Q&A with Peter Sís about his book The Wall
Q: THE WALL is your most personal work to date. Why was now the right time to write this book for you?
A: I wanted to explain to my kids that democracy and freedom are special things . . . And then I thought about all the kids who have grown up taking freedom and democracy for granted. Also, I’ve been bothered by what’s happened since 9/11 and what we’ve been willing to give up in the name of security.
Q: You went through several major revisions of the concept. What were the challenges you faced during this process? As you revised, what themes and concepts remained consistent?
A: I started out by drawing little anecdotal vignettes about life in a totalitarian society. The more involved I got in the subject, the more I realized how absurd, unjust, and oppressive the Communist system was. I felt I had to make that clear. I cut out all the extras and switched things around, several times. Brainwashing is one of the themes that didn’t change. I feel really angry about the brainwashing of people, but especially of children by any regime/system/government. But, of course, as a brainwashed child I did not know I was brainwashed.
Q: At first glance, the art at the beginning of THE WALL appears starker than in your previous books, such as Starry Messenger and The Tree of Life, before it softens and becomes more colorful and dreamlike. How conscious was this choice for you and what does it say about the book’s themes?
A: I always saw this book as black and red, conveying the absoluteness and harshness of the time, with color coming in as a symbol of freedom, dreams, hope. Whether this was conscious or dictated by the events and arc of the story, I really can’t say.
Q: In THE WALL, you reference childhood activities that were all compulsory, such as joining the Young Pioneers (the Communist youth movement), political indoctrination, collecting scrap metal. How old where you during these times? It seems a severe childhood. What sustained you: creativity? friends? family?
A: I was trying to make a point about totalitarian regimes. I wanted to make it look severe—because it was. But all children play. So did we—and we dreamed . . . and drew . . . and had fun. And I had parents who encouraged creativity—all of that surely sustained me.
Q: You also mention that as a boy at home you could draw whatever you pleased, but in school you were given strict orders on what to draw. How did you parents react to your art and creativity? Where they nervous for you or pleased that you were creative in restrictive cultural environment?
A: Once again, I was trying to make a point about freedom. I still wonder how parents handled the pressure of the time. When can you tell a child what’s really happening? When can you talk honestly to children? It’s a bit like telling a young child that the world is wonderful and colorful—and then at a certain age say, I am sorry, the world is cruel, violent, and you have to be careful. The problem is knowing when the right time is to say it. If you speak too early, you might end up in prison. How my parents did it is still a mystery to me, yet at some point we "knew."
Q: Your father was a filmmaker. How did he respond to your boyhood interest in visual arts?
A: My father was very supportive in every which way. When I told him I wanted to be an artist, he said it can be really lonely to be an artist. It took me years to find out he was right. But I’m sure it was especially lonely in a totalitarian society where you had to keep your thoughts to yourself. I’ve written about my father and my relationship to him in Tibet Through the Red Box.
Q: In THE WALL, as the Cold War escalates, you provide a snapshot of yourself. “He drew tanks. He drew wars.” How did your art allow you to process what was going on in the world as a boy and a young man?
A: I am amazed how many of the drawings my mother saved from my early childhood have to do with warfare. Guns, planes, bombs, explosions . . . it must have been all around me—the possibility of war.
Q: Another line in THE WALL reads: “He didn’t question what he was being told. Then he found out there were things he wasn’t told.” How did you discover this for yourself and how did you respond?
A: Everybody I know in my generation had a different experience. But I think this “coming to” or “waking up” is just part of growing up. Teenagers begin to question things that they simply accepted when they were younger, especially authority. We began to rebel. I got interested in underground literature, books we weren’t supposed to read; I listened to radio stations that were supposed to be jammed. I saw that there was a dissident movement. In other words, I was growing up.
Q: The discovery and connection to rock ’n’ roll music plays a large part in your youth. How did it challenge your assumptions of the West? What did it spark in you?
A: The most tempting thing about rock ’n’ roll was that it was our “secret.” It was not allowed. The grownups and authorities hated it. It had this adolescent energy. And it made this mysterious rock ’n’ roll West a very colorful and desirable place. Where I wanted to go . . .
