[30] Lo que Innita No es/That which No Innita is [review, fiction]

What do nudism, vegans, rock, hyper-feminism, fine art and comics have in

common? The improbable answer is a pink girl with star-shaped freckles

called Innita, and her author/other half, No.

"No" is the legal name (legal surname "Para Innita") of a mysterious and

prolific artist dropping one amazing piece after another in a

variety of mediums/websites. A one woman army posting sometimes

several pieces a day, often digitally in places like flickr as well as oils in places like Bogotá.

The downside of No's outstanding creative output is that it leaves less time for curation, which means serialized books such as "De No para Innita vol. 1" lag a good two years behind the storyline and characters in the current drawn series. In any case, this is a good "origins" book and those bewitched by the visual work can start getting the coordinates of Innita's narrative in these two volumes available online at scribd.

By Innita's "origins" I mean something closer to those of the protestant revolution or the Dogma film movement than those of a Stan Lee character. She is rooted in a manifesto of principles more than

in a turtle-bit-me-so-now-I-have-x-ray-vision story.

The fundamental principle is roughly summarized as follows:

Feminine is best, reality is overrated. Reality shall be subverted and

replaced by art, not altered states, masculinity fully replaced, no

quarter. These ideas are expanded on page 192:

"Menorrealismo is an extreme artistic current; both classical and post-post-modern. This term comes from the amalgamation of the menorrhea (menstruation) and the word realism. Its significance determines that the essence of life is not reality (Spanish wordplay: “menorrhealism” as minor realism, lower realism),

but love[...]"

Based on this principle, the book covers three main narratives: Ginotropia

("gravitating towards the feminine"), interviews full of puns with Innita as a rocker, and the beginnings of "World War IV," a story line where the

vegan aspects of the hyper-feminine characters come clashing with the

world as we know it.

Incidentally, world war IV is fought between zombies and vegan female vampires. The origins of the conflict are World War III and the assassination of a female president. You'll just have to read it to make sense of it. If it seems twisted is because it is.

So much for description. Critically, I think its apt to describe what

sets this book apart, in terms of what it is not. Call it "That which No Innita is."

First of all, Innita is not your typical "hard rock chick,"

particularly not those presented in movies or comics. Those girls all suffer from one fatal flaw: inside all the hard exterior they are just a soft

goo of girly cliché. I personally believe that version of "hard women"

has been more detrimental to feminism than any broom or burka. No,

Innita is the genuine article, she is not waiting for the right guy to

knock her up and retire, she bleeds profusely and makes no apologies.

The next thing it isn't is "the first Colombian X." Whatever X

might be, those are not the right terms. The work is

highly innovative and there is no precedent I know of in Colombia, but

this is not some provincial figure with a bag of coffee under the arm

sold under the self-deprecation of exoticism. No/Innita is

an original playing by her own right on the big leagues, and asks for

no special treatment.

The girls on this book are not hot naked chicks derivative

of Milo Manara or superhero chicks a-la J. Scott Campbell "Danger Girl."

The accessible style borrows from comics as it does from other popular

illustrative art, such as the nouveau pieces of Mucha and

Lautrec. It contains traces and references to Klimt and Shiele, but

it all amounts not to a pastiche but to a distinctive visceral style

that is only No's.

By continuation of the previous argument, this book isn't really a

comic, (and I don't mean as opposed to a graphic novel) It is

fine art masquerading as illustration masquerading as comic book. In

this sense (but also in style and theme) the closest parallel I can

draw to No's work is that of the incredible Ashley Wood. In many ways

reading "De No para Innita vol. 1" is a pleasure similar to reading

Popbot.

Come to think of it, a mashup between Lady Sham, super agent Biatch

vs. Innita, would definitely be a fine art exhibit, er, comic book

worth seeing.

Fabio Arciniegas A., San Diego, California July 09, 2011

"De No Para Innita vol 1. and 2" is available on scribd,

http://es.scribd.com/doc/57472653/de-no-para-innita-vol-1-parte-1

Current works by No in the world of Innita available on flickr

http://www.flickr.com/photos/noparainnita/

Original Oils and Pencils available.

[28] Dragon Boats and other holiday racing

When asked to explain the National Dragon Boat festival holiday, my
Taiwanese friends seem to experience that brand of self-consciousness
reserved for explaining a strange idea that doesn't make much sense but
you accepted a long time ago.

Legend has it that a poet loyal to the king in third century China was falsely
accused of treason; rather than living shamed in exile he decides to
drown. The townspeople, who loved the poet, threw rice cakes to the
river so the fish wouldn't eat him and raced boats to find him. Ever
since, they celebrate each year the dragon boat race.

In my opinion, it is a perfectly valid and beautiful explanation. If
you disagree and it seems a little strange to celebrate a holiday by
racing adorned boats, I submit for your consideration three other
holiday races I've seen, the true strangeness of which should put things
in perspective:

Top 3 - The Seven Churches Race, South America

Maundy thursday, also known as holy thursday, is a christian holy
day which happens every year the thursday before Easter. It
commemorates the last supper between Jesus and the apostles and
precedes the Easter Triduum, the three days of Good Friday, Holy
saturday, and Easter Sunday, which commemorate the passion, death, and
resurrection of Jesus.

So far so good. Here's the strange part: Seven local churches are visited by
devout catholics in south america in celebration of this day. The
churches are to be visited before midnight and a certain number of
prayers have to be performed in each. Because it is time-bound, there
is a sense of urgency to the proceedings and more than a pilgrimage
the route acquires the taste of a race against time.

In some locations such as downtown Lima, ts is relatively easy to
accomplish. More than eleven churches in one square kilometer
provide ample time to complete the requirement. In other cities, it
can get complicated; I remember as a kid attempting this race only
once and from my recollection, skipping a few due to lack of time (or
perhaps, lets admit it, devotion.)

Why should there be seven and not eight or six is explained apparently
by the important stops Jesus made that night. It is unclear whether
the participants can tell what those stops were but one thing is
certain: grandmothers and children alike buzz from one crowded church
to the next in order to fulfill the tradition.

Top 2 - The Easter Egg Hunt Race, US (and increasingly in its cultural colonies)

The usual explanation about ancient pagan rites of fertility (of which
the hare and egss were symbol) getting mixed with early european
christian celebrations may shed some light into the origin of easter
eggs, but does nothing to lessen the cacophony of the
celebration: On one hand you have the resurrection of Christ. On the
other, children racing to collect the largest number of colored eggs.

More weird is seeing this tradition imported to catholic countries,
where there was no history of egg hunting until recently, as part of
adopting more "American" celebrations. Some Middle and upper class people
in south-american countries as well as Philippines are putting their
kids through the egg hunt as a "fun" activity during easter.

As an atheist I can only say the theological implications of this
import are left to each parent's conscience.



Top 1 - The Halloween Drag Race, Washington D.C.

It is my favorite, but Halloween is also the least rational of
all holidays. If you ask americans to explain it, 95% of the time
you'll get the "dress-like-a-slut-day" reasoning; this is not an
attempt by most of the population at being witty. We just don't know.

To make things better, this race has no mythical grounding on the
holiday in question; it has no grounding at all other than satisfying
a verbal pun. Drag Queens run down Dupont Circle while a crowd of
confused bystanders cheer and take pictures. Drag - Race. Get it?




So, Taiwanese friends, no reason to fret. Compared with grandmas
running through churches to commemorate Christ's pain, and screaming
banshee-like drag queens in the US capital, a dragon boat race doesn't
seem a strange celebration. Not at all.

Fabio Arciniegas A.
Taipei, Taiwan - June 2011