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Playing With Kiddie Dynamite: Commentary on Michael Chabon's The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay |
| Section: BOOK WORLD / COMMENTARY |
| Author: Tom Deignan |
| Publication: The world & I online |
| Issue Date: 2/1/2001 |
| Size: 3,218 Words, 19,490 Characters |
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It's not hard to imagine the great works of American literature as comic books. Think of Huck and Jim diving into the Mississippi, in a colorful explosion of white foam and splintered wood, just as their raft is destroyed by a steamboat. Or think of Gatsby, a soft-focus silhouette at dusk, staring out at the harbor with its flashing lights. Such imagery is easy to imagine, not only because these are memorable and vivid archetypes, but because there have already been countless versions of "classic" comic book lit. In fact, as American as the comic book is, foreigners such as raging King Lear, or even suffering Job, have found their anguished words floating above their heads in white balloons.
The purpose of comic book "classics" is obvious: to make literature more accessible to kids. ...
. . .
...award him the presidency of General Motors, a contract with Warner Bros., and a penthouse on Fifth Avenue with a swimming pool in the living room, he would have greeted this, too, with the same dreamlike unsurprise."
This is, of course, just a moment of euphoria. But not for nothing does one character later say: "I wasn't aware that Nazis read comic books." That's just it--they don't.
(806 of 19,490 characters)
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