Q: As a young man in Prague, you were able to briefly host a radio show before the government shut it down. While hosting the show, you met and interviewed your idols, including the Beatles and the Beach Boys. What was it like to meet your idols? How did these encounters affect you?
A: It is pretty awesome to meet your idol. You feel shaky but you have to pretend you are cool. I remember being present at the photo session of Jimi Hendrix and his group Experience, and the shock of discovering the props they were using—hair extensions, their costumes and scarves—when we all thought they were for real. It’s like another kind of brainwashing.
Q: In 1984 you were permitted to come to Hollywood by Czechoslovakia, to create an animated film based on the country’s participation in the rowing event at the Olympics. The Soviets boycotted the Olympics, and you were ordered to return. But instead you stayed in America. What was going on for you professionally then and why did you decide to stay in the United States?
A: I was sent to make an animated film in America and return to Prague after it was finished. While I was working on the original film, I was asked to animate a song by Bob Dylan called “Gotta Serve Somebody” for a brand-new TV channel called MTV. Now, this was a chance of a lifetime—to be rich and famous! So I did not return on time as the communist police/government required . . . Thinking I could explain it all when I was rich and famous. Unfortunately, the management of MTV did not like my film . . . or was it Bob Dylan himself? Luckily, I do not know. All I know is that I was stranded—penniless and scared to go home.
Q: You created the famous poster for the movie Amadeus at the request of director Milos Forman. Are you a film buff, and does film influence your art?
A: Milos Forman changed my life with the poster for Amadeus. In a way he gave me a “ticket” to New York and to books . . . I used to be a film buff when there were fewer films. I am sure films do influence my pictures and my pictures influence some films—and perhaps I will make one again . . .
Q: You’ve met some of America’s cultural icons, including Jackie O. How did you come to meet and work with her?
A: I was introduced to Jackie O. through eggs. I had painted some goose eggs for a Swiss collector when I was stranded in Hollywood. Michael Patrick Hearn wrote a story about an egg and introduced me to Mrs. Onassis. When the book hatched I made a book with her—The Three Golden Keys, my book about Prague. Mrs. Onassis bought one of my painted eggs for herself and then brought it to the attention of the American Egg Board, who asked me to paint an egg for Hilary Clinton when she was First Lady and present it to her in the White House at Easter, which I did. And that was as close as I ever got to being rich and famous.
Contributor: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
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Reviews
The Wall: Growing up Behind the Iron Curtain
Peter Sís.
This illustrated autobiography by a Czech artist who grew up on the communist side of the Iron Curtain is an eye opening exploration of life during the Cold War era in Eastern Europe. As a child Sis discovers that most activities fall into one of three categories: compulsory, discouraged, or prohibited. He soon learns that there are things he cannot write about, discuss, or draw. Everyone whispers about how things are in the Western world, but because radios and television signals are jammed and phones are bugged, these are only rumors. Life consists of food lines, Russian propaganda, and informants. Then in the 1960s, young people begin hearing of rock music and a group called The Beatles. Youth try to grow their hair longer and secretly listen to rock music in basements. Decadent art starts appearing on fences and walls. People who have traveled and experienced a taste of Western culture will never be satisfied with the stifling authoritarian lifestyle of communism. When the Berlin Wall finally falls, Sis moves to America and becomes a successful animator and artist. This book is packed with the author's primitive art that simply and effectively illustrates the history of Czechoslovakia's struggle with totalitarianism and evokes the dreams of its repressed people. Art and rebellious music helped plant the seeds of revolution. This slight book is a simple, entertaining way to learn about the post World War II era and what life on the "other side" was like. VOYA CODES: 4Q 2P M J (Better than most, marred only by occasional lapses; For the YA with a special interest in the subject; Middle School, defined as grades 6 to 8; Junior High, defined as grades 7 to 9). 2007, Francis Foster Books/Farrar Straus Giroux, 56p.; Illus. Chronology., $18. Ages 11 to 15. Reviewer: Kevin Beach (VOYA, December 2007 (Vol. 30, No. 5)).
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ISBN: 0-3743-4701-8
ISBN: 978-0-3743-4701-7
Added 12/21/07
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