A couple of comments on my initial post about our new manporn column have expressed a certain amount of levity at the prospect. Obviously, manporn is somwhat funny in and of itself. I thought that I might explain a bit more briefly about why I want such a column on this site.
Basically, I think yaoi is pretty fascinating. It’s a genre that for the most part didn’t exist in the U.S., but which obviously has a large appeal. As such, I think it’s worth thinking about and talking about — especially since the critical reaction to it from most other corners of comicdom tends to be disbelief and ridicule.
So…Kinukitty is very funny, and I expect the column will be as well. But I don’t think yaoi is intrinsically any more ridiculous than super-heroes or alt comic autobio, or whatever. Yaoi is more unfamiliar, of course…which is the reason to have a column about it.
Update: Kinukitty’s first review of Blank Slate is now online.
I know that yaoi is about guys doing it, but otherwise I don’t know much about the subject. When you say the genre “obviously has a large appeal,” do you mean over here or just in Japan?
It’s very popular in Japan, but it also has a fairly sizable following here. There’s a fair bit of crossover with slash communities.
Yaoi is explicit romance between men, created by women for women. Shonen-ai is a less explicit variant — presuming I have my genre distinctions right.
I dunno… Seems like porn by definition is more ridiculous than alt comic autobio. Alt comic autobio may be boring, cliched, or mundane at its worst, but such material deals with real life, rather than a fantasy world in which everyone has fabulous hair and sex every few pages.
That doesn’t really describe any of the yaoi I’ve seen though. Yaoi tends to be much more like romance.
Alt comics autobio, I’d argue, is about as ridiculous as it’s possible to be in its assumption that anyone would want to read it.
noah, but you don't really care for the genre of memoir, as i recall. but it's a really popular genre of writing, especially right now.
(yeah, i had to step in & defend my autobio honour. now i'll run off back to my passover-land for the next day or so.)
Ah, I’m just cranky because I had to read Jeff Brown’s latest for a review. I like some autobio stuff (Ariel Schrag, James Baldwin….)
I think most genres look weird and arbitrary from outside, was really my point.
And, hey, happy passover! It’s been fun having you commenting again a bit.
Then there’s your guy C.S. Lewis. Surprised by Joy is a wonderful book.
I haven’t read that, embarrassingly. It’s definitely on the list, though.