[Matt122005]

lol, ok.

So I'd say the focus of the light novel debate is mainly between the technical side and spiritual side. A technical "light novel" is a novel promoted and published as "light novel," regardless of the content. A spiritual "light novel" is one that appears to be a light novel in terms of content, regardless of its origin or pubisher.

I like what you wrote.

But it is true, Light Novels are really hard to accuratly describe.

However, it is not true for some people to simply say that the term 'Light Novel' is useless. Hardly.

Just like "short-story" and "novella" and "novel" are all technical terms used in literacy to describe works. So is "Light Novel" a new and emerging term, however more ambiguious.

The fundamental storytelling/writing characteristics of "Light novel" as a category of novel is basically undefined. The only reason that you can see so many so called "light novels" in Japan is just because there are certain publishers there actively promoting their works to teenagers, and they conveniently label their lineups as "light novels".

I agree to certain degrees. It is true that light novels are not always written in a certain way and vary to different degrees depending on the author.

Sometimes I wonder if the only thing that makes a light novel a light novel is its "anime illustrations, short paragraph style, and imaginative storyline."

Remember though, its the AUTHORS who chose to be published as a light novel. It was the authors who WANTED to have it as a light novel. So in essence, the publisher has nothing to do with this, because its the original author who saw the vision of what his/her book should become. These writers understood what they were writing was a "light novel", and all the publisher did was agree with their assesment.

Despite that it is being conveniently lumped with manga in this board, strictly speaking they are completely different in nature. Kagami from Lucky Star will surely give you a big whack if you claim otherwise

*Yells out to the public, 'be wary of Kagami's wrath towards those ignorant of light novels! be wary!* lol

You may start by checking out a few titles like "Ningen Shikkaku" or "Kokoro". The "light novel style" of covers may turn you away. But these critically acclaimed literature works, well respected locally and overseas for decades, were published well before WW2 and of course the anime and manga boom.

Right, the important thing is to remember that they came BEFORE anime or manga. Not to mention that the IDEA of short novels with illustrations came even before WW2, much longer. So in essence, Light Novels are the oldest part of the anime industry, and one of the hottest, especially with the youth of japan.

Basically the use of anime-style covers is just a gimmick to make the works more accessible to teenagers. It neither adds nor subtracts literature values, as your golden rule of "never judge a book by its cover" has been suggesting for centuries . Get one of the said books, peel off the covers and read the content. Your literature teacher will cry if you still say that that there is no literature value in it.

Well, I disagree on some points. Such as calling it a GIMMICK. For some maybe, but for many the authors genuinly want illustrations. For one thing, its more than just a COVER. There are internal anime illustrations as well. These illustrations aren't just a GIMMICK to attract readers, but are sometimes genuinly desired to accompany the written works by their authors. For example, Toradora!'s author always uses the illustrator YASU for her works because she likes his art style. She enjoys seeing her works illustrated. Keiichi Sigsawa as well almost always uses Kouhaku Kuroboshi to illustrate his light novel series because he likes his art.

However, the art should never imply a lack in literature value. For one thing, a good light novel can be read without illustrations and be just as great. For one thing, the writer writing it doesnt have illustrations, and the publisher who accepts it has to read it without illustrations. So essentially, illustrations simply add another dimension to the reading experience by allowing a visual component to enter into the equation.

This is the SDF series by Hiroshi Arigawa, an award winning writer (Seiunshou 2008, long story category) whose portfolio contains a number of "ordinary novels" and "light novels". The three books above belong to the same series. The publisher initially published the first book under the Dengeki label. Later it had been found that the book was doing better in the working adults market, and the publisher eventually printed the sequels under another label catered to adults.

My only question is, did the first book have internal illustrations? And secondly, did the sequals, even though their covers were not illustrated, did they also contain internal illustrations?

Another title which has been brought up earlier in this thread, GOSICK, is by Kazuki Sakuraba who has won the Naoki Sanjyuugoshou in 2007, a novel award well respected and well received in Japan. Interestingly, she has also written a number of books published both as "light novels" and "ordinary novels". The following is basically the same story published under 3 different labels. Sounds like fundamental market segmentation strategies in Marketing 101.

Depends, did the light novel version come first? Because if it did, just remember, the author WANTED it to be a light novel. And simply put, the publisher thought to make two other editions that would appeal to non-light novel readers as well, and the author agreed to it.

It's marketing, yes, but its not marketing to MAKE it a light novel, but rather to have it appeal to non-light novel readers. However, again, like the other series, did it have internal illustrations, and were these kept in the other editions?

I would say the fine line between "ordinary novels" and "light novels", arbitrarily drawn by certain publishers, is getting more and more blurred. While in literature sense, such a line has never existed at all.

Well, if its published by a light novel publisher, its going to have a light novel cover? no? So isn't that in a sense a distinguishing characteristic? Or perhaps, not the cover, but internal illustrations?

In terms of literature, your right. There are small differences, but nothing truly amazing. Its simply a different way of writing a story, but otherwise, its still just a unique novel. Depending on the book, it can have great literary value.

Of course there are light novels of poor quality, just as you can easily find poorly written works in US or UK. But making sweeping generalizations on light novels as a whole based on your apparently limited exposure to the genre, is as intelligent as calling Shakespeare's works crap just because there are porn novels in UK. To me, Japanese literature as a whole is in no way better or worse than English literature. While the latter should not be "underestimated" as you have suggested, it is counter-productive to "holify" it and reject works from other countries just because of differences in writting styles.

I totally agree, we shouldn't 'holify' light novels or reject works from other different countries. Light Novels are simply a unique type of novel that has large appeal. To call all light novels brilliant would be untrue, but to say a large percentage are, wouldn't be terribly wrong, but ofcourse would be either accepted or refuted depending on the reader.

But anyone who calls Shakespear's works crap, simply because of the difference in writing style, is very wrong to do so. Just like light novels have differences in writing style, in Shakespear's time, his plays were in a different writing style, but at the time they were published, it was normal. So you have to be able to appreciate the different writing styles of all writers from all parts of the globe and time.

Will teenagers who hate classic literature with a passion actually read more when more light novels are available?

No, they won't. Not if no one is advertising or making them aware of the fact that light novels even exist. lol

You mention scrapping the anime covers, but um, lol, you can only do that in Japan. In america, we don't have those slip covers like they have for paperback novels in Japan, so you can't scrap the anime covers. lol


There, I replied to your points in your previous post. ^_^

-Matt