Picture books are not always only for kids
Review of ‘There’s a little black spot on the sun today’
One poem.
Minimalistic illustrations.
And along with Malo, we the readers also understand how pain can be communicated through the pages of a book.
Pain is ‘easily said and quickly written’ but can be ‘shaking, shocking, breath-taking’ and if all this is there on pages with simple geometric designs filled with primary colours in an arrangement that tells the entire story, there is no reason why any adult cannot be as mesmerized as a child obviously will be.
This book is the result of Sven Völker, a graphic artist creating a picture book for his son Malo who was three then and experiencing pain as only three years olds can. This book is the result of a ‘deeply moving collaboration that explores pain’s sadness, beauty, and wonder’. This book interprets Sting’s haunting lyrics from ‘King of Pain’ as illustrations and creates pages of evocative coloured patterns that connect as expressive partners.
Sting, as we all know, has received 16 Grammy Awards, a Golden Globe, an Emmy, three Oscar nominations, and has sold nearly 100 million albums from his combined work with The Police and as a solo artist and Sven Völker is a graphic designer, artist, author, and professor who lives with his family in Berlin, Germany.
The book has a poem that Sven has written as the prologue and towards the end it goes:
So I ask Malo,
What does your pain feel like? Can you tell me?
He says. Okay, I’ll try.
My pain is like…
…and this is when the pages with lines from the song by Sting come on, and the illustrations with the words create images in the mind that envelop all other perceptions of pain that may be there. The book has an overall appearance of one that is meant for a child but the words and the way pain is interpreted makes it a fascinating subliminal explanation for adults.
The story of pain isn’t just the pain of a child or the pain of a father who sees his child in pain… there is also the story of pain that made Sting pen the lyrics of ‘king of pain’ sometime in the eighties after his relationship that had experienced a split and, therefore, the book could not have existed without grief, pain, and loneliness converging to create images that transcend mere words or mere art.
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Book details:
Title: There’s a little black spot on the sun today
Author: Words by Sting and Illustrations by Sven Völker
Hardcover: 40 pages
Publisher: North-South Books (13 October 2015)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0735842388
ISBN-13: 978-0735842380
Price in India: Rs 1524/- (in 2015)
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Those interested in the lyrics of the song:
Sting – King Of Pain
There’s a little black spot on the sun today
It’s the same old thing as yesterday
There’s a black hat caught in a high tree top
There’s a flag-pole rag and the wind won’t stop
I have stood here before inside the pouring rain
With the world turning circles running ’round my brain
I guess I’m always hoping that you’ll end this reign
But it’s my destiny to be the king of pain
There’s a little black spot on the sun today
(That’s my soul up there)
It’s the same old thing as yesterday
(That’s my soul up there)
There’s a black hat caught in a high tree top
(That’s my soul up there)
There’s a flag-pole rag and the wind won’t stop
(That’s my soul up there)
I have stood here before inside the pouring rain
With the world turning circles running ’round my brain
I guess I’m always hoping that you’ll end this reign
But it’s my destiny to be the king of pain
There’s a fossil that’s trapped in a high cliff wall
(That’s my soul up there)
There’s a dead salmon frozen in a waterfall
(That’s my soul up there)
There’s a blue whale beached by a springtide’s ebb
(That’s my soul up there)
There’s a butterfly trapped in a spider’s web
(That’s my soul up there)
I have stood here before inside the pouring rain
With the world turning circles running ’round my brain
I guess I’m always hoping that you’ll end this reign
But it’s my destiny to be the king of pain
There’s a king on a throne with his eyes torn out
There’s a blind man looking for a shadow of doubt
There’s a rich man sleeping on a golden bed
There’s a skeleton choking on a crust of bread
King of pain
There’s a red fox torn by a huntsman’s pack
(That’s my soul up there)
There’s a black-winged gull with a broken back
(That’s my soul up there)
There’s a little black spot on the sun today
It’s the same old thing as yesterday
I have stood here before inside the pouring rain
With the world turning circles running ’round my brain
I guess I’m always hoping that you’ll end this reign
But it’s my destiny to be the king of pain
King of pain
King of pain
King of pain
I’ll always be king of pain…
Songwriters: SUMNER, GORDON
King Of Pain lyrics © Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC
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There is a little black spot on the sun today. Words by Sting and Illustrations by Sven Völker
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Buy this book…
On Amazon: There’s a Little Black Spot on the Sun Today
On Flipkart: There’s a Little Black Spot on the Sun Today
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Arvind Passey
09 December 2015
