Author Gail Gauthier's Reflections On Books, Writing, Humor, And Other Sometimes Random Things
Monday, October 27, 2008
Old Wine In A New Flask
I gave up reading a graphic novel a couple of days ago because the "episodes" were filled with old military/war stereotypes. A graphic novel format doesn't make old story lines and situations new again.
2 comments:
Anonymous
said...
Gail,
If the book is written for a ya audience, maybe the old story line is new to them? Does the story have to be new? Or is the real problem that you thought we'd all gotten past the point where glorifying war as heroic and awesome seems like a good idea?
You're right. Story lines don't have to be new for young audiences. I think that it makes it difficult for older readers to determine quality in books for younger readers, though. How do we determine when a "tried and true" story line is working in a book for young readers who haven't seen it before and when it's just a worn out stereotype that they haven't seen before?
Should every rehashed situation and character in kidlit be accepted just because kids haven't seen it before? I really don't know.
2 comments:
Gail,
If the book is written for a ya audience, maybe the old story line is new to them? Does the story have to be new? Or is the real problem that you thought we'd all gotten past the point where glorifying war as heroic and awesome seems like a good idea?
You're right. Story lines don't have to be new for young audiences. I think that it makes it difficult for older readers to determine quality in books for younger readers, though. How do we determine when a "tried and true" story line is working in a book for young readers who haven't seen it before and when it's just a worn out stereotype that they haven't seen before?
Should every rehashed situation and character in kidlit be accepted just because kids haven't seen it before? I really don't know.
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