Shaun Tan is a bestselling and Academy Award-winning author-artistofThe Arrival, among many others. His newest graphic novel isHometown, out tomorrow from Levine Querido Books. Below, he discusses 20 years of his career creating art about belonging.
Twenty years have passed between creating The Arrival and Hometown, and, as in real life, some things are different, and some are the same. Since 2006, I’ve gotten married, become a parent, moved house several times, worked on various unusual art projects, all with the usual ups and downs, joys, anxieties, and challenges.
Where The Arrival is about a character venturing forth into an unknown world to begin a new life, Hometown is about someone very much at peace already: a teenage girl with a loving family, a comfortable home, and a secure sense of meaning.
Where The Arrival presents a search for humanist sanctuary, Hometown presents a humanist sanctuary taken for granted. Well, not really, because there are no humans in this sanctuary. Except for the girl, of course, blissfully unaware of her genetic identity and unbothered by its implications, at least until another human arrives one day to turn her world upside down. You don’t belong here, he tells her. You must leave.
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I’m not sure why I found this idea so compelling, enough to commit seven years to writing and illustrating it over many revisions: a middle-aged Australian Anglo-Chinese stay-at-home dad in suburban Melbourne, making a book about a teenage girl in a strange jungle who finds out she has been adopted by aliens, sternly lectured by an idealistic missionary.
I think “dad” might be the key word here, as the story possibly reflects my subconscious concerns as a parent, wanting to raise children who can think for themselves, not just believe what I believe, not always do what I tell them without query (just most of the time, please—like putting on your shoes!) I would like them to make smart, honest, independent choices as they grow up, to become more of themselves. Even if it means going barefoot.
Hometown is also inspired by a broader cosmic query that tends to be rekindled by early parenthood, as beleaguered adults are pummeled by the endless “why” questions of little people who can clearly think for themselves perfectly well, and know that the world still scintillates with infinite possibility. Where do I come from? Why do I look like this? How big is space? What happens when I die? What if, what if, what if?
I don’t think there are any messages in either The Arrival or Hometown, at least none I’m consciously peddling. I’m only trying to tap the same universal questions from different angles, at home or elsewhere, questions that should never dim in intensity as we age. Nor should they be sufficiently answered, drawing us into a comfortable delusion or numbing political grip, the great intellectual cul-de-sacs of our present age, as of every age before and those yet to come.
The moment some angelic astronaut tells you they have a perfect handle on truth, you’d best ask further questions. Read more books (including graphic novels), talk to different people, have a good think, and then make your own assessment under a sentient tree as a neutron star sets in the distance, surrounded by three hundred reptilian pets who will have your back no matter what.
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