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uhohbrynetime's review
challenging
informative
slow-paced
3.5
I really, really, really wanted to love this book. The concept is fascinating to me — how pop culture encourages and reinforces our reliance on fossil fuels — and yet it took me two years to read. I can only imagine the countless hours that went into this and I feel bad leaving a low rating, but this is a little too challenging (both visually and content wise) to serve as a point of access for people interested in climate change. I thought this would be a good alternative to all of the academic articles I was reading about petrocultures in college, but it ended up being somehow harder to read. I do love the concept and it would be cool to see this re-adapted, maybe in shorter form. I did enjoy the section about Taxi Driver and the format of a visual film essay.
kindofdanceit's review
3.0
in my opinion, the writing is very cloudy and hard to read, making it frustrating and confusing to understand where to read. also the type of drawing is not my favorite, but the idea is a great one.
smilodon's review
4.0
I find a lot of other reviews here a bit harsh against Gasoline Dreams! The argument is rousing and clear, drawing largely on cinema and pop culture as the visual roadmap to the perverse petroculture it challenges. The graphic novel, as the author mentions, is not the easiest choice for publishing theory, and yet it offers so much potential. I found the illustrations both provoking and helpful for comprehension.
Fantastic and multi-faceted coverage on petroculture and anti-petro movements and activism, great for prompting discussion and one’s own cultural imagination. Using a more consistent font or a more “old school” lettering style would have improved clarity a lot, and I feel some of the structure within chapters needs work (though the division into its particular sections was a good structural move imo)
Fantastic and multi-faceted coverage on petroculture and anti-petro movements and activism, great for prompting discussion and one’s own cultural imagination. Using a more consistent font or a more “old school” lettering style would have improved clarity a lot, and I feel some of the structure within chapters needs work (though the division into its particular sections was a good structural move imo)
emmalita's review
3.0
The contents of Gasoline Dreams are great. The book is physically hard to read. It took me months to get through it because the woodcut style of the text and graphics gave me headaches. I became reluctant to pick it up because who likes headaches?
The cover is deceptive. It is brightly colored with the text and integrated into an interesting but easy to comprehend visual. The insides, though are all in black and white with text and images fighting for space. It was tough to figure out what I had read and what I hadn’t because there was so much competing for my eye’s attention. I reread some pages several times before I understood what he was saying. After all that effort to comprehend what was on the page, I’d come back to it and realize the only information I retained was the headache I had after reading a few pages the last time.
From what I remember, his ideas are interesting and I’d love to see it as a miniseries or listen to him on a podcast. Orpana is pulling a lot of threads together, maybe too many threads, but they all look interesting. My best guess is that Orpana’s theory is that our consumption of fossil fuels (petroculture) has become a part of our (Western/North American) culture and as such it has become a part of every part of our lives – political, religious, financial, and artistic. It has become so deeply ingrained with identity that people will become violent and irrational in defense of petroculture. I don’t think he’s wrong, and I wish the information had been presented in a way that was more digestible. I don’t mean dumbed down – I mean my eyeballs screamed at the page and my brain ran away.
I received this as an advance reader copy from Fordham University Press via NetGalley. My opinions are my own.
The cover is deceptive. It is brightly colored with the text and integrated into an interesting but easy to comprehend visual. The insides, though are all in black and white with text and images fighting for space. It was tough to figure out what I had read and what I hadn’t because there was so much competing for my eye’s attention. I reread some pages several times before I understood what he was saying. After all that effort to comprehend what was on the page, I’d come back to it and realize the only information I retained was the headache I had after reading a few pages the last time.
From what I remember, his ideas are interesting and I’d love to see it as a miniseries or listen to him on a podcast. Orpana is pulling a lot of threads together, maybe too many threads, but they all look interesting. My best guess is that Orpana’s theory is that our consumption of fossil fuels (petroculture) has become a part of our (Western/North American) culture and as such it has become a part of every part of our lives – political, religious, financial, and artistic. It has become so deeply ingrained with identity that people will become violent and irrational in defense of petroculture. I don’t think he’s wrong, and I wish the information had been presented in a way that was more digestible. I don’t mean dumbed down – I mean my eyeballs screamed at the page and my brain ran away.
I received this as an advance reader copy from Fordham University Press via NetGalley. My opinions are my own.
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