Murphy says Manga/Manhua is a Language of Symbols -- and other stuff.

The post title is stupid, but it's hard to think with a cat meowing at me and trying to sleep on my arms while I type.

I've toyed with Manga, anime, and various modern Asian literary forms since 2000 or so. I've been dipping into Chinese and Chinese influenced SF and fantasy for a bit, both from Asian authors and non-Asian authors trying to represent the culture (for example, Snake Agent and Bridge of Birds, as well as The Three Body Problem and Ninefox Gambit). I have started into several Light Novel/Web Novel series as they've appeared in translation, danmei in particular, much of it in various takes on Ancient China (some silkpunk, some wuxia, some just various flavors -- the tags and labels get crazy specific).

Manga in particular is complicated, because it is a symbolic language from another culture. I was born in the US and raised on the tropes and symbols of American comics, so I understand that when I read it, but Manga seems to be even more complex and layered.

And I kinda wanna talk about it, but I don't know how to start! I find myself getting defensive and ducking out! (Because Mental Illness woo hoo!)

So, if there's someone else around here who has read, for instance Heaven Official's Blessing, or is desperately awaiting the next issues of The Other World's Books Depend on the Bean Counter, or really wants to know what the heck silkpunk is (I'm also not sure, but I know that Stars of Chaos: Sha Po Lang is it), let me know!

For instance, several of these series deal with m/m relationships, sometimes downright graphically, and sometimes as just the complicated romance underpinning a much larger story, and that brings up a lot of questions and thoughts. Many of them deal with ideas of morality, mortality, the problems of communication in complex and strict societies -- lots of good stuff to dig into! Also sword fights and people flying in the air!

So, dig in with me!

>1 Murphy-Jacobs: You mention so many interesting books! I've read Bridge of Birds ages ago - I remember nothing about it, but I know that I liked it. Ninefox Gambit - I started rereading this series last year, with great pleasure.

Have you read The Black Tides of Heaven and the rest of the Tensorate series? I think it's silkpunk... The first book is the weakest one in the series (according to me, at least), but I am glad I persevered.

>2 Alexandra_book_life: I am reading it currently, as a matter of fact :) although it isn't grabbing me very strongly at the moment.

Bridge of Birds is the first of a trilogy with the Story of the Stone (which won't link properly) and Eight Skilled Gentlemen. Reading them was delightful and I have never reread them mostly because I worry the charm won't stand up to a second read...seriously, it was just that good for me. I read them some years ago and spent an inordinate amount of time finding the second and third books (and far more money than I should have had to -- and as soon as I bought the last book, an Omnibus edition appeared for less than I paid for it!)

Ok, this is my manga gushing post, and I'm gonna gush!

I"ve long had a "thing" about m/m romantic and sexual relationships in fiction. I blame it all on falling in love with Star Trek TOS when I was 11, and the first fanzine I ever read when I was 14 which featured some (very good) K/S fanfic (and some other goodies, like an Uhura/Chapel story). The interest waxes and wanes. Sometimes I'm not interested in romance of ANY sort, sometimes I enjoy romance combined with a ripping good story. The last 6 months, I have fallen into BL Manga and danmei light novels, much to the detriment of my budget (as such books are not usually library fare, no matter how 'clean' and mild they are). My list of beloved books is growing (and the torment of serialized story reading is MINE, dammit). The latest is Cherry Magic!:30 years of Virginity Can Make You a Wizard (which, mysteriously, while being listed on this site, resists being a touchstone).

I'm comforted in my feelings of awkward fujoshi-ness by noticing at least 142 other members have books from this series. Manga, I realize, has a particular aura about it, related to but different from the 'comics geek' aura. BL manga in particular just has that "oh no you didn't" feeling, and to fit the proper stereotype I should be a teenage girl fighting for my particular fan fic ship, right? Of course, TV tropes attributes the origins to middle aged suburban moms :) in the 1960s/70s.

Anyway, thesis ideas aside, Cherry Magic is JUST SO DAMNED CUTE! This much cute would usually turn my stomach. I've eschewed it and avoided it in so many forms, rolled my eyes at other BL/Romance manga, and found nothing to value. In high school, I took great delight in snagging the bodice rippers my friends had and doing dramatic readings of the back cover blurbs at the lunch table. I could never get through the first chapter of any of those (I could NOT manage Flowers in the Attic which was the hot series in my high school. I was reading Dune and Valis)

Manga, like a lot of genre lit, has tropes, and the handling of those tropes is what makes or breaks the book (I spend too much time on TV tropes, and in literature classes). Cherry Magic is handling the tropes with gentleness and care, playing them nicely and with affection. Yes, I still occasionally want to whack characters upside the head and tell them "HEY! Communication is the KEY to relationships!" but I didn't know that at their ages and, yay, I'm watching them learn that important truth. Maybe that's what I enjoy about the book -- the characters are LEARNING those life lessons in the cutest, most charming way, and I'm delighted by it.

Also, Cherry Magic involves adults, not high school kids. I must admit, I get a touch squicked by the teen romance stories, perhaps because my own high school love life was the stuff of boring bad dreams and I don't want to go there. The BL I've liked best has all been about adults, and, I am just now realizing, adults who are heading into their middle years caught up in the fetters of making a living and getting along in the world, alone and lonely and trying not to mind it. When love shows up for them, they don't know what to do about it because they are aware there are norms and expectations and a whole world to consider, and they have years of being disconnected from their own preferences and desires in order to not make waves or upset those around them. That's a complication to which I can relate. Watching characters navigate those shoals (in the cutest way possible) works for me.

It doesn't hurt that I really enjoy hot guys (girls are great, and I can appreciate a lovely woman, but it isn't my favorite flavor, and besides, there's plenty of GL manga, too, but I'm not talking abot it) so that part is fun. That part is a LOT of fun.

And since I'm all about the cute here, I give everyone some cute for the day that should be generally acceptable :)