Tuesday 11 April 2023

Celestia

by Manuele Fior
translated by Regina López Muñoz

I loved 5,000 Kilometers Per Second so I took another book by Fior from the library. Set in a post-apocalyptic world, Celestia is visually stunning graphical novel with (too) many interesting ideas that don’t quite glue into a coherent story. For me, the best parts are those where the heroes keep quiet, especially Pierrot. I think the whole thing would benifit enormously from dropping the dialogue altogether.

A buyer of the English edition of Celestia complained at Amazon.com about nudity and sex scenes in the book that make it not appropriate for teens. Perhaps unsurprisingly, she didn’t complain about violence (unrelated to sex) which is also present there. (OK, that would be funny if it were not so disturbing: we all read about parents denouncing a teacher in Florida for showing Michelangelo’s David to the six-graders, and the consequences.) So, for the easily offended: yes there are nudity and sex scenes, rather tasteful, I’d say. The painting in Pierrot’s house is Les Deux Amies (The Two Friends, 1946) by Paul Delvaux. Of course, the island of Celestia is nothing else but Venice, propelled 1000+ years into the not-so-bright future. I’m glad that Venice survives, in some form.

Enough spoilers.

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