I think I kind of know where I belong now, in the order of things. I may not really fit in class, and I'm not exactly your most approachable person around. I fail in life generally as a girl, and I can't seem to ever be consistent as a person anymore.

But I do know where I stand in my new CCA family, and I know what to do with my skills.

Thank you, SAJC photography, for making me your president. I shall do my best for you, because now I know where I belong once again.

You know what;

Heck with it, I'm going to upload some of my china shots here. Chemistry, I'm ignoring you!

& so I've been writing.

Hahaha, I know I'm supposed to post my reflections about China and Bali here, but I'm far too lazy to go and do it. So instead, I will post my slipshot article about "Why comic books can be considered as lit" that I did for SAJC's lit board. The funny thing is that I don't even take lit. OH GOD MY BRAIN FEELS SO DEAD.

To the lit people who read my blog, please don't slaughter me. I know my writing skills have become really quite terrible (the curse of the science fac!) and by right I currently know very little about lit beyond what we learned in sec school. I would be pleased to know your views on this piece should you actually bother to read it through, so yes, please crit as much as you like. The more comments, the merrier.

Graphic novels as literature

Graphic novels, or better known as comic books to you and me, are not exactly the most sophisticated kind of literature that you would pick up from your local bookstore. Printed on glossy pages with overly-muscular superheroes smashing the brains out of unfortunate supervillians, comic books look like the stuff made by and for the lovers of graphic violence.

Oh wait. Did I just call graphic novels a form of literature?

No, I'm not going to apologise. Nor am I going to correct myself. Graphic novels are rapidly being appreciated as a form of literature, even though they are not really true novels in that they have more graphics than text. So what if said graphics are usually decorated with exaggerated sound effects? That does not make the plot of the story any less deep. So what if people look disappointed when you tell them that no, you didn't read A Tale Of Two Cities but read The Batman instead? That mindset is starting to change. It may surprise the rest of the non-comic-geek world to find that Yes, there is some substance under the superheroes, and it's not made of Kryptonite.

Okay, so it may not be too much of a surprise. Anyone who's watched The Dark Knight would have realized that Batman was never really just a millionaire playboy who fought crime at night just for kicks. He had actually thought this whole superhero thing through, and his reason for keeping Gotham fairly villian-free wasn't just for charity. Batman fought for a reason, albeit a cheesy one (yes, I am aware that taking revenge for your dead parents has become exceedingly cheesy thanks to the over abundance of masked crusaders) , and he has real, difficult problems doing it. This was mentioned briefly in The Dark Knight, but it was never really explored as a theme. Bruce Wayne is not without a conscious ; he grapples with the moral issues that all lawmakers face. Is it right to take a life in the name of the law?

If it was, then Batman would have bumped off the Joker a long time ago. Yet he never does, even after the Joker continues killing more and more innocent civilians, even brutally disposing of the very first Robin. Batman beats himself up over this, but he still reasons with himself that if he did kill all his villains, he would be stooping to their level. So, he continues in his noble quest, letting himself get manipulated over and over again with various evil supervillians kidnapping civilians and loved ones, putting Batman in tighter and tighter spots. With each violent encounter, the man Bruce Wayne earns a new psychological scar, and the superhero batman become even more notorious in the city he protects. Surprisingly, some Graphic Novels do deal with a lot of soul-searching and philosophical mind games, just as much as any best-selling crime series or National Book Awardee. Which, incidentally, brings me on to my next point.

On October the 11th, 2006, something amazing happened. That was the day the National Books Foundation had announced the finalists for the National Books Foundation award, and one of the finalists for “Young People's Literature” was a Graphic Novel, American Born Chinese. It tells the story of a Chinese boy called Jin Wang, the son of Chinese immigrants, he struggles to fit in a predominately white school after moving from San Francisco's Chinatown to the suburbs. The boy's story is interwoven with the legend of the Monkey King, and a comical sitcom starring the buck-toothed Chinese stereotype cousin Chin Kee.

This incident was not without uproar. Writers across America slammed the decision: it was immediately labelled as “not a real book” and “not literature”. This was considered a bit strange by the rest of the authors across America, as American Born Chinese dealt with the issues of loneliness and isolation, which were common themes for this category, with an engaging storyline and admirable clarity. The National Book foundation had recognized Graphic Novels as being attractive for young people, and acknowledged that it can and would promote literacy among today's kids. And that doesn't even begin to cover the fact that it was addressing the cross-cultural issues that were obviously the focus of the comic.

Comic books are no longer the object of simple graphic fantasies. They deal with the drama that we call our lives, and they face the problems that we try not to acknowledge. Be they heroes or everyday kids with hyperactive imaginations, Graphic Novels provide an outlet for us to see our world in a different light, and to explore the human complex that we call ourselves.

So, before you start sneering at that little boy with his nose buried in the latest Marvel comic book, stop and take a flip through it yourself. You may be surprised with how similar it may be with your lit textbook.

My blog's not dead! Its just in a coma.