"Whoever reads books rules over those who live in the world of comics"

2024 Author: Seth Attwood | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 15:55

At the opening of the 32nd Moscow International Book Fair, discussing history books, the Minister of Culture of the Russian Federation Vladimir Medinsky criticized comics, noting that "the comic is aimed at a child who is just learning to read, but it seems to me squalor for an adult to read comics." …

In September, this became a topic of heated discussion. Our publication has repeatedly written about the art of comics and collecting them, so we asked the minister a question, in response to which he wrote a whole text.

Recently, several artists presented a comic strip "Heroes and the Minister of Culture" - a kind of funny "answer" to one of my remarks, said in passing at the opening of the Moscow International Book Fair. Extremely flattered by this sign of attention. But, given that it was not about comics at that time, but about teaching history at school with the help of comics, I would like to dwell in more detail on what a comic is in general, why some people think that comics are for those who are bad (so far bad) knows how to read why there is nothing wrong with being interested in this genre and collecting comics. And once again to answer the same question that sounded at the book fair: is it possible to study history from comics?

The first full-fledged American comic strip, Bears and the Tiger, is believed to have been published in 1892 in the San Francisco Examiner. However, scientists find the origins of comics as a separate genre in Maya drawings, and in medieval Japanese "stories in pictures" - future manga, and in European political caricature of the modern era.

Before the advent of "real" American comics, this genre developed in each country in its own way, with an abundance of similarities and the presence of national characteristics.

By the way, from time immemorial, pictures depicting all kinds of plots in the development were also popular with us. For example, “spiritual” stories in pictures existed for a long time in the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra (in this regard, I do not exclude that attempts to declare the ancestral home of comics Ukraine by Kiev researchers are already being made).

Church calendars were popular with us, containing "infographics" about when which of the saints should pray, all sorts of stories about miracles and monsters. Over time, secular pictures-luboks began to appear - with scenes from worldly life, edifying or humorous text. Sometimes they turned into a news source, effectively replacing newspapers. After all, the meaning was clear even to those who could not read. With their help, they learned about internal political and military events. At the same time, the authors, of course, processed the stories so that they were understandable to the illiterate.

After 1917, the new government continued to take advantage of the "popular propaganda". A similar principle worked in propaganda posters from the times of the Civil ("Windows ROSTA") and even the Great Patriotic War ("Windows TASS").

But over time, the target audience of "stories in pictures" in our country has changed. The campaign to eradicate illiteracy in the USSR led to the fact that children became the main consumer of pictures with texts. Remember the primer or, more clearly, the magazine "Funny Pictures". The child, growing up, moved on to the "more serious" magazine "Murzilka" (as I remember now: I read and looked at the adventures of Yabeda-Koryabeda at seven years old), then to the almost literary "Pioneer", as well as "Young technician", "Young naturalist "And the like, in which the only pictures are radio circuits and illustrations of the achievements of Soviet science and technology.

The classic comic book, the one that appeared in the North American states at the end of the 19th century, turned out to have its own, special path. From a way to attract the attention of immigrants who did not know English well, it became a cult phenomenon, one of the popular genres of mass culture. Especially before the era of television. "Comics 'led' the average American family from generation to generation, creating a stable 'frame of reference' and ideological norms," - say the researchers of this phenomenon.

Although the concept of "comics" arose from the English comic - "funny", over time, most American comics have lost their original comic, adventure, fantasy, horror and so on have become their genres. Superman appeared in 1938, and later dozens of other superheroes, from Captain America to Batman, from Iron Man to Spider-Man. Added their own policy: during election campaigns, America's heroes save the "right" candidates and defeat the "wrong" ones. At the same time, the average American spends his whole life in the company of the same heroes - and so on from generation to generation. “These characters are intertwined with his early childhood memories, they are his old friends. Passing with him through wars, crises, job changes, divorces, comic book characters turn out to be the most stable elements of his existence. " The comic has become a collectible and there is nothing special about it. Someone likes to collect coins, someone - stamps, someone - comics. The usual thing.

Today the history of comics as a cultural phenomenon is being studied, dissertations are being defended on them, scientists are introducing special terms and conducting scientific discussions. For example, whether text is creolized, isoverbal or polycode used in comics.

But let's leave the study of this phenomenon of mass culture and its influence on the consciousness of scientists, and collecting - enthusiastic. Let's try to briefly answer the starting question: why can't you learn history from comics? Why can't we put it on the comics of Pushkin, Dostoevsky and Tolstoy?

Today in popular messengers there are many ways to help convey an idea, color it emotionally - with the help of "gifs", "smiles" and other pictograms. But the main means are still letters and words. So the book, a coherent written text, remains and, I hope, will remain the main source of our knowledge. But the book is not only a "source of knowledge". Books develop imagination and thinking much more effectively than prepared portions of illustrated or video information, perceived with minimal mental stress. Therefore, any book, even light, entertaining, develops imagination, intuition, creativity better than any ready-made pictures or video. But that's not all.

Reading as a process is not only a training for imaginative thinking. Serious reading is work, one might say, fitness for the brain. Remember the cunning Tyrion, the hero of "Game of Thrones", who never parted with books on a campaign. Jon Snow asks him at a halt: “Why do you read so much? Why do you need it?" “My brother is a knight, his weapon is a sword,” Tyrion answers him. - My main weapon is the brain. Reading sharpens it, this is the best training for my weapon."

Training with comics - no offense to anyone - is not the best thing to offer an educated adult brain. Rather, it is a great physical exercise for a preschooler. What's great in first grade hardly applies at university. A university student with "Funny Pictures" and a primer under his arm runs the risk of provoking an ambiguous reaction from others. But this - I will emphasize - is my purely personal opinion.

However, there is one more factor determined by the specifics of the genre, which mainly illustrates the words and thoughts of the characters. In almost any comic book, the character receives an unambiguous assessment: good versus bad, hero versus villain. But any historical figure (or hero of classical literature), any historical event does not lend itself to computer logic, or, in the language of specialists, to a binary system for describing the surrounding reality. Reading books, studying sources, we build a voluminous picture of personality, events, we reflect, analyze, try to give our own - yes, subjective, but meaningful - assessment. It is almost impossible to convey such a complicated perception in comics, more precisely, it will no longer be a comic strip at all, but some other kind of art. The classic comic is yes or no, black or white. Like this.

The comics have many passionate supporters and many arrogant opponents. The stupidest thing is to artificially limit them or promote them just as artificially. But still, let's read the books. It is known that who reads books always controls those who watch TV. Likewise, those who create comics always control those who consume them. Anyway, do not forget one of the meanings of the famous novel by George Orwell: "Who controls your speech controls your thinking."