There were two phases in my life when that was all I read. Graphic novels and manga. In my graphic novel phase, from Archie to Spiderman comics, to Pilgrim’s Progress, there were all I soaked in. The lights, the colours, the sounds and sparsity of words appealed to me for a long time. Although for works like Pilgrim’s Progress which is one of the best graphic novels I’ve ever read, I’d like to think there were more than enough words to keep me going.
Then several years later, after I was well and truly over that phase, I got into manga. I was looking for something at that time. I didn’t know what. But I was actively searching for something and the few stories I read were stimulating, intellectually and otherwise. For one, I spent half the time wondering if I could get back into drawing stuff like these, the other time was spent being immersed in the gripping storylines. Anyway, it was appealing for a while. Till it was not. And it was a rather short time indeed.
So, I think I’ve seen well-enough of both worlds to see why people would hesitate to get into graphic novels/ manga. I wouldn’t want to project the reason I stopped onto this, but I would like to give my best insight into why they may even want to get into it, but then at the very last minute, or after a few tries, they just stop.
The first would be, they may just be TEXT guys. I don’t know. A lot of people just prefer words. Seeing words enough to convey all the thoughts the author may have on the subject. With manga, the words may feel lacking. It’s like you read a page, and go, “Surely, that can’t be all you could say about this.” So yeah, for those that love descriptions of a simple mall that could spread well into a full page or even more, they would certainly not find manga as attractive as you would.
Or maybe, they’re not just a VISUAL person. I know people personally that stay away from the television for this exact thing. They just find it a struggle following visuals or understanding them for what they are most times. I’ve had a friend who brought her preference for prose over drama intro manga. She says she just prefers the structure of prose as opposed to the action-based drama.
This next one might be a little controversial, but I can talk about it with all confidence because it is something I faced and still sort of do. So, I think one of the biggest reasons people may not get into manga/graphic novels or hesitate to read it is because of a traumatic experience.
I wouldn’t want to get into mine because it is personal, and I know it differs vastly from person to person, but yeah, when you have had a negative experience with something in the past, you tend to avoid it. So, in this case, with manga, if you’ve got a bad past with it, you’ve got a bad past with it, and till you’ve consciously and subconsciously gotten over it, you’ll just have to avoid everything about it.
My last reason may not be classified as a big reason but through the experiences of others, it may be a determining factor against their reading manga and that is the COMPLEXITY. Some people may not just be used to the unique artistic style and find it difficult to read. Then you factor in how graphic it is and their sensitivity to the themes and genres featured, and you know, it’s a whole lot.
So yeah, I’ve not been able to read a graphic novel in a while as well. And these are simply my off the hat reasons why other people may go through this. Courtesy of #mondaybookprompt, I had the opportunity to talk about it. Would I venture back into it one of these days, we'll just have to wait and sew.
Images by Meta AI.
