"Few paintings have felt like proto-memes for modern daily living quite like Norwegian artist Edvard Munch’s 1893 painting . You know, this one:

‘Here are doomsday angst and the torments of death, a scripture ablaze in the nocturnal vault of the heavens…the inscrutable terror of all life.’
—Poet Vilhelm Krag on , the painting that would later be updated into The Scream.

Bringing the story of fellow Norwegian Edvard Munch and his artistic cohorts to life comes Steffen Kverneland
’s Munch, a strikingly gorgeous and metafictional graphic novel biography of the renowned artist. The artwork, which Kverneland says took seven years to complete, is utterly jaw-dropping, moving between styles and mediums to capture the frenzied state of the artist’s mind, recreate the atmosphere of his beloved paintings, and craft a visual storytelling so brimming with energy and emotion that goes far beyond what words on a page could produce. This would be worth the read for the art alone as it is such a magnificent achievement:

Various panels of artwork to show a range of style

The wealth of research here is astonishing too, with Kverneland drawing heavily from Munch’s own writings for the multitude of quotes and giving a rather accessible and engaging in-depth narrative of the artist’s life. The graphic novel takes on a rather metafictional quality moving back and forth between Munch’s life and Kverneland’s where he discusses Munch along with his friend Lars, or visits various locales from which Munch took inspiration. This is a rather welcomed approach that adds a cool element drawing the reader further into the narrative and artistic endeavours.

Kverneland at one of two locations Munch sketched to create the composite background from The Scream.

I certainly learned a lot here, such as how the red sky from his famous painting was likely caused by a volcanic eruption in Indonesia that created a red sky visible for much of the northern hemisphere. There is certainly a lot to learn here from Munch’s own writings about his inspirations and creative process as well, which I greatly enjoyed.

But I also learned a lot about the Norwegian art scene of the time, such as how much outrage and uproar there was over Munch’s paintings as well as the goings-on of those he was close to, such as , Swedish playwright, poet, and painter , or Norwegian artists and activist who was jailed for a novel deemed “pornography” by authorities due to its anti-government and anti-christian sentiments.

The catch is, most of the people in this book were assholes. I enjoy that the artwork does Strindberg dirty because, honestly, fuck that guy. He was paranoid, aggressive, and fond of being known for his open hatred of women (he had Munch remove the frame of the portrait he did of Strindberg because it had a woman draped on it and Strindberg took it as a mockery of his professed disdain for women. That guy suuuuuuuuuucks). But Munch also doesn’t come across as the sort of person you’d want to hang with either. Well, maybe join for a round since that dude loved to drink deeply, but his womanizing and general demeanor and aggression aren’t all that appealing. His paintings certainly are and I loved reading about him, but he certainly isn’t someone to look up to outside of his art. There is some effort to humanize him, however, which I greatly appreciated too.

All in all, Munch was a fantastic read. I came across it on my desk this morning and basically ignored all my work duties to read this in one sitting because I simply could not put it down. It moves quickly and quirkily, jumping between scenes abruptly and can be a bit difficult to follow occasionally, but it is so engaging and interesting it won’t matter. Plus the art is simply outstanding. This is a wonderful read on art history and on an artist who’s painting I’ve long loved (The Sun is my favorite). If you enjoy art, you’ll enjoy this. Oh, and don't forget to listen to .

⅘

"

"That ending!!!👏🏽👏🏽👏🏽
S A Cosby has done it again! All I have to say is just read this book! If you’re looking for a really gripping suspense - this is it!

Roman Carruthers, the eldest son, returns to their southern hometown of Jefferson Run, Virginia after his father’s car accident. He finds his brother living in a constant substance dependent state and mixed up in serious problems with a gang, and his sister exhausted from keeping the family crematory business running while looking after his father’s care.

There are soo many twists and turns in this book that literally has you in the edge of your seat with what’s going to happen next.

In Roman’s efforts to clean up the huge mess his brother made while keeping his family safe and his sister out of the crime drama, family secrets start unfolding. And even worse, Roman gets stuck in the literal crossfires of the BBB gang.

S A Cosby did an amazing job of carrying you through difference scenes that somehow all interconnected. And when the truth is finally told of what really happened with their family, how Roman ends his brother’s problems and the relationship with his sister, you’re literally left with your jaw dropped. Because I surely did not see that ending coming! "

"Turns out everything is also capitalism and that is why a preventable and curable disease still kills more a million people worldwide each year and remains the deadliest infectious disease. John Green, beloved author, podcaster, global health initiative advocate and just genuinely empathetic Nice Guy of the literary world returns for his second non-fiction work with Everything is Tuberculosis, an endlessly engaging read that blends heartbreak with hope as he examines the notorious disease. Diving into the history of tuberculosis, Green explores how it is truly “everywhere,” having had long-lasting cultural effects on society, the arts (it was often called the “poets disease”, and even that were popularized in tuberculosis sanatoriums. It even shows up in stamp collections, such as this 1978 Finnish postage stamp, depicting the 1933 Paimio tuberculosis sanatorium:

