Archive for the ‘teenagers’ Category
The literature of comics
She said it took different skills to interpret the interplay of words and pictures in graphic novels – skills that were important in today’s highly visual world.
“You’re actually reading the pictures at the same time that you’re reading the words, so if you’re not used to it that can be very difficult. It’s something you have to learn.”
The above is a quote from Perth’s daily newspaper The West Australian and it was supplied to reporter Bethany Hiatt during an interview with me :) Last week I was interviewed about graphic novels and my research by Education Editor Ms Hiatt. My brain is mush due to thesis, but I actually made some lucid comments that gave the impression my brain is not mush :P On Saturday the article was published [1]. Some of The West Australian’s articles are reprinted online, but comics just don’t cut it. You can only read it if you’re in Perth and you’re one of those people who read the paper. What newspapers already know (and are desperately grasping for ideas on how they can make money from the younger generation who don’t read papers) I have now worked out.
I felt almost famous being in the newspaper. Unfortunately my fame is only among those older people who read the paper. I’m not denigrating the older generation of newspaper readers and I’m not sure what the cut-off age is, but when I txtd my friends to tell them to look for me in the paper, their answers were along these lines:
- Ignore me (it happens a lot due to most of what I txt being something totally random that I think is enormously funny but no one else does)
- Tell me to save the article for when we next met up
- Tell me he’d look at it at work on Monday
Inky Goodness
The longlist for the 2009 Inkys has been out for a while, but I’m experiencing some thesis induced insanity at the moment and the Inkys just remind me of all that YA reading I have to catch up on. You may notice Matata the reading cat has a predilection for classics, but she’s not averse to YA in between. I think she could out-read Inky the dog any day of the week.
When I first saw the list I thought the best book of recent times, The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins, outranked everything else, even the books I hadn’t read :P
But then I read Skim by Mariko Tamaki & Jillian Tamaki which utterly captivated me and The Hunger Games moved down my list. I hadn’t noticed Skim was on the Inkys list at first, but how could such a masterpiece of word and image (my two fav things) not be. I didn’t think its graphic novel-ness was the deciding factor in my opinion. But perhaps it was because it’s the combination of the words and pictures which I love so much, especially the full and double page spreads of illustration, with Skim’s diary creeping across the scene. My favourite is Skim and Lisa trying to summon the dead boy’s spirit in the woods, and missing him because they’re facing the wrong way (right). Its partial repetition on the end papers makes for a beautiful book design.
My favourite words in Skim are repeated in the blurb. The Inkys page also has them, but they missed the most important line (you can’t trust a dog with ink on his paws :P)
I had a dream
I put my hands
inside my chest
and held my heartto try to keep it still
The unusual angles, tantalizingly crossed out words of Skim’s diary and obscuring of Skim’s face so much of the time, until she finds herself and an unexpected friend, combine to make a work of art on a very different level to The Hunger Games. And I much preferred the UK/Aust cover to the Canadian.
Boys don’t cry
Update 25/08: nothing to do with the topic, but I had to amend view on Posse by Kate Welshman which I was reading while watching World’s Strictest Parents. I hadn’t finished Posse when I wrote I liked it. It starts very well, but deteriorates towards the end.
Even weird boys are afraid of their emotions – Special Topics in Calamity Physics by Marisha Pessl (Penguin, 2006)
Because I’m finishing my thesis and my research with teenagers is long since over, the only teenagers I have access to these days are sk8ers and graf artists. They’re not quite representative of teenagers in general, so I look elsewhere for what the rest of the teen population is up to. My latest source is about as representative of teens in general as the real kids I know, but perhaps not quite as real, because it’s the reality TV of World’s Strictest Parents. I’m desperate for anything to distract me from my excruciating thesis that I really should have finished by now.
