Birds’ eye view

Anders Nilsen explores existentialism through gag strips in his graphic opus Big Questions

Here’s a strip from the beginning of Anders Nilsen’s newest book: Two birds are eating seeds together on a hill. One says to the other:

“Is the world being drawn inexorably along a path of degradation and destruction? Is there hope for the future or are we doomed? The number and scope of the world’s afflictions is so overwhelming as to extinguish any glimmer of encouragement before one even begins to act… Or am I taking too dim a view of things? I guess prospects in some areas improve even as they decline and worsen in others, right? One could try to influence such processes, but given the subtle, complex nature of the relationship between cause and effect, it seems a slim chance that one’s efforts would ever have quite the consequences one intended…”

The other bird lifts his head from the grass he’s pecking at and says, “WOULD YOU PLEASE SHUT UP?!”

Therein lies the essence of Big Questions, a broad, existential exploration delivered in a format fit for the funny pages. Classic contemplation that doesn’t take itself too seriously. Thankfully, Nilsen is nowhere near as earnest as Louis, the bird in search of big answers.

Nilsen’s opus is the culmination of more than a decade of work. What started as a serial zine grew into a single volume that now weighs in at 592 pages—not so much a graphic novel as a series of vignettes tied together by a loose narrative into one giant postmodern fable. But for all its girth and scope, Big Questions is minimalist in tone, with simple strokes, sparse dialogue and plenty of open space.

The story centres around a charm of finches living on a plain. There is a house, a river, a couple of trees, some underground tunnels and not much else. The birds, though all drawn the same, have names, personalities and relationships to one another. They variously have a falling out with a family of squirrels, get bullied by a murder of crows, kidnapped by a snake, and tormented by the few human characters who crop up in the story.

Things happen. One day a bomb falls from an airplane and rocks life in the grasslands (much like the Coke bottle in The Gods Must Be Crazy). The birds wonder: Is it an egg? A sign from the heav­ens? Not to be trusted?

The airplane pilot, who turns out to be crazy himself, crashes into the house. The boy who lived in the house, several more sandwiches short of a picnic than the pilot, escapes alive and wanders around aimlessly. The pilot pitches a tent, eats doughnuts and curses his fate. The birds watch, worry and wonder why.

Things just happen, and that is both the point and the central query of Big Questions. Why do things happen? Do we control them? Cause and effect? Please shut up?

All of the above, it seems. The real beauty of Big Questions is that it doesn’t strive to answer. Through love, loss and tinges of dark humour, the meaning of it all remains as wide open as the land­scape on which the actions unfold. We’re left only to watch through the birds’ eye view, feeling for them as they love, lose and eat seeds. Even for that over-eager Louis when he gets chomped down by a hungry owl. So much for wisdom. ■

BIG QUESTIONS BY ANDERS NILSEN, DRAWN AND QUARTERLY, PB, 592 PP, $44.95

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