The problem with tuberculosis being everywhere is that it definitely shouldn’t be and if pharmaceutical companies valued people over profits the world’s deadliest disease could be a thing of the past. Because, to be honest, until I read this book, I thought it was a thing of the past though, as Green states ‘nothing is so privileged as thinking history belongs to the past,’ so I need to check my privilege there and after all the discourse of 2020 I should have known disease prevention was at the bottom of the list for many people. Especially when that disease is far away though, as Green points out, allowing the problem to continue to fester will only create larger problems and will inevitably affect us as well such as the higher possibility of treatment resistant cases making its way to the US. Which is why Everything is Tuberculosis is such a great book as it is raising awareness while also being wildly accessible to deliver the wealth of research through personal memoir, testimonies, journalism, and delivered with a heavy dose of empathy.

‘And so we have entered a strange era of human history: A preventable, curable infectious disease remains our deadliest. That's the world we are currently choosing.’

I’ve known about John Green for years but have never really been on the “inside” of the fandom. Having read this, I get it. He comes across so well and does seem genuinely interested in helping and excited to educate. I like the guy based on this and I really appreciated the way he centers humanity and empathy. It is also a very quick read, surprisingly so considering the subject matter but this was almost impossible to put down. Green covers such an excellent array of topics and their intersections to show the systemic damage of issues such as profiteering and the troubled history of medical racism and misogyny. The big problem we see is that the disease isn’t something we can’t fix, its just something we choose not to as well as the issue that ‘the cure is where the disease is not, and the disease is where the cure is not.’ Green does a good job of showing us why we should care about a disease that might not currently threaten the reader and his stories about his friend, 17 year old Henry who Green met in a hospital in Sierra Leone, add a heartbreaking human element. Green doesn't eschew stats and medical jargon (though he does make it quite straightforward in layperson’s terminology) but he definitely transcends facts on paper into an impassioned account of the disease and plea for better global health initiatives to stymie the suffering and death.

‘What's different now from 1804 or 1904 is that tuberculosis is curable, and has been since the mid-1950s. We know how to live in a world without tuberculosis. But we choose not to live in that world.’

This book will certainly infuriate you and remind you that treating a disease isn’t really that profitable leading to a lack of resources in doing so. We may all remember ‘is curing patients a sustainable business model?’ and then juxtaposing it with , the virologist who developed a vaccine for polio and refused to patent the vaccine and felt it was unethical to profit from it. Add to this the issue that the current US government officials are slashing foreign aid, disease prevention, the CDC, and basically anything beneficial to tax payers and this will only increase the issue of tuberculosis worldwide. There is currently an issue worldwide with tuberculosis patients , and the U.S. Agency for International Development as a direct result of the unemployable hotel chain mascot turned US president cutting medical funding. NOT AWESOME. But this also makes raising awareness all the more important.

‘People are not just their economic productivity. We do not exist primarily to be plugged into cost-benefit analyses. We are here to love and be loved, to understand and be understood.’

I really appreciated the heart and humanity here and Green standing up for victims of disease and attempting to curb the stereotypes about them. He discusses on how people who are‘ ill are treated as fundamentally other because the social order is frightened by what their frailty reveals about everyone else's,’ and that this sort of Othering only leads to perpetuating the spread of disease (such as the stigma around AIDs in the 80s and Reagan’s refusal to take action).

‘Framing illness as even involving morality seems to me a mistake, because of course cancer does not give a shit whether you are a good person. Biology has no moral compass. It does not punish the evil and reward the good. It doesn’t even know about evil and good. Stigma is a way of saying, “You deserved to have this happen,” but implied within the stigma is also, “And I don’t deserve it, so I don’t need to worry about it happening to me.’

The lack of funding and lack of efforts to cure disease is largely a lack of humanity. This is also frustrating in an era where distrust in medicine is a political weapon as well, though pharmaceutical companies and the utter horror that is the US health insurance system that openly price gouges and allows people to die of curable diseases aren’t doing themselves any favors either. ‘Survival is not primarily an act of individual will, of course. It's an act of collective will,’ he tells us, and we must all rally together to help humanity instead of stocks flourish and be healthy.

‘We are powerful enough to light the world at night, to artificially refrigerate food, to leave Earth's atmosphere and orbit it from outer space. But we cannot save those we love from suffering. This is the story of human history as I understand it- the story of the organism that can do so much, but cannot do what it most wants.’

I greatly enjoyed John Green’s Everything is Tuberculosis and certainly learned a LOT here. Its very engaging and accessible without sacrificing depth, which is really wonderful and I’m glad to see him advocating for something so important. A quick read, but one I’m going to think about forever.

4.5/5

‘We cannot address TB only with vaccines and medications. We cannot address it only with comprehensive STP programs. We must also address the root cause of tuberculosis, which is injustice. In a world where everyone can eat, and access healthcare, and be treated humanely, tuberculosis has no chance. Ultimately, we are the cause.
We must also be the cure.’"