Monday morning links!
First of all, for anyone who may have missed it, last night saw the first post here by guest blogger, Deanna Gauthier! As I mentioned around the New Year, she’s going to be turning up here on a regular basis to share with us all her wonderful enthusiasm for manga! Please read her self-introduction here, and take a moment to say hello! Deanna’s posts, by the way, will not appear on my livejournal, so keep your eyes open for them here at the main blog!
Secondly, a couple of Manga Recon links: Michelle posted her Picks of the Week over the weekend, including NANA volume 14 (*heart*) and a whole slew of other fantastic shojo titles. Go check it out! Also, in today’s Manga Minis, I review Tokoyopop’s Princess Ai: The Prism of Midnight Dawn.
Lastly, Matt (see, I can do it, really) at Rocket Bomber made a fairly lengthy post that was partly spurred on by my questions regarding age portrayals in Lucky Star and Shugo Chara! (which had been, in turn, inspired by a previous post of his). Matt’s whole post is worth reading, but I wanted to address one point in particular, because it is near and dear to my heart.
Something I’ve stated many times over the years is my belief that the reader/viewer/listener is the final collaborator in any work of art, and that not only should artists embrace that as undeniable truth, but that they should also realize that this is what makes their art so powerful in the first place. The reason art in all its many forms is able to touch people so deeply, is that once it has left the artist’s hands, the audience is able to take it into their own minds and hearts and make it uniquely theirs, bringing all their own beliefs, feelings, and experiences into the work. This is not something the artist can control, which doesn’t sit well with everyone, but I’ve always thought it was what made art worthwhile.
In Matt’s post, he uses this idea mainly as a defense of pornography, which is not something I’d ever considered but it actually works incredibly well. Go read and see what I mean!
That’s all for the moment. Happy Monday everyone!
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