tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3146616530890203634.post3440979206001277638..comments2023-05-26T12:04:25.022-04:00Comments on Irrelevant Comics: Jeff Lemire's Essex County should have won the Canada Reads competitionYan Basquehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12188814820654379029noreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3146616530890203634.post-41968259527471700582011-02-15T09:13:05.344-05:002011-02-15T09:13:05.344-05:00Yeah, it's a weird connundrum and one I've...Yeah, it's a weird connundrum and one I've struggled with a lot. For a long time I've only written about plot or characters in my posts about comics. I'm trying to develop the language for exploring art and how that aspect creates meaning for these works.<br /><br />I've dabbled in drawing but certainly don't consider myself a visual artist. That has helped me with some of the vocabulary, and it's (I think) at the core of this dismissive attitude. I think it comes off as sounding more dismissive than it really is. I do think the panellists were genuinely interested and surprised by Essex County. I also think they were overwhelmed with the struggle to have meaningful discussions about it and what constitutes literature. It's called "Canada Reads" not "Canada picks a novel."<br /><br />I guess the thing that really bothered me most was that this attitude of images discounting something being a novel. Does that mean we don't include texts like Tristram Shandy or any book by Vonnegut where he doodles in it?<br /><br />I'm trying my best to not get worked up by it, and hopefully it means I'm not coming across as too pompous. But like it or not, all texts are inherently visual unless you're listening to an audio book.joncormierhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00865627865285684437noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3146616530890203634.post-22454974557281162862011-02-14T10:01:26.498-05:002011-02-14T10:01:26.498-05:00Thanks for all the comments.
In my mind, there&#...Thanks for all the comments. <br /><br />In my mind, there's no question that comics and graphic novels are different from other types of literature. I think it would be very difficult to argue that they are the same thing. <br /><br />What I was trying to get at in my post, and I'm not sure I really expressed it all that clearly, was that in spite of all the exposure and added sales for this particular book (which we're all happy about), having this kind of public debate about graphic novels doesn't really do the form justice, and ultimately maybe it does more harm than good. They allowed the graphic novel in the competition only to then basically disqualify it based on its form. And the reason this happened is that the judges were basically comics illiterate. <br /><br />Jon, I think you bring up a good point, that having an intelligent discussion about graphic novels is difficult. I've been blogging about comics for almost a year now and I still struggle with it every time I try to write a review. I'm an English lit major and I've written tons of essays about novels and poetry, but writing about comics is a big challenge for me. Which is part of the appeal. It forces me to exercise a different intellectual muscle. And that's why I think Ali Velschi's case against Essex County is the one that hurts the most, because he misses the point completely. "I don't think that's gonna solve our problem of creative and interpretive thinking." I couldn't disagree more. Asking people to think about images not just as something that you take in passively, but something that you *read*, something that carries meaning and that can be interpreted - that's an enormously important thing for people to learn. In other words, the book is doing exactly what he is accusing it of not being able to do, which says a lot about his own "problem of creative and interpretive thinking."Yan Basquehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12188814820654379029noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3146616530890203634.post-25576076524993483642011-02-14T09:07:31.796-05:002011-02-14T09:07:31.796-05:00Yan, thanks for putting voice to my thoughts as we...Yan, thanks for putting voice to my thoughts as well. I too was just incredibly frustrated by the whole thing - dismissal of form rather than content. None of the people arguing against it could see a lot of the inherent contradictions in their own arguments - they were looking for the book with the widest appeal as well as a "Canadian" voice (or something like that). So they got rid of the one that is the most likely to appeal to younger readers because it had pictures.<br /><br />I just fall back onto the idea that graphic novels force readers to think and talk about what they've read in a new way. It's a hard thing to do and none of them wanted to come across as uninformed or sounding unintelligent. It was simply too hard for them to talk about it.<br /><br />Really, is looking at pictures different from reading description? Apparently it is here because someone can draw it rather than use words.joncormierhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00865627865285684437noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3146616530890203634.post-49001968354083532062011-02-12T19:07:55.735-05:002011-02-12T19:07:55.735-05:00honestly though, I'm not quite sure why this p...honestly though, I'm not quite sure why this panel was chosen to make the decision. And as much as the book's champion seems like a nice person, the video I saw of her "championing" it was in no way convincing - kind of meandering, didn't really talk about the book at all. Maybe I missed something.<br /><br />Anyway, it's great to see the book succeed in People's Choice and I think Lemire still has a long career ahead of him. One I'm very much looking forward to!Ian Aleksander Adamshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13754552618486572662noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3146616530890203634.post-84901941137700636682011-02-11T16:42:12.297-05:002011-02-11T16:42:12.297-05:00Great post. I too was initially so annoyed I could...Great post. I too was initially so annoyed I couldn't directly address it. But I did post a blog (at coreyblake.com, if you're interested) addressing how reading comics and reading novels is a different experience which doesn't invalidate comics and graphic novel as a legitimate literary experience. It's its own language that also uses the language of the written word as one aspect of it. <br /><br />Anyway, Essex County is a beautiful graphic novel that deserves all of the accolades it has received and more.Coreyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11843694116968877711noreply@blogger.com