[Ea]

Originally Posted by desertgrandma

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But see.......does that put me in the same class as the author of that article? Am I being a 'lit snob'?

Question. Is a graphic novel literature?

Good question. How would you define literature. I almost answered 'no' to your question, but then realised I wasn't certain that I wouldn't call graphic novels 'literature'. But on the other hand, it's also a thing into itself. You have to take the images into account when evaluating it, so graphic novels can't be compared 'straight' to written books. I do think though, that the stories being partly imagined visually does not make them worth less than written fiction. You 'read' images' just as much as you read words. Those images are not 'illustrations', they *are* the story in themselves. The best is created by visual artists who are no lesser artists than authors may be. As an example, I think it would have been possible to write Persepolis as a novel, but the artwork itself adds so much to the story (not that the artwork in Persepolis is outstanding - but it does relay so much that it would take many to tell).

Originally Posted by bill_mchale

The first is that unless the style is so bad as to be distracting (i.e., frequent obvious mistakes in grammar, or long passages of unconnected sentences, etc.), style rarely makes an impression with me. In fact, the post-modern emphasis on style over telling a good story has been something that has generally kept me away from "serious" literature.

I remember always having an interest (even of only slight) in 'good language' - but then when I tried writing a little bit of my own some years ago, it taught me so much about style that it's can't not notice anymore. And I've gotten much more critical - plus learned to enjoy books I'd never thought I'd like.

Originally Posted by lilac_jive

I read mostly fluff, but try to squeeze in non-fluff. I guess sometimes guilt gets to me, but mostly I really do enjoy reading non-fluff.

Sometimes I feel reading 'good' books takes just that little extra bit of energy - but when I do read them, the over-all experience is better and often make it up to me. Just like when you've waten junk food and get hungry again soon after, compared to a well-prepared, nutritious and tasty meal.