Siddhartha, Herman Hesse
"He never went out without a book under his arm, and he often came back with two."
- Victor Hugo- Les Miserables (via quotesandnonsense)
Anonymous
“Literary fiction” is a term used to contrast “genre fiction.” It does not mean that a work is better - It means that a work fits within a certain realm of tone and stylistic expectations.
If you’re really going to ignore my part in this conversation and interpret the other anon’s remark as “graphic novels are better than comics,” then that’s on your own shoulders. Neither I nor that anon said it.
Anonymous
…Who said anything about “better”? I’m saying that they’re different genres.
Anonymous
A proposed story and the story it is actually published as are two very, very different things.
One of the reasons I use Watchmen as a comparative example is because it was published by DC and it’s an atypical superhero story. When you describe it on paper, there is very little that separates it from Superman. The same themes and basic elements are there. However, the execution and the structure (both in the storyline and the art) make Watchmen a horse of a different color. Hell, Gibbons specifically drew the book in a style that was different from other comics of the time, so that it wouldn’t be mistaken or associated with other serials, while Moore cited Moby Dick as more relevant and inspirational for his work than Superman.
Comparing the two is like comparing The Diary of Anne Frank with Maus. On the one hand, they’re both memoirs of Jews during the Holocaust. But looking beyond that, they encompass two incredibly different styles and viewpoints. The first is an intimate day-to-day look at the life of a young girl who experienced the war first hand, melding it completely with her journey of discovering herself and her emotions as a teen. The other is a grown man learning developing a relationship with his father, graphically comparing the troubles of his own life with those of a man that he will never fully understand or even befriend. Trying to place them into the same genre, the same category, would be a disservice to them both.
Anonymous
Nah, I don’t think anon was being pretentious. There is a pretty big genre difference between Superman and something like Watchmen. “Literate graphic novels” in this context is just another way of saying “Literary novels,” which seems like an accurate way of labeling the kind of stuff I post about.
No disrespect meant.
Anonymous
You’re right, I don’t typically read comic books. I like the Serenity comics from Joss Whedon and the Avatar: the Last Airbender comic is fun, but that’s the closest I come to the typical Marvel-ish superhero style.
I love Art Spegielman - Maus is an amazing piece of literature, but I personally like In the Shadow of No Towers and Breakdowns better.
Some other favorites are:
- Black Hole by Charles Burns
- Stitches by David Small
- Jimmy Corrigan: The Smartest Kid on Earth by Chris Ware
- The Push Man by Yoshihiro Tatsumi
- Fun Home by Alison Bechdel
- American Born Chinese by Gene Luen Yang
It’s interesting that you mention Daniel Clowes. I’ve never read anything by him but I just watched the movie Ghost World for the first time today. He has some great characterization skills, I may have to check out his other work soon.
This Saturday, don’t forget!
I’ll personally be driving over an hour to visit the nearest participating comic book store, but you folks might be a little luckier.
"
There will come soft rains and the smell of the ground,
And swallows circling with their shimmering sound;
And frogs in the pools, singing at night,
And wild plum trees in tremulous white,
Robins will wear their feathery fire,
Whistling their whims on a low fence-wire;
And not one will know of the war, not one
Will care at last when it is done.
Not one would mind, neither bird nor tree,
If mankind perished utterly;
And Spring herself, when she woke at dawn,
Would scarcely know that we were gone.
- Sara Teasdale
