Comments on: REVIEW: Sorcerers and Secretaries by Amy Kim Ganter

By: Jan

Jan — Sat, 29 Dec 2007 02:10:58 +0000

Oh, I’m very behind here. But Marianne, you’ve hit the nail on the head. When psychologists have tested eye movement and concentration of Japanese children vs American in reading manga, they read completely differently. Most Americans, especially as they get older, move their eyes from text bubble to text bubble, virtually treating the images like a wasteland. Japanese move their eyes in a continuous flow across the page, giving image and word equal weight. They learn at an early age to interpret images as major parts of the story. We have to train ourselves to do it.

I see it time and again in manga discussion. English speakers tend to found their arguments in translated words and ignore pictorial evidence. Once mangaka (manga creator) was concerned upon visiting the US that we didn’t understand her most popular story. That was because people read the hero’s harsh words, but failed to noticed his gestures that seem at times to oppose these, showing that what you heard wasn’t all it seemed. Now it has become clear in the story what she did and all of those people are mad saying it’s out of character, because they still just don’t get that they’re only reading half of what’s there.

It’s not a difficult thing to learn to do. But it can be difficult remembering to do it.

I’m so glad you enjoyed this Jayne. Thanks for reviewing it and letting people know I’m not crazy. ^___^

By: Marianne McA

Marianne McA — Wed, 26 Dec 2007 22:31:24 +0000

Probably not. What interested me, as a non-manga reader, was the detail my daughter went into when explaining parts of the story. As there isn’t that much text, clearly one reads the pictures – as must be completely obvious to everyone else, they’re not just illustrations. Somehow, I hadn’t really thought about how reading manga differs from reading text-only literature.

So, I sort of feel it would be a bit like having to learn a new language to read in, and I’m not sure that I’m a visual enough person to pick it up with any fluency. And, as I went on a book buying binge over Christmas, I’m pretty much booked up. I’ve a TBR pile of must be eight, nine books – which is huge by my standards.

By: Jayne

Jayne — Wed, 26 Dec 2007 17:13:00 +0000

Fantastic LinM. I’m so glad they arrived on time.

Marianne do you plan on trying them?

I’m glad both your daughters enjoyed this rec and Jan’s other ones.

By: LinM

LinM — Wed, 26 Dec 2007 15:51:45 +0000

Amazon cautioned that the books might not arrive until January but the parcel came in plenty of time for Christmas. The artwork is gorgeous and the story is sweet – the perfect books for Christmas night after days of wrapping, unwrapping, talking, hugging, eating, cooking, clearing up and immediately cooking again. Daughter is enjoying the books but she purely loved one of Jan’s earlier recommendations (the Viz version of TrainMan).

By: Marianne McA

Marianne McA — Wed, 26 Dec 2007 12:56:15 +0000

Haven’t read it, but thanks to the earlier review, Santa gave it to my fourteen year old yesterday. Thanks so much, because she really enjoyed it – had read it by the time they woke me up to show me what Santa had brought. She can’t wait to get hold of the second book.

By: Jayne

Jayne — Wed, 26 Dec 2007 10:58:05 +0000

It’s a 2 book series and looks to be available at amazon now. I remember earlier that some posters were commenting that at the time it looked like their shipments were going to be delayed until past Christmas and into January.

By: flash

flash — Tue, 25 Dec 2007 22:43:55 +0000

I’d have to agree, I’ve been slow to adopt to magma-style books. But when there is a good story and good illustrations, it makes the tale even better. This looks like another great series, thanks!