06-07-2017, 11:13 AM | #1 |
The Dank Side of the Moon
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Arrrrgh! Mockingbird Graphic Novel
"Harper Lee estate endorses To Kill a Mockingbird graphic novel The new comic is the latest in a number of posthumous projects based on the work of a writer who was famously shy of publicity..." https://www.theguardian.com/books/20...-graphic-novel |
06-07-2017, 11:19 AM | #2 |
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Why do you think it's a bad idea? I don't read comics myself, but I know that a great many people do. It seems to me that anything that gets people reading great literature, no matter what format it's presented in, is a good thing. Isn't it the story that's the important thing, rather than the "container"?
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06-07-2017, 11:21 AM | #3 |
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I'm assuming your frowny faces are implying that you feel a graphic novel somehow cheapens the original novel. I dunno. Maybe it does. But if Shakespeare can survive the indignity of being adapted, I'm sure Harper Lee will be just fine. Is a graphic novel any worse than a movie version?
Besides, it could well be beautiful in its own right. The illustration shown in the Guardian article is quite nice. I'd read it. Last edited by ZodWallop; 06-07-2017 at 11:23 AM. |
06-07-2017, 11:24 AM | #4 | |
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06-07-2017, 11:28 AM | #5 | |
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Though with Shakespeare you're far better off seeing a play than reading a script (at least that's been the case for me), unless you're reading the script as part of a study group. I loved reading through Romeo and Juliet back in school. |
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06-07-2017, 11:31 AM | #6 |
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Oh, I couldn't agree more! In that respect, though, I think that a graphic novel is closer to the experience of watching a play (which is of course the ideal way to experience Shakespeare) than reading the text is.
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06-07-2017, 08:52 PM | #7 |
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First, before opening this thread I misread the title and thought Kenny was up in arms because Mockingjay was being made into a graphic novel.
I think the pushback against this is not the graphic novel per se but that maybe Lee wouldn't have signed off on such a project so her estate waited until she died and is now already making cash-grab moves so soon after her death. |
06-07-2017, 09:41 PM | #8 | |
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Of course, I was all prepared to let loose on someone getting offended about Mockingjay being turned into a graphic novel. How am I supposed to use this useless snark and mocking now? |
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06-07-2017, 10:01 PM | #9 |
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I'm always bothered by the idea of posthumously going against an author's wishes but I've read the results of that a few times. In particular one of Thomas Hardy's novels was unpublished till after his death. He thought it wasn't good enough to be published and refused to and he left instructions that it not be published. I don't recall now which novel it was but I remember reading about that in the introduction when I read it a couple of decades ago. I had to ask myself if I really should read it. I decided to continue and as I recall, I enjoyed it.
So yeah, I have mixed feelings about this. I've decided not to read "Go Set a Watchman" partly because I don't want to spoil "To Kill a Mockingbird" in my mind and partly because Harper Lee didn't want it published. If I thought I'd really enjoy it for it's own sake I probably would read it. My guess is I'll take a look at the graphic version of TKAM and decide then how I feel about buying it. As an aside, when I was in college in Houston I drove a taxi to pay the bills and there are a lot of Mexican neighborhoods in Houston and I spent a lot of time working in them. Every store in those neighborhoods had graphic novels on racks and they seemed to be very popular. These were in Spanish and since I learned to read initially from reading comics and figuring out the words from the pictures I decided to learn a little Spanish by reading these, which I did. Those graphic novels weren't like English graphic novels or comic books at all. The stories were pretty much the same kind of thing you'd see in TV shows of that era, 1960 to 1965. There were mysteries, soapish stories, westerns, love stories, melodramas, medical stories, etc. All were simple line art, often extremely nicely done, but never the sort of fancy artwork you see in comic books or graphic novels. Most were the size and thickness of paperbacks and contained 2 or 3 stories in a few hundred pages. There weren't any superheroes or anything of that sort. They mostly weren't action stories. They were normal and realistic stories and often a lot of fun to peruse. I had a lot of fun with them. I even learned a bit of Spanish. They convinced me that comics have real promise as an art form. I haven't read enough graphic novels to have any idea of that's been fulfilled. I have bought a couple but somehow I never get around to reading them. I hope TKAM graphic novel is a good one. It's a good choice of story for a serious graphic novel. It might just start a trend. Barry |
06-07-2017, 10:41 PM | #10 | |
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06-07-2017, 10:59 PM | #11 | ||
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But to me, the graphic novel is just another adaptation of her book. Like the movie was. That's less of an insult than publishing Go Set A Watchman or (good Lord!) turning locations around town into tourist attractions. Having said all that, in the end: too bad. You can't control the world from beyond the grave. They can publish every failed book she has tucked away in a drawer or turn To Kill A Mockingbird into an anime series. In the end, the novel will remain a landmark and really, that's all that can be asked. |
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06-08-2017, 12:54 AM | #12 |
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Absolutely. All you can do is will your estate to someone who you believe will follow your wishes. Beyond that, bad luck.
And anyone who thinks combing art with words is inherently "dumbing down" needs a re-education. |
06-08-2017, 05:38 AM | #13 | |
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My reaction to the original post was a lot like a previous poster, here's another money grab by the Lee estate. |
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06-08-2017, 05:51 AM | #14 | |
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06-08-2017, 05:56 AM | #15 |
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There's nothing inherently wrong with that - the estate is a financial asset to be commercially exploited to its maximum potential; the estate of authors are no different to any other estate in that respect. Whether this particular venture proves to be successful or not, only time will tell.
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