light novels

[cerusee]

"The light novel is often a novelization of a manga or anime story, but completely separate stories appearing in no other format are common as well. The popularity in Japan is no surprise, if you think about it. Die-hard fans of popular series will read just about anything that includes their favorite characters, but despite the fact that light novels usually have a handful of illustrations, the fact it is prose means the readers use their imagination when thinking about how the story unfolds." (emphasis mine)

Thank the lord the children are finally moving away from those trashy comic books into picture books real books. You know they're good because they have fewer pictures and more words. Pictures bad! Words good!


Man, I never thought I'd see the day when people extolling the virtues of reading and prose would make me want to smack them with shovels. I guess it's a context thing.

Comments

[octopedingenue]

So in my Currently Reading list, Chibi Vampire Novel 2 > Shaun Tan's The Arrival? Nice to know!

[cerusee.livejournal.com]

Damn straight, woman. It's a well known scientific fact that wordless graphic novels are so easy to process mentally that babies can read them in utero, although unfortunately this causes severe mental birth defects and the babies grow up to be comic book nerds.

[fani.livejournal.com]

the fact it is prose means the readers use their imagination when thinking about how the story unfolds.

NO! REALLY? SERIOUSLY ??

[cerusee.livejournal.com]

It's the Second Coming of the age of literacy, baby. A whole new generation of critical thinkers is gonna be spawned by the minor success of a handful of corporate-owned franchise spin-offs, I can feel it in my bones. Can't you taste the adventure?

[m00nface.livejournal.com]

Bonus points for the implication that those crazy Japanese with their crazy obsessive tendencies are the only ones to consume all forms of media featuring their favourite characters...

[cerusee.livejournal.com]

Tangent: if you have time, I'd love to see your thoughts on this post on rape in shoujo manga and Please Save My Earth over in manga_talk.

[m00nface.livejournal.com]

Thanks for linking me to that post! Rape in shoujo is actually something I've been thinking about just today, as I managed to get a hold of the first four volumes of Hana Yori Dango. Your link couldn't be better-timed.

This poster asks if she is a terrible feminist for considering that rape in which the rapist is not held accountable for his actions can ever be considered a sensitive treatment of the topic. To my mind, rape is a massive feminist issue, not to mention extremely complex and personal, and I think it naive to twitch at its merest mention in the media. On the contrary, I think it's an issue that should be publicised and explored in media aimed at girls, rather than used as titillation for guys, and in principle I don't object in the slightest to a trend of portraying rape for an audience who stand a 1 in 4 chance of experiencing this someday. Handled correctly, it could be a valuable resource to show girls a) that rape of all shades is neither uncommon nor shameful, and b) a variety of ways in which to deal with the event and its aftermath.

Unfortunately, rape storylines in manga are often not approached in this way. The rape is frequently forgotten within a few chapters, its severity downplayed, glossed over, or, worst of all, romanticised. I have no objection to the frequency of rape in manga, but I do wish mangaka would call a spade a spade and stop pretending it's a spoon.

For me, the way to do this is in the reactions of the characters. I'm totally open to the concept that a girl might forgive her rapist and decide to be with him consensually, but I want to see some conflict, internal AND external, surrounding that decision (and I do mean decision, not just 'helpless response to destined love'). I'm prepared to sympathise with a character who has raped, as long as it is clear that he had a skewed awareness of boundaries at the time which, on correction, he now thoroughly regrets and is appalled to remember. If a girl is able to forgive a guy who has raped her, I want to see that he is as shaken by this as she is.

Alternatively, I want some signs that rape can be serious even (surely especially?) when committed by somebody the heroine knows and cares for, as it so often is. I want to see girls who break up with their boyfriends or fiances because one stupid, drunken night has wrecked her confidence and trust in him. I want friendships to end because a Nice Guy feels entitled to the body of a female character who is theoretically his friend. I want girls to outwardly be outraged that guys could even consider this forgivable, even though the readers know that they are conflicted by the love they once held for the person who raped them.

I also want to see women who do take back the men who rape them, and suffer the anguish that comes with this. Learning to trust somebody who has hurt you so deeply is something I can only imagine, and that it would be good for girls to read about in painful detail. One of manga's key features is comfortable and capable emotional expresssion; it was practically designed for situations such as this, and doesn't seem to be utilised as such when it comes to rape.

[m00nface.livejournal.com]

I also feel that another strength of manga is its range and variety, mostly not being used right now to show rape in more than one light. Current portrayals of rape could be better balanced by more thoughtful portrayals of the internal and external conflict of both characters involved, without taking the easy way out and dropping the manga storyline once the relationship has progressed past a certain point. I don't agree with the poster's decision to divide rape into 'typical' and 'conflicted' - surely no rape can be typical, or without conflict?

It's important to remember that manga (and indeed the media in general) is not a feminist vehicle. A manga does not have to win feminist approval to be valid and important, just as a woman who is raped and decides to continue a relationship with that person deserves neither vilification nor disdain. An individual's reaction to rape is so personal, I don't think it's for us to judge whether or not a mangaka's 'morals' should be called into question if she decides to paint her heroine as less than feminist for responding in a certain way. We don't live in a feminist world, not all women think in a feminist way, and women who have been raped may well be convinced of true love behind the act, blaming herself and certain it won't happen again, or determined to work through it on her own without affecting the people around her. That's life.

If rape scenarios were just presented in greater variety, and the responses of the characters were examined more thoroughly, rather than the self-serving manner romance shoujo often use to dismiss long-term emotional consequences, then I would find it hard to view the rape in shoujo as a trend rather than simply as subject matter, along with romance, friendships, betrayals and loss. Rape happens, and it should be acknowledged, but it could definitely be treated with more weight and insight than is presently the case.