Mission of Transformation, First Edition
By Robert Steven
Edited by Will Heath
Suprindo Offset Printing, Indonesia, 2007 166pp
I received both of Robert Steven’s two books (this one and Vision of My Soul, which I reviewed here) at the same time. I made the early mistake of opening both together and wandering aimlessly through them. It was only after carefully studying them in turn that I really began to see the similarities and differences between them.
Compared to the binding of Vision of My Soul (first collector’s edition), Mission of Transformation is far less ambitious. Gone are the pretensions of “a book about art that is art." This one feels more like a textbook. While I like the cover art, I found the binding itself to be less than it should have been. Within a week of opening this book the binding began to break down. I was disappointed in how cheaply it seemed to be made. As soon as I opened the book, the threads binding the sections together were visible. And by now they are coming apart.
The binding wasn’t my only disappointment with this book, however. Content is far more important, and this was a real disappointment throughout. Many of the photographs throughout the book are actually web pics blown up to fit the page. They are invariably of such poor quality that they ruin the value of what they are trying to present. Some are so bad they are actually pixilated! This presents such a poor image that it is completely distracting. I know that much has been made of Robert’s involvement with web forums. But it seems to me that the editor has allowed just anything to be posted on the pages of this book.
I suppose my final criticisms about the layout and construction of the book are quite minor, but detract from the book nonetheless. I found the font used for the Latin names of the trees presented to be another distraction. Its spacing is odd, not allowing for the different widths of various letters, so that the words almost look spaced as sentences. And finally, the text describing the photos is laid out almost as if it were poetry, which it is not.
As to the text of the book, I found more disappointment there. This book is almost superfluous in its repetition of Mr. Steven’s first book, or even other books about artistic bonsai design. I find very little unique or even fresh about the content here, and wish it had been included in condensed form (the critique section) with quality photos in his first book.
One challenge for an editor of a book or article by an author for whom English is a second language, is to clarify the sentence structure and grammar so that the thought is preserved while the personality and charm of the original is preserved. This is a fine line to walk and the ideal is usually easier to identify than to achieve. As I read this book, I found that most of the text was very clear and easy to follow. But a prominently highlighted quote on page 52 caught me up:
“A transformed tree may no more follow the Leonardo’s theory but in order to create a beautiful bonsai, we still need to train the ramification features that not too far the theory so that the branches do not look like the young rejuvenation which do not depict a post-mature image.”
This almost seems to me to be a Google translation from the original language. It makes almost no sense at all until one carefully parses it out.
All in all, I’m afraid I would have to say that this is one of the worst books about bonsai or art I have ever read. I do NOT recommend it in any way.
Chris Johnston
