'Where can we live if not in each other's shadow? World-renowned artist Shaun Tan applies his unique imagination to a reflection on the nature of humans and animals, and our urban coexistence. From crocodile to frog, tiger to bee, this is a dark and surreal exploration of the perennial love and destruction we feel and inflict—of how animals can save us, and how our lives are forever entwined, for better or for worse. Tales from the Inner City is a masterful work, bearing all of Shaun Tan's trademark wit and poignancy in both its prose and exquisite illustrations.'
Source: Publisher's blurb.
Teachers' notes from publisher's website.
Epigraph: The animals of the world exists for their own reasons. (Alice Walker)
Dedication: for Helen Chamberlin.
'This article examines Shaun Tan's evocative Tales from the Inner City (2018) and explores how, through word and image, Tan questions the effects of the Anthropocene and the possible synergies and tensions between the human and more-than-human in his work, inviting us to look at human and animal relationships in new and challenging ways. To do so, I draw on concepts such as empathy and an ethics of care to question the privileged anthropocentrism of Western society and human exceptionalism over animals.' (Introduction)
'You know from the very first glance, from the very first touch, that a book created by Shaun Tan, such as Tales from the Inner City, is going to disturb you. It is going to send you spiraling from your so-called real world into a world in which you will be speechless and wordless because his marvelously peculiar drawings and paintings are so provocative and alienating. You feel as though you have been transported to Kafka’s novella Metamorphosis (1915), and, like Gregor Samsa, you awake and are incapable of knowing what has transpired and caused the world to turn upside down. The more you try to be rational, the more the world around you appears to be weird and irrational.' (Introduction)
'What would happen if bears sued humanity and fish left the sea? The author-illustrator of Tales from the Inner City on animal rights, veganism and winning the Kate Greenaway medal'
'You know from the very first glance, from the very first touch, that a book created by Shaun Tan, such as Tales from the Inner City, is going to disturb you. It is going to send you spiraling from your so-called real world into a world in which you will be speechless and wordless because his marvelously peculiar drawings and paintings are so provocative and alienating. You feel as though you have been transported to Kafka’s novella Metamorphosis (1915), and, like Gregor Samsa, you awake and are incapable of knowing what has transpired and caused the world to turn upside down. The more you try to be rational, the more the world around you appears to be weird and irrational.' (Introduction)
'Shaun Tan has once again produced an extraordinary work.'
'It is hard to think of a more distinctive and idiosyncratic author than Western Australian Shaun Tan. Winner of the prestigious Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award for children’s literature, Tan’s work has also been recognised by numerous awards in speculative fiction, illustration, and children’s books, including an Academy Award in 2011 (for the animated short adaptation of The Lost Thing). By sheer force of imagination and talent, Tan seems to have carved out a unique niche for himself, one that hovers between the worlds of images and words, children and adults, extravagant fantasy and the most visceral realism. In his latest book, Tales from the Inner City, Tan brings his focus to the fissure between the natural and human worlds.' (Introduction)
'What would happen if bears sued humanity and fish left the sea? The author-illustrator of Tales from the Inner City on animal rights, veganism and winning the Kate Greenaway medal'
'This article examines Shaun Tan's evocative Tales from the Inner City (2018) and explores how, through word and image, Tan questions the effects of the Anthropocene and the possible synergies and tensions between the human and more-than-human in his work, inviting us to look at human and animal relationships in new and challenging ways. To do so, I draw on concepts such as empathy and an ethics of care to question the privileged anthropocentrism of Western society and human exceptionalism over animals.' (Introduction)
