Picture Book Bunts (continued)

Since the above is about picture books, let's continue.

One day I was having dinner with my friends, and when we were discussing the current situation at the dinner table, I suddenly turned to discussing picture books. Everyone gives different definitions for picture books, such as: not just a picture book, it should have a story.... Of course, everyone is just sharing their views, and there will be no conclusions. But I took these opinions and asked a friend who draws picture books, and he didn't make a decision either. That...remembered that I had seen this book in an online bookstore, so I bought it and read it.

It's a book that collects conversations from 1987 to 1990, and then into a book, and then Miyazaki's conversations. By 2018, two new dialogues will be added, and then this dialogue collection will be printed: 18 teachers, 16 dialogues.

Dialogue is actually a difficult genre to read, and I was hesitant to buy it. Because the topic is often skipped, for example, when discussing A, it suddenly jumps to B, and there are some topics that are not very related.

After reading this book, I probably understood "picture book" from the masters in this way:

A picture book is just a structural term, which means that it is accompanied by pictures and made into a book... In short, I will not think about whether this is for children. Visual books are called "picture books", so we're not talking about Children Books, but Picture Books. (page 293)

...the frame of "children's book" should be removed to look at this work (picture book). In other words, there are books that children find interesting when they read them, and there are books that induce children to think deeply. ...A picture book is an infinite thing, it can be a picture book, of course it can also be a picture book, a photo book, with various faces. (pages 35, 36)

Words are the basis of picture books, and while conveying something through words, it also gives birth to pictures. (page 109)

Picture books should be diverse, because the world of children completely overlaps with the world of adults. It's like teaching kindergarten children what basic economics is. The problem is that such picture books are unlikely to be released in Japan, and they are difficult to sell. To put it bluntly, it is also because readers have established concepts about picture books. (pages 106, 107)

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While reading this book, I remembered the chapter on children's literature in "The Origins of Modern Japanese Literature" by Kaneto Kaneya. Karatani commented that the Meiji era had this to say about "children's literature":

Modern writers like to go back to infancy, as if there was some real origin there, but that's just making up stories about the "self". Sometimes they also make up psychoanalytical stories. However, there is no "truth" hidden in childhood. What hides from us is the system that produces psychoanalysis. We are all captives of the "maturity" problem. However, it is not the problem that we should really face. We are not immature because we have been isolated in childhood; (page 239)

Conscientious humanitarian educators and children's writers aim at "real children" and "real people", and criticize the content of education since the Meiji era; but the so-called "real children" and "real people" are just It is a product of the modern state system. Hannah. Oran said that the person who conceives a utopia is the dictator in that utopia. The educators and children's writers who conceived of "real children" and "real people" are such "dictators". Moreover, they are completely unaware of it. (page 246)

Does that mean that the children's books and children's books we are talking about are created for children to read with the vision of a "dictator" to some extent?

Back to the dialogue between picture book masters, Mr. Si Xiu mentioned that Nobel Prize winner Kenzaburo Oe once wanted to create picture books, but gave up in the end, because as a writer he could not use his own style to create picture books freely. , that is to say, it is impossible to create picture books with the words of adults. (page 141)

Therefore, the masters agree that creating picture books may seem simple, but it is not the case. It is true that the imagination of adults and the imagination of children cannot tend to be the same.

Therefore, when we read picture books, we should not think about whether it is written for adults or children, and read picture books freely.

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Extended information:

"Let's Talk About Picture Books" ( blog ) :

https://www.books.com.tw/products/0010881905?sloc=main

"The Origin of Modern Japanese Literature" (from blog ) :

https://www.books.com.tw/products/0010891783?sloc=main