Literature

Quick. name your favorite literary character(s). i've got mine.



got it? i know it can be hard for some, as there is so much out there to pick from, but most people have at least a favorite book, and a favorite character within that book. Keep that character in mind throughout this blog post, and see how it fits into what i am hopefully going to thrill you with.

Now, I'm about to discuss something that has been discussed by many people smarter than me, and better at articulating their thoughts than me. But i want this on my blog, because it is going to be the basis for a lot of what i plan on writing about in the future. Unfortunately, this essay i am about to present to you does not have a definitive answer or conclusion, which does weaken its argument, but nonetheless, i think it can still stand on its own as a valid idea to consider. all i'm presenting are things to think about. all i am trying to do is get you to think about literature in a different way. any link you see is a (hopefully reliable) source of what i am saying.

I think Comic books qualify as literature, on the same platform as classic novels.

Now, I am not sure where this rumor started, but the internet seems to think that the superman logo is one of the most recognized symbols in the world. after looking for quite a bit, i could not find any empirical evidence to support this, outside of a few opinionated blogs, also with no evidence. lots of evidence on brand names, but very few mentions of superman, other than the google suggested search.

That however, does not discount the character's public awareness. And i am going to limit my range, and focus on the most well known comic book characters in the public's eye. that would be: Superman, Batman, and Spider-Man. I believe that these characters should qualify as literary characters, and i would go so far to say, that they should be consistently listed as the most popular literary characters of all time.

but before i can make an argument about whether they are the most popular literary characters around, we need to decide if comics actually qualify as literature, because that is a topic that has been debated for a long time.

literature is suppose to cover the entire spectrum, from what i always understood. if it is written, it is literature. comics are clearly written, so why not count them. it has something to do with the art involved. for some reason, when you require the art involved to tell your story, that seems, in people's minds, to eliminate it from literature, and move it towards its own medium. this has also been discussed (and if you only read one link, read that one. it does a much better job at this than i am doing).

now is when my bias is going to show, because for the life of me, i don't understand how comics would not count as literature. they present a story, with well developed characters, that generally follow a well defined story arc, most commonly the classic hero's journey.  just because they just more than the written medium as their vessel for crafting this story, does not negate their intrinsic literary value. now, i have read wonderful arguments about how great they are for kids. and that should not be discounted; if comics are a way to get children into reading, i think it would be foolish to ignore them. But what i want is for adults to respect them. That is currently the biggest hurdle that i want people to get over.

This is going to be important for me in the future on this blog. because, i will be periodically discussing literary devices and themes in comic books. I wanted there to be a body of work, on my blog, that lends evidence to comics qualifying for such things. because i think comic book characters are some of the most well known of all time. sure, not everyone knows a great amount of detail about them, but i would wager the majority of people know who i am talking about when i say Superman, Batman, The Joker, and Lex Luthor. everyone has enough of a starting point in knowing those characters, to be able to understand and appreciate, with a little help along the way, of what makes those characters tick ,and how they provide literary devices that are usually reserved for prose writing, such as juxtaposition, allegory, and symbolism. I plan on delving into these things in the coming weeks, but with comics as my chosen medium, because it is what i am most familiar with, but also because i think they deserve to be discussed on equal footing to classic literature.

now, think back. what was your favorite literary character? did it come from a comic? probably not. mine did. maybe in the coming weeks, i will show you just how great these characters can be.

these are my 2 favorite literary characters, for different reasons. depends on context for me to pick just 1.