“One discovers the light in darkness, that is what darkness is for; but everything in our lives depends on how we bear the light,”
– James Baldwin, Nothing Personal
The Sun (1919) by Frans Masereel (1889–1972) opens with an artist resting his head on his desk beneath an open window beyond which we see a blazing sun. As the artist falls asleep, a small man leaps from his head, sees the sun and in trying to grab it falls from the window.
This cinematic novel told through intense black and white woodcuts follows the figure’s attempts to quell his obsession. Along the way he meets many distractions as people try to stop him. Eventually he climbs a ladder of clouds, touches the sun and falls burning, landing on the artist’s desk. Awakened, the artist turns to us, taps his head and says the book’s only words, delivered with the impact talkies had on silent cinema, “What a crazy daydream.”
Masereel is credited as the first wordless novelist, and The Sun followed on the success of his earlier works in the genre, 25 images of Man’s Passion (1918) and Passionate Journey (1919).
“Never regret thy fall, O Icarus of the fearless flight, For the greatest tragedy of them all, Is never to feel the burning light”
– Attributed to Oscar Wilde
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