More tv catching up

Another Sunday morning, another art story on the CBS morning show.  Today was about a new version of Huckleberry Finn.  Didn't get the author's name.  The idea here was to tell the same kind of story, but this time set in our own time, in California instead of along the Mississippi River, and the former slave Jim has been replaced with a new traveling partner for Huck an illegal Mexican immigrant.  The idea begin that an illegal immigrant today would have the same concerns of an escaped slave back then- on the run, always trying to escape authorities who might lock him up or send him back where he came from.  Instead of the Mississippi, the location centers on the Los Angeles River, which these days travels through the county mostly in concrete, used as a location shot in countless movies and television shows over the years.  At times Mark Twain's original book has been called a great American novel, written pretty much in vernacular.  It's also one of the most protested books in our country's history, mostly for race related reasons, even as there is a dispute over whether or not the book is racist.  On one hand, Huck treats Jim as a fellow human being, not common in that era. On the other hand, at times Huck seems to enjoy having a superiority over the uneducated former slave, putting him in dangerous situations for his own amusement.  And that's not getting into the language and vocabulary, which was perfectly acceptable at the time the book was published, and absolutely not acceptable now. But that's not why I'm writing about it here.

The television story covered the illustration process of the new book.  I couldn't tell at first how they were done- could have been woodcut, or linoleum, or maybe scratchboard, or even pen and ink.  The television story tells us they are linocut, and even has a short bit about the artist, who is shown at work in his studio, first cutting the design into a small linoleum block, then pulling a proof on a motorized press.  (black ink, but appearing hand colored in the published book, probably done digitally these days) Of course I am biased in favor of woodcut over linocut, but I have taught the latter when requested, such as two one day workshops last summer.  Yet this seems the kind of thing that can put printmaking in the minds of people.  The association with the original novel will get it plenty of publicity (like the tv show I saw this morning), and readers will see the illustrations and realize they are a print process.  And seeing prints sometimes makes people want to try the process themselves. And I'm always in favor of that.