As I was climbing into bed last night I remembered what I was going to write about yesterday before Monday Brain set in: graphic novels.
In my class last week one of the questions up for discussion was whether or not libraries have a responsibility to collect new and emerging forms of literature such as comics, manga, graphic novels, and fan fiction. Granted, none of these are really new anymore, but that doesn’t really matter. What matters is the discussion that kicked up around graphic novels.
There is a small portion of the class, including myself, that came out in favor of collecting new and emerging fiction as long as it was appropriate for the library (for instance a music library would not collect graphic novels). There is a large part of the class that admitted to being baffled by these “new” forms of literature and worried over whether graphic novels in particular were a sign of culture going down the tubes. They had assumptions about what graphic novels were, adaptations of the “classics,” trash for teenagers, definitely without any kind of literary merit.
This group of people all said they had never read a graphic novel.
But yet they felt justified and certain in their criticism of the form. One person even suggested that they were for lazy people who couldn’t be bothered to read a “real” book.
Those who appreciated the form protested politely. One person said that a nephew who has ADD and dyslexia couldn’t read until someone introduced him to graphic novels. Another person mentioned that graphic novels were a complex form that required both textual and visual literacy. Another suggested that a graphic novel like Maus certainly belonged right up there with the classics of traditional literature. I nicely hinted that it didn’t matter what librarians thought of graphic novels, what mattered were the patrons and, for academic libraries, the scholars/researchers and what they wanted.
A few in the anti crowd conceded a point here and there but I think for the most part none of them reconsidered their biases. Perhaps one or two of them might go find out what a graphic novel really is, but most of them will just go on looking down on a form of literature they know nothing about.
I was rather pained by many of my classmate’s closed mindedness. I mean, aren’t librarians supposed to be curious? Shouldn’t we be open to new ideas, new forms of thinking and creating and the diversity of ways a story can be told? That so many of my classmates had this negative notion of what a graphic novel is and isn’t while never having once read one for themselves was disappointing. And it made me sad. I thought librarians were better than that. I guess some of them aren’t.
Yes, that’s odd, I would have expected librarians to at least be curious. It seems to me that if a (public) library stocks CDs, DVDs and video games, a graphic novel is actually a step up from passive entertainment. I’ve heard them described as a “gateway drug,” and that seems a sensible approach. I don’t know if you’ve got a copy of Fun Home yet but that’s a good example of a finely crafted graphic novel that gives the reader a lot to think about. Way back in the 80′s I bought a little graphic paperback on environmental issues, and it was (and still is) excellent–engaging, enlightening, and pointing the way to other things. They don’t have to be “trash” any more than a mass market paperback does. Considering how visual our world is today (when was the last time you saw a website with no graphics?), graphic novels seem like a pretty natural development.
If libraries didn’t stock graphic novels, I doubt I’d read them at all because they do tend to be expensive. So I count on the library to have a good collection!
You know, the small-town local library I went to as a child actually used to maintain a collection of paintings people could check out. I don’t remember if they were reproductions or by local artists or what the deal was, but there were a couple of racks of them. Our high school drama club used to check them out for set decoration, but during the whole summer that I volunteered there, I can’t remember a single person borrowing one. Anyway, if that’s appropriate for a local library collection, surely graphic novels belong!
I’ve read only a few graphic novels–latest was American Born Chinese. I thought it was excellent and plan to pass onto a middle school media specialist I know. I definitely see a place for these in libraries and library budgets–and I think some librarians do even if there are exceptions.
I’ve encountered this very same attitude countless times. It really, really depresses me :\
Sylvia, several people in class remarked that their public library had graphic novels but that the librarians hated them because they thought so poorly of them. Sigh. You are right, graphic novels are just like any other form of literature, there are good ones and not so good ones. I doubt any of my classmates would get up in arms about the library having Harlequin romances. Fun Home is on its way to me at my work library from another academic library. I should have it today. I’m looking forward to it!
Teresa, I agree, if it weren’t for libraries I would hardly ever read a graphic novel, not that I don’t think they aren’t worth paying for, but as you say, they tend to be rather expensive. How interesting that your childhood library had paintings to lend! Now that is a unique service!
Susan, I agree, there are librarians who see the value of graphic novels. For those who don’t I think it is important for educators and others to make recommendations and point out how they add to the collection. I’ll have to look for American Born Chinese, hopefully my local library will have it.
Nymeth, I am glad I am not the only one who has encountered the attitude. At the same time it is depressing to know that it just isn’t the people in this particular class. I guess we have our work cut out for us in educating our future colleagues!
For some reason, I haven’t been drawn to graphic novels, although our library has a section for them. I’ve only read one, and I did enjoy it, and I have another that I ordered, but that has been sitting on a shelf for nearly two years.
My opinion, in general, is that if they encourage people to read, they deserve a place in every library. I think I’ll look for the one I ordered and give it a try.
I do remember the importance of Illustrated Classics (the comic books) when I was a child.
