Not everyone is happy about Gene Yang’s National Book Award nomination. Tony Long, copy chief at Wired, writes:
I have not read this particular “novel” but I’m familiar with the genre so I’m going to go out on a limb here. First, I’ll bet for what it is, it’s pretty good. Probably damned good. But it’s a comic book. And comic books should not be nominated for National Book Awards, in any category. That should be reserved for books that are, well, all words.
This is not about denigrating the comic book, or graphic novel, or whatever you want to call it. This is not to say that illustrated stories don’t constitute an art form or that you can’t get tremendous satisfaction from them. This is simply to say that, as literature, the comic book does not deserve equal status with real novels, or short stories. It’s apples and oranges.
While his argument seems to be more about the difference in form rather than anything to do with content, his choice of words — “the comic book does not deserve equal status with real novels” — isn’t doing anything to endear me to his stance.
Per Random House …
Novel: a fictitious prose narrative of considerable length and complexity, portraying characters and usually presenting a sequential organization of action and scenes.
So are graphics novels (hey, there’s that word again) a subset of the above definition, or something else entirely?
October 27th, 2006 at 7:54 am
“the comic book does not deserve equal status with real novels” — isn’t doing anything to endear me to his stance
Yeah, me too.
And anyway, isn’t it the National Book Award. Not the National Novel Award (or “novel”). He even calls them comic books.
Perhaps he thinks sculptures aren’t art because, well, they’re not paintings hung on a wall, are they?
October 27th, 2006 at 8:00 am
Well, that definition–”a prose narrative”–pretty clearly excludes graphic novels. So, snideness aside, he makes a good point, and you provide good evidence for it.
October 27th, 2006 at 8:08 am
If the National Book Award is intended to be awarded to novels, using the above definition, then a comic book (or graphic novel) would not qualify for the prize.
But if this guy thinks that comics are lesser than “real novels” because of their form, he must have had a tantrum when “Maus” won the Pulitzer.
October 27th, 2006 at 8:31 am
There was a similar stink way back when Gaiman (I think it was him) won either a Bram Stoker for a “comic” or it might have been one of the bigger Science Fiction awards (Hugo or something). I just remember they ended up changing the rules after that so comics couldn’t be nominated and denigrate the art. Man my memory is garbage…
October 27th, 2006 at 9:06 am
“This is simply to say that, as literature, the comic book does not deserve equal status with real novels, or short stories. It’s apples and oranges.”
A Michael Chrichton novel is [i]way[/i] superior to any comic every produced.
October 27th, 2006 at 9:47 am
Lurkerwhithout
It was a World Fantasy Award for Best Short Fiction for Sandman #19
and its still an utter disgrace that they chaged the rules
Single issue comicbooks – especially self contained issues are massively important examples of short fiction, serialised fiction, and particularly vital to the continued reinvigoration of the fantasy and sci fi genres.
This man is an ass to make such a broad sweeping statement. The average Alan Moore script has more value as literature that the majority of novels published in the last decade.
The fact he called it an illustrated story also belies a general ignorance of the nuance of the art form. Its very different thing to illustrate a prose narrative than it is to design a sequential narrative like a comic book – one is illustrating the text given the other is substiuted for that text.
I don’t think that comicbooks are novels and if the prize is designed to be given to novles then it should probably be given to a deserving novelist but comicbooks deserve recognition as having equal status as complex literary forms. To say otherwise shows a level of willful stupidity unworthy of any professional in the literary world. – seriously do some basic research into semiotic studies like those of Umberto Ecco and you’ll see how similar the methods comicbook creators and novelists use are.
October 27th, 2006 at 10:28 am
The award for which American Born Chinese has been nominated is the National Book Award for Young People’s Literature. Nowhere does it limit it to fiction or to prose works. The award is open to children’s picture books as well as prose works. The fact that usually novels are nominated each year is due more to people’s ignorance about good quality nonfiction for young people. A graphic novel is just as worthy of nomination as any other book format. And a graphic novel is a format, not a genre. And the best graphic novels don’t necessarily substitute art for text, but combine the two into an inseparable whole in which one feeds upon and strengthens the other.
October 27th, 2006 at 11:44 am
National Book Awards. Aren’t poetry anthologies eligible too?
October 27th, 2006 at 1:46 pm
There’s also the fact that Yang wrote AND drew the damned thing. That’s pretty impressive. Lots of those novelists can’t draw to save their lives, and lots of artists can’t write (unless they’re Rob Liefeld, of course!).
I still don’t understand what this guy’s objection is to a BOOK getting nominated for the National BOOK Award.
October 27th, 2006 at 2:23 pm
I wish the National Book Awards would establish a category specifically for graphic novels to recognize the unique characteristic of this product and its growth in sales through bookseller outlets.
My problem would be having graphic novels pigeonholed each year as “Young People’s Literature”.
Ignore the printed fiction snob. He’s probably not even literate when it comes to reading comic books. He’s just as bad as the comic fans that only read comics and despise books with more words than pictures.
October 27th, 2006 at 3:58 pm
The only caveat I would have of creating a seperate award for graphic novels would be that it MIGHT establish the two seprate forms in peoples’ minds as seperate AND unequal in artistic merit. It’s a seperation that can’t be made AND retain respect for graphic novels without also creating a seperate award for poetry books, art books that might tell a story, etc,
IN the end, though, the dude is still a dick. I was incensed enough to do a write up:
http://whippersnapp.blogspot.com/2006/10/judging-book-by-its-illustrations-cs.html
October 27th, 2006 at 4:24 pm
Now, we just have to see about getting some good adult-level graphic novels nominated in the adult levels of the National Book Awards. It just so happens that librarians and publishing people who work with youth (children’s and teens’) literature tend be more on the cutting edge and more receptive of new formats than the stodgier folk who work mostly with adult literary material. And that doesn’t mean that you have to be young, either – I’m middle-aged!
October 27th, 2006 at 6:06 pm
A certain point hasn’t come up here but at another blog: someone said it was unfair to compare a graphic novel to a prose work. Well, ever since the Young People’s Literature category was established in 1996, the judges have had to compare fiction, nonfiction, and poetry in the very same category. And, frankly, as someone who has served on national library award committees over the years for the Young Adult Library Services Association, I say our committees do this all the time. We don’t consider it unfair. Why should Tony Long or anyone else make that complaint – what, are they too lazy to do what librarians have been doing for many decades?
I have worked for more than two decades to get libraries and librarians to accept graphic novels and comics as a legitimate form of literature. I’m starting to see more mainstream acceptance of graphic novels and comics – in libraries and in schools. To me, the NBA nomination for American Born Chinese is a step in the natural progression of the legitimization and vindication of graphic novels and comics in the mainstream. But it’s just one step and shouldn’t end there.