Author and Illustrator: Shaun Tan
Ages: 10 - 100+
What are we doing like hamsters in wheels, grinding through each day with a pre-programmed set of tasks...
What are we doing, running madly week after week, like horses in reins, never bothering to notice what is happening around us...
Too busy to care, too pre-occupied to bother, no time to be sensitive to beings around, yet always trying to belong somewhere or with someone, a system, a clan whether or not it makes us happy. Whether or not we feel belonged!
The Lost thing is one of the most disturbing, unsettling books I have ever come across in the recent times. I mean unsettling in a very positive way here, for Shaun Tan has created such a wonderful piece of "surreal reality" in his book. Every single drawing tells a story. Each time you read the book, it conveys a new meaning, a new angle. I understand the author's apprehension in his book being designated for kids' shelves. It is a more intricate, more mature story with more profound hidden questions for adults. It is one of the books that look so artistic and rich that you would want to proudly display in your bookshelf. At least that is how I look at it.
No surprise then, that the animated version of the book won an Oscar for the best animated short film category in 2011. Or that the book itself won many literary awards in many countries.
The book is about a beach combing boy whose hobby is collecting and classifying bottle tops. During one such expedition he comes across a weird metallic thing looking like a red kettle with a green octopus inside standing alone on the beach. Nobody seems to have noticed is, neither is anybody bothered to check it out. Plain apathy, or perhaps they do not dare to venture out of the mundane daily life.
The boy, maybe due to his sensitivity to surroundings or perhaps because he has time in his hands, notices the thing and pities it and takes it home. Mum and Dad barely notice it either, as they are too busy reading newspaper or watching TV. It is as if they do not even allow an interruption to their routine, no matter how dull and mechanical their routine is. Between their pre-occupation, they ask the boy to take it back and immediately forget about it. The boy then takes it to his friend, who basically has something to say about everything. But this lost thing defies his knowledge and he admits that it is as if it came from nowhere and belongs nowhere!
Then the boy sees an advert asking people to bring in any strange things that they find anywhere and so takes the lost thing there. There he is given, unsurprisingly, a HUGE bundle of paperwork to be completed for the same. (Makes you wonder if this is also one of the reasons why we seldom bother to turn in any lost things we find to concerned authorities.). As he stands there wondering what to do, someone approaches him and tells him that if he turned the thing in, it would just disappear under a barrage of more such things, classified and forgotten, never to be seen again. And if he really cared, he should take it to another place. The boy finally leaves the thing in that new place, which seems to have even more weird looking creatures, none of which seemed to belong there, but looked happy enough.
The story concludes with the boy saying that he still thinks about the lost thing, especially when he notices something that doesn't quite fit, something with a weird, sad sort of look. But he sees less and less of such things as days pass, maybe because there aren't any more lost things. Or perhaps he just stopped noticing them. Maybe he is simply too busy doing other stuff.
The end haunts us and questions us long after the story is over.
The background is a world of fantasy, bleak and filled with only metallic things in a rusty environment. There is simply no plant life. Maybe that is what would happen when we stop caring. When all we think of is our self and our chronic daily existence.
The "thing" could be anything. Anyone. Do we care enough to do what the boy did when we see a sad, helpless soul around? Do we even bother to stop and enquire? Or are we like all those insensitive, busy people, simply with no time to care? Do we try to see things differently? Is it nice to be creative and with imagination, or is it better to be a run of the mill creature?
I must really thank my elder son for introducing Shaun Tan to me. He had read a Shaun Tan book called " The Arrival" in school. It is another stunning story with absolutely no words, about an immigrant in a new land, away from family. I am yet to get my hands on that book, but from what I have read, it is yet another masterpiece...
The Lost Thing. Helps you find your self.
Ages: 10 - 100+
What are we doing like hamsters in wheels, grinding through each day with a pre-programmed set of tasks...
What are we doing, running madly week after week, like horses in reins, never bothering to notice what is happening around us...
Too busy to care, too pre-occupied to bother, no time to be sensitive to beings around, yet always trying to belong somewhere or with someone, a system, a clan whether or not it makes us happy. Whether or not we feel belonged!
The Lost thing is one of the most disturbing, unsettling books I have ever come across in the recent times. I mean unsettling in a very positive way here, for Shaun Tan has created such a wonderful piece of "surreal reality" in his book. Every single drawing tells a story. Each time you read the book, it conveys a new meaning, a new angle. I understand the author's apprehension in his book being designated for kids' shelves. It is a more intricate, more mature story with more profound hidden questions for adults. It is one of the books that look so artistic and rich that you would want to proudly display in your bookshelf. At least that is how I look at it.
