound far too tight for him to be able to infiltrate.

The end of the story is that he's trying to through paper airplanes from the hotel, hoping they get to the river. A pointless gesture, an act of littering, but, I think the metaphor is supposed to be that even the things that we want can be futile. Though, I'm not completely sure that was the intention. But, after reading the Dark Tower, I'm so much happier with this ending that is somehow understated and leaves some questions standing.