I’m about to discuss reality TV because of the very real situation that occurs among boys and the men they become. I noticed this in previous episodes, but it wasn’t until the episode with a gay guy that I realized boys aren’t allowed to cry, unless they’re gay. Teenage boys brought up in our sexist world learn early on not to show “feminine” emotions like crying. If parents don’t model this behaviour, kids in the school yard will enforce it. Boys are “allowed” to show anger, particularly in the form of violence, or just plain avoidance of any emotion. As 16 year olds, the participants in World’s Strictest Parents are unlikely to realize that while they think it’s embarrassment at their mates seeing them cry that stops them, they’ve actually had 16 years of conditioning not to cry, from their mates, media and society in general. If any of these boys did cry and the producers chose to cut it, such manipulation by adults choosing to maintain this facade, would be even worse. I don’t think it’s the latter, tears from anyone make for good TV.
Research into Reading
I’m finalizing the literature review for my thesis. (I may even have a thesis to submit one day soon!) And I revisited two papers:
- “Is there a decline in the reading romance?” by Stephen Krashen and Debra Von Sprecken, and
- “Longitudinal study of the reading attitudes and behaviors of middle school students” by Terry Ley, Barbara Schaer, and Betsy Dismukes.
Krashen and Von Sprecken examined the results of a number of studies of children’s reading [1], including Ley, Schaer, and Dismukes’ longitudinal survey of 160 US students over three years as they progressed from sixth to eighth grade [2].
In their review of the literature Krashen and Von Sprecken looked at “how much children enjoyed reading” and concluded any decrease in reading enjoyment as children age is only slight. Most studies used a 5-point scale and the average was always above 2.5.
At no stage do children show a negative attitude toward reading. [3]
I can get that from the library!?
Justine Larbalestier blogged about borrowing books from libraries and how authors benefit from this.
On the big scale, borrowing books is good because that’s what keeps libraries alive: the more people who borrow books from libraries the more likely they are to be funded. And the more libraries there are the more people who are reading.
Scott Westerfeld had blogged about Love is Hell [1], which includes stories by him, Justine and others (eg. Gabrielle Zevin a remarkable writer, who loves her pup almost as much as i love mine). One of Scott’s loyal Westerfeldians lamented she would have to wait months before she could find it at a used book store. Justine suggested:
Maybe you could get your local library to order it in?
This idea is surprising to many teenagers, but every teen librarian grapples with how to entice teenagers into their library. I’ve written a literature review on the topic [2]. (Amira-la does know how rocking libraries are and like me is waiting (im)patiently for Love is Hell to arrive on a library shelf, altho our respective libraries are half a world from each other.)
Word and Image
I previously blogged about whether reading a graphic novel is equivalent to reading a conventional book. Some of the teenagers I talked to thought this wasn’t the case, but most of the librarians agreed it was – striving through their work to ensure young people encountered a variety of genres and formats in their reading, without making judgements on supposed “quality.”
I asked every group of teenagers what they would think if graphic novels were assigned as an English class text. Some teenagers thought this would be an “easy” option and it was the visual component which led to their demotion of the format as a “legitimate” text. These teenagers also happened to be those who had limited experience of the format. (Names have been changed to ensure confidentiality.)
Fourteen year old Anna believed,
People would choose the graphic novel without like thinking about it cause they’re like, ‘Oh yeah, it’s just a comic, it’ll be easy.’ But they won’t like think about like what you have to do. And they’ll just be like, ‘Oh it’s a change. And do that.’
Marty (age 14) said, “They’re not really books” and Jeremy (age 14) agreed, conjecturing that studying a graphic novel would compare unfavourably to a conventional book because it could not be studied it in depth.
That’s why we read more thorough books like The Red Cardigan [1] and stuff.
Are you sure you don’t like graphic novels?
When I held focus groups with high school students for my PhD research some of the things they said were very funny – David being a case in point, although it was more what he did that entertained us. (Names have been changed to ensure confidentiality.)
