{"id":17208,"date":"2024-12-10T19:10:39","date_gmt":"2024-12-11T00:10:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/?p=17208"},"modified":"2024-12-10T19:10:41","modified_gmt":"2024-12-11T00:10:41","slug":"episode-616-ken-krimstein","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/episode-616-ken-krimstein","title":{"rendered":"Episode 616 – Ken Krimstein"},"content":{"rendered":"

Virtual Memories Show 616:
\nKen Krimstein<\/a><\/p>\n

https:\/\/traffic.libsyn.com\/secure\/virtualmemories\/Episode_616_-_Ken_Krimstein.mp3<\/a><\/audio><\/div>

Podcast: Play in new window<\/a> | Download<\/a><\/p>

Subscribe: Spotify<\/a> | TuneIn<\/a> | RSS<\/a> | More<\/a><\/p>\n

“Prague was to Einstein as the apple was to Newton. The city is bizarre. It’s got a heritage of art and science crashing into each other, going all the way back to Mad Emperor Rudolf II.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\"\"<\/a>LIVE from Labyrinth Books<\/a>, artist and vulgarizer of history (in the French sense) Ken Krimstein<\/a> returns to the show to celebrate his new book, EINSTEIN IN KAFKALAND<\/a> (Bloomsbury)! We talk about the mystery of the 15 months Einstein & Kafka overlapped in Prague, how the two of them invented the modern world, what Ken has learned about graphic storytelling after 3 books, how the theory of relativity bedeviled him since childhood, and how he managed to make a graphic novel about Jews in Prague and not<\/em> include a golem. We get into all the research and rabbit-holes of this project, including his monthlong research-stay in Prague, as well as the chapter he had to cut on Kafka’s love of Yiddish theater, the challenges of portraying Einstein’s professional and personal struggles, and his discovery that readers would follow his phantasmagoric flights and surreal episodes. We also discuss Ken’s fixations on Mitteleuropa and scenes & salons, Sam Gross<\/a>‘ observation about his art, Kenny Werner<\/a>‘s concept of effortless mastery, why he wants to bring some joy to his next project, and more. Give it a listen!<\/a> And go read EINSTEIN IN KAFKALAND<\/a>!<\/p>\n

(And go listen to our 2018<\/a> and 2022<\/a> conversations!)<\/em><\/p>\n

“What comics allow us to do is buy a mouse throwing a brick at a cop over and over and over again, in a landscape that looks like the surface of Mars, and changes every second. And we buy Kafka, too.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n