It's Not What You Say: It's How You Say It

(Comment problems, again. I know they're trying to fix these issues, but I'm seriously contemplating changing to something a bit more stable, perhaps with an official app. Time will tell.)

This afternoon I finished a book I checked out of the library. It's called Kafka. It is, as the name would imply, about the life and works of philosopher Franz Kafka*. This is an interesting topic, at least to me, but the real beauty is in the format of the book - a juxtaposition of comics and prose. The interplay between these two formats is truly remarkable.

Prose is exactly what I would expect from a book on this topic: words, which are arranged in sentences, which are arranged in paragraphs. This is present as well as being informative. This book would not function without prose. It is the skeleton on which the meat of the book hangs.

Comics are often put down. Remember the controversy when Time Magazine placed The Watchmen on its All Time 100 Novels list? While I personally was not a big fan of The Watchmen, I absolutely believe that comics and graphic novels have a place in our literary canon. Further, I have a great deal of respect for the artist who create both the storylines and the drawings (especially men like R. Crumb, one of the men behind Kafka). In this particular case, comics hang on the prosy skeleton, providing fleshy life to what would otherwise be dead.

Perhaps this a metaphor you will better understand**: picture prose as peanut butter (it's hearty and often contains chunks of information) and comics as jelly (sweet, though not usually having a lot of sustenance). While each is good independently, they do their best work as a team - two formats working together to bring a fuller illumination to a concept.

Now, I'm not saying it should always be this way. My mind instantly jumps to Moby Dick. As you may recall, there were several shifts from prose to poetry to drama to cetology***, which also often involved a change in the narrator. This, at least in my opinion (and that of those in my former book club), was without rhyme or reason in many cases, which rendered the book exceedingly difficult. Moby Dick of course needed no help with being difficult.

This being said, I now recognize that there is indeed a place for multiple formats side by side. Poetry, prose, comics - put together everything that you have. Who knows - your white whale of a tale might sink your ship, but you might be having whale steaks for breakfast. Slice it think like bible pages.

*Not to be confused with Kefka, the main villain from Final Fantasy VI, who was much more like Franz's father. Unrelated, Final Fantasy VI was absolutely one of the best video games ever created and the best game in the Final Fantasy series. This point is not open to debate, and everyone who disagrees with me is simply wrong.

**Unsure how this will come across in reading: if it is overly pretentious or just terribly awkward wording, apologies.

***Please please please no. I understand that you know more about whales than I do. Please don't spend three chapters telling me about the main categories.

(Comment problems, again. I know they're trying to fix these issues, but I'm seriously contemplating changing to something a bit more stable, perhaps with an official app. Time will tell.)

This afternoon I finished a book I checked out of the library. It's called Kafka. It is, as the name would imply, about the life and works of philosopher Franz Kafka*. This is an interesting topic, at least to me, but the real beauty is in the format of the book - a juxtaposition of comics and prose. The interplay between these two formats is truly remarkable.

Prose is exactly what I would expect from a book on this topic: words, which are arranged in sentences, which are arranged in paragraphs. This is present as well as being informative. This book would not function without prose. It is the skeleton on which the meat of the book hangs.

Comics are often put down. Remember the controversy when Time Magazine placed The Watchmen on its All Time 100 Novels list? While I personally was not a big fan of The Watchmen, I absolutely believe that comics and graphic novels have a place in our literary canon. Further, I have a great deal of respect for the artist who create both the storylines and the drawings (especially men like R. Crumb, one of the men behind Kafka). In this particular case, comics hang on the prosy skeleton, providing fleshy life to what would otherwise be dead.

Perhaps this a metaphor you will better understand**: picture prose as peanut butter (it's hearty and often contains chunks of information) and comics as jelly (sweet, though not usually having a lot of sustenance). While each is good independently, they do their best work as a team - two formats working together to bring a fuller illumination to a concept.

Now, I'm not saying it should always be this way. My mind instantly jumps to Moby Dick. As you may recall, there were several shifts from prose to poetry to drama to cetology***, which also often involved a change in the narrator. This, at least in my opinion (and that of those in my former book club), was without rhyme or reason in many cases, which rendered the book exceedingly difficult. Moby Dick of course needed no help with being difficult.

This being said, I now recognize that there is indeed a place for multiple formats side by side. Poetry, prose, comics - put together everything that you have. Who knows - your white whale of a tale might sink your ship, but you might be having whale steaks for breakfast. Slice it think like bible pages.

*Not to be confused with Kefka, the main villain from Final Fantasy VI, who was much more like Franz's father. Unrelated, Final Fantasy VI was absolutely one of the best video games ever created and the best game in the Final Fantasy series. This point is not open to debate, and everyone who disagrees with me is simply wrong.

**Unsure how this will come across in reading: if it is overly pretentious or just terribly awkward wording, apologies.

***Please please please no. I understand that you know more about whales than I do. Please don't spend three chapters telling me about the main categories.

It's Not What You Say: It's How You Say It