On a whim I ordered a copy this morning of the new graphic novel adaptation of The Great Gatsby, the original novel being mentioned briefly in the 7/16/2020 blog. I think the novel struck such a chord in people because it showed glamor and wealth with a seedy underbelly and because of its portrayal of two men, Gatsby and Buchanan, who are very materially successful but deeply flawed personally. The moral of the story seems at odds with the Protestant work ethic in the US, that there is a nexus between material success, morality, and religiosity. Fitzgerald was a fallen-away Catholic whose writing talent was “discovered” by a priest in high school.
Graphic novels are interesting. I blogged on 5/1/2020 about the difference between watching and reading. I read comic books a lot and a few graphic novels when I was younger and thought it was cool graphic novels were being taken seriously. I guess the Pulitzer-winning Maus, an allegory of the Holocaust, and a few others like Rep. John Lewis’ (who sadly passed away this week) March, a story of the civil rights movement, are used in college courses. I liked Frank Miller and Alan Moore’s work in this genre.
When I was a teacher, we spoke of some students being more visual learners. I suppose graphic novels are a way to meet them halfway on epistemology. The problem with straight comic books is not only that they are often frivolous for adults, but also that they can be taken too seriously by Hollywood filmmakers desperate for material and emotionally disturbed people like the 2012 mass murderer in Aurora, Colorado, who claimed he was the Joker from Batman. My brother observed that the Aurora shooting demonstrated the sometimes destructive power of myth.