No surprise then, that the animated version of the book won an Oscar for the best animated short film category in 2011. Or that the book itself won many literary awards in many countries.
The book is about a beach combing boy whose hobby is collecting and classifying bottle tops. During one such expedition he comes across a weird metallic thing looking like a red kettle with a green octopus inside standing alone on the beach. Nobody seems to have noticed is, neither is anybody bothered to check it out. Plain apathy, or perhaps they do not dare to venture out of the mundane daily life.
The boy, maybe due to his sensitivity to surroundings or perhaps because he has time in his hands, notices the thing and pities it and takes it home. Mum and Dad barely notice it either, as they are too busy reading newspaper or watching TV. It is as if they do not even allow an interruption to their routine, no matter how dull and mechanical their routine is. Between their pre-occupation, they ask the boy to take it back and immediately forget about it. The boy then takes it to his friend, who basically has something to say about everything. But this lost thing defies his knowledge and he admits that it is as if it came from nowhere and belongs nowhere!
Then the boy sees an advert asking people to bring in any strange things that they find anywhere and so takes the lost thing there. There he is given, unsurprisingly, a HUGE bundle of paperwork to be completed for the same. (Makes you wonder if this is also one of the reasons why we seldom bother to turn in any lost things we find to concerned authorities.). As he stands there wondering what to do, someone approaches him and tells him that if he turned the thing in, it would just disappear under a barrage of more such things, classified and forgotten, never to be seen again. And if he really cared, he should take it to another place. The boy finally leaves the thing in that new place, which seems to have even more weird looking creatures, none of which seemed to belong there, but looked happy enough.
The story concludes with the boy saying that he still thinks about the lost thing, especially when he notices something that doesn't quite fit, something with a weird, sad sort of look. But he sees less and less of such things as days pass, maybe because there aren't any more lost things. Or perhaps he just stopped noticing them. Maybe he is simply too busy doing other stuff.
The end haunts us and questions us long after the story is over.
The background is a world of fantasy, bleak and filled with only metallic things in a rusty environment. There is simply no plant life. Maybe that is what would happen when we stop caring. When all we think of is our self and our chronic daily existence.
The "thing" could be anything. Anyone. Do we care enough to do what the boy did when we see a sad, helpless soul around? Do we even bother to stop and enquire? Or are we like all those insensitive, busy people, simply with no time to care? Do we try to see things differently? Is it nice to be creative and with imagination, or is it better to be a run of the mill creature?
I must really thank my elder son for introducing Shaun Tan to me. He had read a Shaun Tan book called " The Arrival" in school. It is another stunning story with absolutely no words, about an immigrant in a new land, away from family. I am yet to get my hands on that book, but from what I have read, it is yet another masterpiece...
The Lost Thing. Helps you find your self.
From Bhavani: As I said earlier I cant seem to comment to your blog from work ..Can do it from home though .. but sometimes I read and want to comment and then forget about it or post it in the wrong section :)))
ReplyDeleteAnyway, wanted to thank you for introducing us to Shuan Tan. I got the Lost thing yesterday and then I picked up S from school, came home and then went to the kitchen to cook.
Everything was very quiet .. and that had me worried .. because normally I hear a lot of chattering screaming singing .. releasing of
energy from Siddharth after coming back from school. I snuck up on him and saw him sitting and reading the Lost Thing book silently !!! He
LOVED it and he got it too. I got the book that had 2 more stories, Rabbits and the Red Tree. Very philosophical .. all of them. Red tree is in fact q.depressing in the beginning.
Anyway, just wanted to let you know ... keep 'em coming!
Also BTW if already havent introduce them to Shel Silverstein's poems. Short and sweet and funny!
Oh I wish I could mind read your comments afresh!!
DeleteShaun Tan books are sometimes sad, always heavy, but are really thought provoking and very touching and I am so amazed S got them. Actually very thrilled, bless him! I think The Rabbits was the book that got him the awards for dealing with imperialism or colonialization. Great stimulants for classroom discussions for 9+.
Shel Silverstein- name looked somewhat familiar, until I remembered one of M1's poems from school- Messy Room :o). Thanks so much for reminding, they're indeed incredibly funny and apt, need to read them with boys!
I haven't read his other works, but as I said, "The Arrival" is something I am really waiting to read. M1 has never stopped talking about what a wonderful book it is, supposedly without a single word written, but telling a powerful story!
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