What would you shoot out of the manga canon?
Kate Dacey asks: What Belongs in the Manga Canon?. By extension of course, she’s also asking, should there even be a manga canon? If you aren’t an English major (and why would you be) then you may not be familiar with the concept of a canon. Basically, a bunch of like minded folks get together and make a giant list of what they think you should be reading. Then some other people, from a different perspective, come along and point out the stuff they missed. Then you read it and wonder, ‘why the hell is this on the list’? Only don’t call it a list cause then you’ll look like a giant uneducated idiot. It’s a canon.
So go over and read the post because it discusses the points and pitfalls of making a canon. I’ll wait here.
The biggest problem I see with making a manga canon for an English speakers is that it means the entire canon is translated material. I think this would just make all the problems Kate discusses tenfold. By being translated the integrity of the original work is compromised. Of course, I’m all for translating because it means I get to read manga and I know that most translators do an excellent job. But still, that’s one layer removed from the original intent.
Are Americans really the ones who should be making a canon out of completely foreign material? Won’t we inevitably add works that appeal to our sensibilities without even realizing it? Other people will know more about unlicensed material than I will, but what about that?
What would we be saying with a canon like this?
I’m not entirely against the idea. It will be interesting to see what people believe is canon worthy through that American filter. What do a bunch of Japanese books say about our own experience? What do we see in these stories, especially those “masterpieces” that reflects our image?
Kate also mentions the issue of gender. Different perspectives is, of course, the canon’s fatal flaw. Shakespeare means half of what Kate Chopin means to me. How do you include everything that represents everyone? It’s impossible. Things will be missed, not because anyone wants to exclude them purposefully but because we just won’t see them.
I don’t know what the answer is on this one. I’m a huge fan of Top lists. Mabye we should do that? Lots and lots of Top 10 lists – with pictures.
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I like a Top Ten approach better than a stuffy “canon.” People don’t usually read manga for academia, they read manga for entertainment. I love getting critics’ recs, but I don’t think anyone (least of all kids) would want a homework-sounding list of “classic manga you must read to be a “true fan.”"
Right, and usually a canon is used just as you mentioned. A list of books to use in school. Hey, does that mean if there’s a manga canon that manga will be taught in schools???
Thanks for raising the issue of translation! It certainly complicates the issue, though I don’t think it’s necessarily a limiting factor: after all, most of us read such canon staples as Don Quixote, Oedipus Rex, Faust and Crime and Punishment in translation. (Heck, Chaucer and Shakespeare might as well be in a foreign language, given the differences in vocabulary and syntax!) That said, I got more out of reading Don Quixote in the original Spanish than I did from reading it in translation; the “music” of the prose just didn’t carry over into English. Reading manga like Sayonara, Zetsubou-Sensei reminds me just how much I’m missing when I read a translated edition.
I’m going to go add a footnote to my original entry encouraging folks to read your response…