 |
| Not my usual post, thought it needed a warning! |
I was in Barnes & Noble the other day, and noticed something that I found interesting: the Manga section outweighed the traditional Sci-Fi section by a factor of more than three to one. (I didn't check the Comic or Graphic Novel sections, nor the Fantasy section which has been split off from "Sci-Fi" where they used to be a combined "Sci-Fi/Fantasy" section.) I posted something about this on Facebook, wondering what kind of shift this reflects on our society, and had some interesting (although limited) responses (I think most of my Facebook friends are imaginary friends 🤣 - just kidding, I love you all!). Figured maybe it was worth a blog post. (Note: the framework for following was written by Copilot, and then updated by me. I'm an AI freak now, I guess.)
Topic: Manga’s dominance in bookstores reflects a cultural shift toward visual storytelling, emotional immediacy, and transnational engagement—challenging traditional notions of literary prestige and reader sophistication.
