Essay 2 Paragraph draft

Your Name Subject and Section Professors Name March 3, 2025 [DRAFT] Analysis of Michael Chabon’s Kids’ Stuff Michael Chabon's essay Kids' Stuff examines the constraints and perspectives of comic books, seeing how they have always been considered low-level entertainment for kids rather than anything serious. Chabon challenges the idea that comics do not deserve artistic and literary value by using examples such as the Gulpens team. He argues that dividing children's and adult literature artificially inhibits creativity and prevents comics from being recognized as serious works of art. Instead, his argument is not an argument for taking comic books more seriously, though it is; it is a more ambitious argument about the social value a market would assign to literature. According to him, the literary establishment has always chalked up forms of storytelling that do not conform to conventional prose as children's entertainment or as unserious. However, as the comics have become more convoluted and more admired narratives, their growth into a mass market of mainstream publishing represents a sociological shift toward more literary recognition. Through historical analysis and cultural critique, he dismantles the arbitrary barriers that have long separated "high" and "low" art forms, ultimately advocating for a more inclusive understanding of literature. Historical Devaluation of Comics Throughout most of the 20th century, comic books were regarded as a second-rate form of storytelling, something trivial or even dangerous for young readers to be exposed to. Chabon highlights how comics were traditionally dismissed by critics and the literary establishment as "lowbrow" entertainment, lacking traditional literature's intellectual and artistic depth. Early comic books were often criticized for their supposedly simplified storytelling and formulaic plots, and he writes that these comic books were commonly excluded from taking much seriously in serious literary discourse. According to the text, "The ...