Neil Gaiman Defends Comics’ Honor

Not really, as comics' honor isn't at stake, but the author and comics writer punches a big hole through the gut of an argument by Wired's Tony Long that Gene Yang's recent National Book Award nomination for American Born Chinese is undeserved because, basically, no comic deserves that kind of an award. Gaiman's response is that this has been going on for a while now, and you need a more compelling argument than Long's derision-filled retreat to first principles when you're talking about example seven than when you're talking about example one.

I might be sympathetic to a version of Long's argument that stressed the difficulty in comparing apples to oranges as opposed to a rambling assertion that oranges aren't in apples' class -- I always thought it a waste of time the number of non-comics efforts that win comics awards -- but I think it's pretty obvious that those involved have thought it through to the point where they know where that argument is coming from and just disagree with it. Mostly, I don't care about awards, although this one does involve cash, which is a step in the right direction.
 
posted 2:37 am PST | Permalink
 

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