Post by Citizen Snips Has Left on Dec 3, 2011 8:57:55 GMT -5
y'know what? that's a load of bull. I'm a literature major, too, I've read all those books and none of them had the cultural resonance that Watchmen did. but no, "it's a comic book and it wasn't written by some depressed russian guy, so let's just throw it in the comic book ghetto along with Maus, Astro City and Lee/Kirby's Fantastic Four".
Not to mention that the Watchmen has won awards such as being one of the"All-TIME 100 Greatest Novels" from Time magazine in 2005
Was number 13 on top 25 novels written in the past 25 years in 2008.
Maybe calling it "the greatest piece of literature of the 20th century" is hyperbole but it is generally recognized as one of the best novels ever written.
1. TIME Magazine is not exactly the foremost authority on great literature, in my opinion.
2. More glaringly, TIME Magazine and DC Comics are owned by the same parent company.
Again, I'm a huge comics fan, a huge Alan Moore fan, a huge Watchmen fan and a huge literature fan. I'm not even sure it's the best thing Moore's written (personally and depending on the day, I prefer From Hell and his Swamp Thing run, with Watchmen and League of Extraordinary Gentlemen being on about the same level), let alone one of the great novels of our time. It was revolutionary in the field of comics, no doubt. It's one of the best comics ever written (but again, the best?) But "one of the greatest works of literature in the 20th century"? I don't see it.
For every critic that puts something in the "ghetto", there's a fan shoving it into the "pantheon".