Re: [News] Japan's New Export

"Fata Morgana" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote in 
news:[EMAIL PROTECTED]:

> 
> "Peter Van Huffel" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote in message
> news:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>> "Fata Morgana" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote in
>> news:[EMAIL PROTECTED]:
>>
>> >
>> > "S.t.A.n.L.e.E" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote in message
>> > news:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>> >>
>> >
>> >> To call manga 'Japanese comics' is like calling a painting
>> >> by Michelangelo a picture.  Both are true statements and both
>> >> are utterly insufficient and degrading.
>> >
>> > Pshaw.  There's nothing insignificant or degrading about the word
> 'comic.'
>> >
>> > Fata Morgana
>>
>> Please *read* the original statement, before replying in such a way.
>> Nowhere has been said that "comic" is degrading or insignificant.
> 
> I misread the word "insufficient", but the word "degrading" does indeed
> appear in the statement.  Which is all beside the point - it's still
> pretentious to think that Japanese comics are somehow ultimately so 
superior
> to American ones that they need an entirely new word to describe them.  The
> ONLY reason I use the word manga in place of 'Japanese comic' is that it's
> more terse.

You obviously have a twisted logic, because you're reading things that have 
not even been said. Noone said something about "superior", the statement was 
about being "different"!
In the universe of SEQUENTIAL ART, there are many different genres. Calling 
french "bandes dessinées", "french comics" *is* degrading. Calling "manga" a 
sort of "Japanese comics" is also degrading. The reason why? Not because 
"comics" are inferior (which is what you seem to think what was meant by it), 
no, because "manga" *are different* from "comics".
In your logic, you wouldn't mind me calling an x-men-comic an "American 
manga", I hope?

No sir, it can only be out of arrogance that you think that everything abroad 
is a derivative of what you have at home.

Yes, let's continue in the same vein and make some other derivatives, most of 
them I've already seen in the past and they make me cringe (trying not to 
shock people here, but it's to make my point clear):

mosque = Arabic church
cosmonaut = Russian astronaut
ramen = Japanese noodles

Such descriptions are generally used to give children a point of reference, 
but once you grow up, you should outgrow this and start using the correct 
word for things you describe, because the correct term will be infinitely 
more accurate. It's also simply a matter of respect towards another culture 
to use the original word.

>>
>> I'll give you a hint: it's not because we think "comics" as a word or as a
>> genre are insignificant.
>>
> 
> How old are you?  As I said before, there's nothing degrading or

Probably a lot older than you.

> insufficient about the word "comic."  To demand that we don't call them

And you are really stubborn, because I repeat for the nth time that I nor the 
original article said that comics are inferior. It's the combination of the 
two "JAPANESECOMIC" (I'll write them as one word, maybe you'll finally see 
it) that's completely insufficient. Maybe you don't realize it, but to most 
people I know (ie non-americans) the word "comic" is very closely associated 
to sequential art produced in America. As such: the Japanese do not produce 
"comics" to me.

> comics is like demanding that we come up with a new word for "film" in
> reference to Japanese cinema, since "Seven Samurai" and "Ran" are obviously
> *so much more* than films.   By saying that, you're basically ignoring all

That's an incorrect comparison. By your logic, I should search for new words 
for "book", "magazine"..., because they can be foreign? Do not confuse the 
form with the content.

> the American comics that are superior to the dreck surrounding them.  More
> importantly, you're ignoring the exceedlingly high amount of manga that is
> pure dreck.  Most manga sucks ass; as do most American comics.  Remember
> Sturgeon's Law.

I knew that 25 years ago, your point being?

-- 
Peter
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