I see what you are saying, I just am not in favor of more "binaries" and don't feel that they capture what is going on.

And I think, as we have talked about before, that DB shares so much in common with other adventure novels and crime novels that I don't think we need to call it hard or soft anything . . . .

For me, genre categories are fairly loose, and one term like "adventure" can accomodate stories that only have a few key traits in common.

Well, you misunderstand as I've never had a problem with you or anyone talking about "factors germane to the creation of myths" that might also appear in superhero comics. It's your slipshod logic taking such features as sufficient criteria for myths with which I take issue (and still do, since you're trying it again). This is easy enough to understand: disagreeing that superheroes are myths is not the same thing and in no way entails "tropes don't exist in superhero comics." The former is me, the latter most certainly is not. The same reasoning applies to symbolism. Just because a story has symbolism (what story doesn't for that matter?) doesn't mean it's mythic. That's about all I care to reargue about your myth stuff. Anyone can read that "name this avengers run" thread for a fuller refutation if he or she is so inclined.

The rank elitism of Ursula Le Guin

finocchio:

As I said before, I don't care if you don't agree with my specific interpretations. But whether you admit it or not, you've now made both posts that approve of some limited positive qualities in the "crude kids comics," and posts that assert that the standards of these comics are so incredibly low that any attempt to evaluate any positive qualities-- not just my "mythicity" approach-- must be some sort of elaborate psychological dodge.

Feel free to utter the appropriate Walt Whitman quote whenever the urge hits you.

So one mild fun-poking at some other elitist makes her Leslie Fiedler, friend to the tradition of the popular novel?

Okay, change David Boring to Dan Pussey if you prefer. Or has Pussey also sold out his authenticity to the vile world of the advertising shill?

I think the difference in our approaches here is that when you say the categories are loose, you're talking about their "in essentia" parameters. I was trying to answer your questions historically, as to why some uses of genre become not-so-loose.

"So one mild fun-poking at some other elitist makes her Leslie Fiedler, friend to the tradition of the popular novel?"

It makes her a defender of genre and you clearly wrong.

"As I said before, I don't care if you don't agree with my specific interpretations. But whether you admit it or not, you've now made both posts that approve of some limited positive qualities in the "crude kids comics," and posts that assert that the standards of these comics are so incredibly low that any attempt to evaluate any positive qualities-- not just my "mythicity" approach-- must be some sort of elaborate psychological dodge."

Facts don't get in your way and neither does logic.

Pussey is the main part of the logo for the fanta store, though it's unclear if he's compensated.