David (age 15) was an avid reader, but felt graphic novels were “too short, too simple,” preferring “more complicated” conventional books, which were “better.” At one point David’s classmate Mia (who was passionate about manga) felt his dislike needed reassessment. Her comment was inaudible but David reminded her that he was allowed a contrasting opinion. David had read Stormbreaker: the graphic novel (2006) by Anthony Horowitz, Antony Johnston, Kanako and Yuzuru, so felt he was informed on the issue. Despite his negative views, during the focus group he began reading Courtney Crumrin in the Twilight Kingdom (2004) by Ted Naifeh.
Researcher: Do you think you’d try reading any of them, these, after seeing them today? You seem interested in it.
David: Graphic novels? I still think they’re no better than picture books.
Researcher: Yeah? You’re just reading it because it’s there in front of you?
David: Uhmm.
All: [laughter]
Filtering is not the answer
Australia’s Rudd government wants to trial online content filtering through Australian ISPs (Internet Service Providers) as a part of their Plan for Cyber-Safety [1]. Material deemed inappropriate for those under 18 would be blocked, and on the way, adults (who did not opt out) would also be unable to view this content.
Senator Conroy has stated that Australians would be given the opportunity to opt-out, and that the scheme would therefore not be mandatory…
But a network engineer from one of Australia’s leading net suppliers, Internode, has challenged that assertion, arguing that there would be two black-lists. One would contain unsuitable and harmful material for children; the other would include inappropriate material for adults.
Mark Newton of Internode wrote in an online forum:
The much-touted ‘opt-out’ would merely involve switching from blacklist number 1 to blacklist number 2…Regardless of your personal preference, your traffic will pass through the censorship box.
Senator Conroy has since indicated that there would be a two-tier system: a mandatory one that would block all ‘illegal material’ and an optional tier that would block material deemed unsuitable for children, such as pornography. [2]
Are teenagers exempt?
U.S. President George Bush has signed
A controversial bill that would stiffen penalties for movie and music piracy at the federal level. [1]
NBC Universal’s lawyer Rick Cotton said,
The bill will give movie and music makers more tools to fight the tidal wave of counterfeiting and piracy of everything from medical devices to automobile parts to media by organized crime. That is at the core of what this discussion is about. It is not about teenagers. [1]
I’m so relieved to hear teenagers are exempt – that is what Mr Cotton means, right? Or perhaps he just means a few teenagers caught in the net won’t matter when we can’t afford this awful “tidal wave.” Those poor movie and recording companies, they’re going to loss all their billions and billions of profit – what will they do!?
Yaoi in the Library
Update: I made a mistake in this post and corrected it 11 June 2009.
I interviewed Librarian Ms Davilak at Hakea Park Public Library for my PhD research. (Names of people and libraries have been changed to ensure confidentiality.)
Hakea Park’s graphic novel collection was located in the YA area. When complaints were received about titles in this collection (at that time only from staff members before the title was put on the shelf), the title was investigated and if found to be unsuitable for teenagers, moved to the general (adult) collection and interfiled with ordinary fiction. One such title was manga of the genre Boys’ Love, which has themes of romance and love between two men [1]. This genre is aimed at different age groups, and includes Yaoi, erotic titles aimed at adults [2]. The title at Hakea Park had no explicit material – the two male characters only went as far as kissing. It was deemed to be unsuitable for the YA collection and moved to adult fiction. Young People’s Librarian Ms Davilak felt this outcome was acceptable, because the title had not been removed from the library. It was investigated by four librarians at Hakea Park and deemed suitable for teenagers. Ms Davilak explained, “We all talked about it. We decided that we would leave it where it was.” A fortunate outcome for gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgender (GLBT) teenagers and those questioning their sexuality who would benefit from finding such material in their YA collection. While Yaoi and Boys’ Love is generally created by and for women and McLelland believes,
Gay men tend not to identify with the beautiful youths in women’s manga and feel that these figures are figments of women’s imaginations. [3]
