Eric Drooker. The Grim Sower. 1999
the market appears—becomes aligned with calculative rationality in its war against spirit. In Drooker, Barber perceives a contest between the old and the new played out on terrain divided according to the split in bourgeois consciousness. Because Drooker sides with our deepest mass humanity, it follows that Barber describes his work in terms appropriate to romanticism. For Barber, Flood! is a work of “apocalyptic mysticism, manic and complete” (1993). Writing in the Graphic Novel Review, Hubert Vigilla describes how some of this apocalyptic mysticism gets played out in “L,” Flood’s second chapter: “ ‘L’ is brimming with archetypes and primal imagery including wide-hipped fertility figures and ancient hieroglyphs,” he recounts. “Several life-affirming images splash and rejoice across the pages of this chapter; a fire-lit cave erupts with rhythmic dancing, a crane soars into a glimmering night sky, and bodies entwine in a garden teeming with life.” However, though these images offer a vision of emancipation in dream form, they remain insufficient to the task of transforming the objective world. Consequently, “ ‘L’ closes in downtrodden fashion as the ancient, fundamental joy of life gives way to cracked, mundane concrete and cold rain” (2004). Writing for the San Mateo Times, Rick Eymer suggests that, while Drooker’s novel may seem depressing, “it ends with the transfer from oblivion to hope and love. Yes there are sharp images of decay and tragedy, but there is also a dream that things
46 | A. K. Thompson