When I was in kindergarten, I would make my mother begin Silas Marner, then stop her with my sobbing at the pictures of the mother dying in the snow. Those comic books encouraged my reading of the classics when I was older.
I don’t think graphic novels are any less literary than 90 percent of the contemporary novels that take up space on the library shelves anyway.
And sadly, getting shoved out are Trollope, Dickens, Woolf….
Anyone picking up “The Invention of Hugo Cabret” by Brian Selznick would change their mind about a graphic novel. This one is really a mix, and I’m not certain whether it would be classified as straight-out “graphic novel,” but I think so and it is lovely. One of the best things I read in 2008. And “amen” about contemporary novels. If Jackie Collins has a place on a library shelf, surely some of the graphic novels do as well. Some of the folks in your class will become really cool librarians, and a few will tell us all to “Shuush.” But every profession has its duds.
Jenclair, what a great story about the illustrated classics! I think of graphic novels like a sort of genre and some people will like them and others not and that is perfectly fine. It’s when people who have never even bothered to read one make declarations of their worhiness that I get grumpy.
Shelley, you’ve got it exactly right. And some graphic novels are even better then 90 percent of contemporary novels.
Grad, you know I loved Hugo Cabret. I’d call it a graphic novel but it is done differently than most which just shows that there is great creativity within the area of graphic novels as within traditional novels. And yeah, if Jackie Collins is okay to have on a library shelf, graphic novels do too. You’re right that there are duds in every profession. Best to get my disillusionment out of the way sooner rather than later, eh?
I consider graphic novels barely literate, but then again, I’m basing this on the comic books I read years ago – and come to think of it, why am I considering that barely literate? I did pick up Logicomix yesterday so we’ll see if that changes my tune.
Carrie, I think graphic novels are much more more than glorified comics and do constitute literature. As with just plain novels, there are really goods ones and really bad ones and lots of in between.
I think graphic novels are sort of cool, though I prefer some over others and I don’t read enough of them. My library has ordered quite a few as we have a faculty member on campus who teaches a course on graphic novels. I think librarians should put aside their own personal preferences and be open to what patrons want–even if they don’t think graphic novels are as literary as a classic, it still might be a way to get a reluctant reader started reading. Now that you write about them I think I am going to pull out one of my own unread graphic novels sometime soon!
I know you like graphic novels, but I have to defend comics.
I love graphic novels. I can understand how some people might view them as lazy reading, but I’d respond by saying to read “V for Vendetta” and tell me that it’s not literary and adult. I love Batman–always have and always will. Batman’s amazingly complex and dark, and his stories are some of the best crime stories I’ve read. (As proof, I direct you to “Batman: Year One.” And “Arkham Asylum” is one gorgeous book.) Silly? Sure, on the surface. But I think people should engage with a graphic novel on its own terms. And not all of them feature ‘roided up superheroes who put their underwear on the outside of their pants–”The Surrogates” is a sci-fi detective story, probably something William Gibson could’ve written. So there are alternatives out there. And they’ll let people keep their lit snob cred.
Also, as a side note: I have a friend who teaches high school English as well as ESL, and the only way she could get some of her kids reading was to have them read “Watchmen.” After that, most decided they loved reading. So if that’s what it takes to convert kids to reading (and hopefully to “real” books), I will never complain.
I have just the cure for any closedmindedness that someone may have about graphic novels: Just hand them a copy of Logicomix and watch them fall in love with Wittgenstein and Russell (via a comic book, was that even possible!!).
It won’t surprise you, but will probably interest you to know that a debate among English teachers would look exactly the same. I am firmly in the camp of including graphic novels as part of our library and curricula, and certainly as free choice reading selections for school as well. I have seen some gorgeous ones. Have you seen Gareth Hinds’s editions of The Odyssey and Beowulf? There is a graphic novel of Crime and Punishment that I plan to get for my daughter, who will be reading the classic in AP Lit. this year. I found it such a hard slog when I read it, and it is my hope that the graphic novel will add interest. I just had a student do a project on V for Vendetta, and she is now a confirmed graphic novel fan. Setting aside the debate over whether they should be included in curricula, you hit the nail on the head when you say libraries should be about what the patrons want.
I’m all for graphic novels, although they are not a genre that appeals to me personally, not least because they are such catnip to teenage boys who might not read otherwise. I got my son Watchman for his birthday last year and it was one of only two ‘literary’ things he read that year. I initially got him Logicomix, and then changed it after trying to read it myself and finding it too difficult and clever for me!
Prejudice always gets me down – if only there were a pill against it, as there are against bacterial infections….
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In defense of graphic novels, who doesn’t want to look at awesome pictures while they read? It’s like a movie in your hand. And there’s no one saying that libraries shouldn’t carry movies. Plus, if it gets people who normally wouldn’t read anything to pick up a book, I’m all for it.
This is an interesting debate. I wonder what Adorno would have had to say about the graphic novel?
It’s a bit disappointing that your colleagues are not more curious, quite sad really!
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