What It Is: the book

The list of What It Is's continues. "What It Is" - the book, is most certainly unlike any book you have ever read. And if it hadn't been for Big Frank's sister - Kathy - Big Frank would have never read it either. So thanks to Kathy for sending it to Big Frank!! Right smack in the middle of the cover, which is richly illustrated with all kinds of wacky drawings of monkeys, ghosts, strange birds, aliens, flowers, fish, and other colorful doodle-like drawings is the question: Do you wish you could write? This is what this book is all about. It is, as the cover points out: Dramatically illustrated with more than color pictures. What more? The whole point of the book is to bet you, the reader, to step into your dramatically illustrated gallery you carry around all the time, and perhaps rarely look at.

The author is Lynda Barry, who, we are told: "Has worked as a painter, cartoonist, writer, issustrator, playwright, editor, commentator and teacher and found they are very much alike." This book has most likely come out of all the creative writing classes that she has taught. It's all about images and leads the reader to that discovery through a series of questions. I include 10 below. Answer them and you are well on your way to becoming a writer youself!

1. To follow a wandering mind means having to get lost. Can you stand being lost?
2. What is a monster?
3. What is a realization?
4. Can images exist without thinking?
5. Can you have thoughts without languages?
6. What is an attachment?
7. What is an inclination?
8. Is realization intentional or unintentional?
9. What does the TV see when it watches you?
10. Who may be coming soon?

And that is What It Is!