In it was a published sketchbook of Art Spiegelman; a sketchbook that he titles "autophobia." When I saw the book, I thought that it might be about the fear of cars... but he is referring to a fear of himself. I found this introduction interesting:
"Drawing, which in childhood had been a pleasure, has turned into more and more of a painful chore for me, an unavoidable part of being a cartoonist who needs to somehow make ideas visible... I stopped drawing in bound notebooks long ago so I wouldn't be gratuitously confronted with a permanent record of my meager skills...
To shake this Fear of Drawing and the accompanying self-loathing, I started an organized sketchbook again. I did a page straight in ink almost every day, a page without purose, a page not intended to ever be seen by anyone."
In his introduction he explains that he now can doodle while talking on the phone again, and doesn't dread practicing his chosen craft anymore. While this sketchbook is a successful exercise for Spiegleman, I found it mind-boggling that someone so successful could be so self-conscious. I guess it's somewhat validating, too.
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