The Instinct for Cooperation
A Graphic Novel Conversation with Noam Chomsky
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5.0 • 2 Ratings
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- $11.99
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- $11.99
Publisher Description
In the tradition of Joe Sacco's graphic journalism comes the first interview-based graphic novel treatment of Noam Chomsky's political ideas and activism.
An astonishing graphic novel that brings Chomsky's political analysis to bear on real people's stories on the frontlines of America's struggle for economic justice and human dignity. The Instinct for Cooperation innovatively balances those real-life stories of struggle with conversations the author has had with Chomsky on how best to understand them. Although the themes are wide-ranging, this book is ultimately about the importance and need for spaces of resistance in countering state and other institutional forms of violence. For example, when discussing the removal of books by police and sanitation workers from Zuccotti Park in November of 2011, Chomsky paused to say "Arizona knows all about that," referring to the 2010 ban of Mexican American Studies in Tucson schools under Arizona House Bill 2281, which deemed classes that taught "ethnic solidarity" to be illegal. Rather than footnote the reference, Wilson tells that story. Like Joe Sacco's animated political journalism, this book offers a unique perspective on current issues, while providing a major contribution to the understanding of Chomsky's political theories.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
This illustrated interview of Noam Chomsky, along with librarians and educators whose work aligns with his theories, delves into political movements and the right to organize, but the talking heads layout rarely takes advantage of the comics form. The volume ends up feeling mostly like an activist coloring book. Its central theme is popular movements and their demise after government interventions: the removal of books from the People's Library at Occupy Wall Street, Tucson's 2010 ban on Mexican-American studies curricula in public schools, and so on. Each were shut down by those in power because they were perceived as what Chomsky calls "an excess of democracy." Chomsky describes how institutions preempt democratic organization by shrinking the size of public spaces and how TV and smartphones "atomize" society. When Wilson confesses that he is crippled with student debt, Chomsky explains how that debt serves to depoliticize campuses and undermine education to create a "slave system." Though the flow of the book lurches due to halting dialogue, dense text, and copious use of dramatic angles, the interviewees' words humanize the movements discussed. There is knowledge and inspiration to be found in these pages, but unfortunately the stiff presentation of the transcripts renders them laborious and lecturelike. (Apr.)
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