Part II - Review of Sam Garton's "I am Otter" by Béatrice Dumiche

I am Otter, an interactive book

Exploring how the book stimulates the unconscious by playing and drawing

I am Otter is easy to read despite its complexity. In fact, it gives much pleasure at several times as it can be understood at many different age levels. It is destined to last and reveal for many years more hidden and subtle aspects of life, sharpening its critical sense while developing its humor to embrace the inevitable paradoxes in life instead of denying them and then suffering from this denial as an inner conflict.

Sam Garton’s extraordinary drawing talent contributes to this process to a major extent. Garton appeals to the unconscious of his young readers as he is able to illustrate their contradictory feelings and fears into comforting and simple scenes which will not spoil their imagination; like Otter who only begins to write and communicates with Keeper through her drawings which readers have to interpret if they want to understand her. So, the pictures will not lead readers further than they want to go at the moment; they may feel like they are sharing secrets with Otter.

By identification, Otter will be the child readers’ unnamed confidant for whom they will make their own drawings, sharing with her what they feel, yet can’t express verbally. Her blanket-like shape reinforces her attraction for the child reader, appealing to their unconscious need for the maternal protection they lost from the moment of their birth and which they must confront throughout their lifetime. Otter’s example shows readers that uttering what bothers or simply overwhelms them emotionally can be transformed into a pleasant, fantastical experience via a symbolic language which doesn’t require words. The play enables them to surmount unspeakable frustrations of feeling helpless and abandoned by expressing them in a harmless way through games. That’s why both, children and adults, can smile at Otter’s whiskers which look like lightening when she gets angry or at her eyebrows when she frowns because something annoys her. Readers enter Otter’s story at another level where they can relate to it; guessing at her exaggerations through the illustrator’s unspoken language. Otter simply shows that no matter how awkward you might be, you deserve sympathy as long as you try to express yourself. So, children are incited by this experience to use drawings to communicate with adults in a freer way as they create a symbolical space where feelings, fears and frustrations can be uttered without shame.

Originally, Otter appears as a metaphorical figure where author Sam Garton modifies a Biblical image, to represent Otter’s origin; she arrives at Keeper’s doorstep and he adopts her immediately as if she is destined only for him. She had been put there in a box with many tags asking those who handle it as well as the finder to take care of the otter inside. Her origin is clearly mythical and fairylike, freeing the author from any supplemental explanation. He simply alludes to the idea that she may have had an existence before, yet she just isn’t aware of it since, overall, it didn’t matter; her life began when she became conscious of herself in Keeper’s care.

That’s the point where Sam Garton no longer follows the general concept that readers will take their story for granted. He takes into account that children’s consciousness of reality has evolved. Therefore, Garton represents psychological and developmental stages which can’t help but be featured through metaphors. Thus, Otter’s arrival in a box is a concrete picture which describes, in a very simple way, the general human experience of birth. With this example, he shows that everything, even the most complex and obscure experience can be expressed and worked out in a drawing if you give in to your imagination. Your own imagination will find a matching image within your own experience.

Thus, Sam Garton opens the way to a pictorial culture which aims to bring his readers a sense of images which give a communication method beyond childhood as the drawings serve as imagination’s proper medium. They preserve the original emotional ability to create bonds when language fails even though it is necessary to interpret them and give them their own specific meaning. Here, the author’s art is really most brilliant since he shows in the drawings and with his own words how imagination is linked to the awakening of self-consciousness. There is no doubt that Otter’s box has become the place where she stows away her toys and this is the best evidence for her own physical and mental growth. It underlines that she is a real living being who is able to take action on her own as she evolves by playing. She literally got off the box in which she arrived and began exploring her surroundings on her own.  So, she transformed the place, where she had been kept, into her personal accessory - her tool, used for the belongings she actually recognizes as her own.

To be continued....

All photographs and illustrations © Sam Garton