serious novels and silly novels

[Extrocomp]

I used to believe that a novel was an indication of a serious story and that a silly story couldn't exist in novel form. It seemed like a good idea. Many of the silliest film and TV series like The Simpsons, Futurama, Family Guy and Scary Movie don't have any novels based on them. And how could they? Surely their style of humor wouldn't be able to work without any visual medium. Because film and TV comedy usually relies on physical humor, I thought that if a story worked in a form with no pictures at all, it must be a serious story. Also, novels are the only kind of story that can be truly deep, because a novel can show you a character's thoughts and feelings and does not have any kind of time limit that's forced on movies and TV episodes.

But then I discovered that silly novels do exist:

Scooby-Doo movie novelizations (128-157 pages)
High School Musical novelizations and original novels (128-256 pages, 22 lines per page)
Hannah Montana novelizations and original novels (not really silly but it is a sitcom) (128-256 pages, 22 lines per page)
Garfield movie novelizations (112-208 pages)
Garfield's Pet Force novels (86-105 pages, 30 lines per page, 14,224 words for 1st novel)
SpongeBob Squarepants movie novelization (144 pages, 22 lines per page, 18,345 words)

So obviously I was wrong and any story can work without pictures. But do the novels mentioned above have any kind of depth? Is there any way to distinguish between a child novel and an adult novel? Both silly novels and serious novels can be less than 200 pages long so what is the distinguishing characteristic? Is it the size of the text? The number of words? The colors and pictures used on the cover? The presence of cartoon characters with big overlapping eyes?

It's difficult to know the number of words in a novel. Amazon.com and the Perma-Bound Books website both show the number of words for some novels and some novels can be downloaded, which makes counting words easy. But other novels, especially old ones, can't be downloaded anywhere.

So what is the difference between a silly/child novel and a serious/adult novel?

 

[Caliburn24]

Well, there is such a thing as silly adult novels.

Peter David's 'Apropos of Nothing' books for example.

And to me the the difference between kids stuff and adult stuff is the nature of their content. If the themes explored in a novel are too complex or too mature for kids then it is obviously an adult novel.

However today the vast majority of all novels and best selling fiction is written at around a 5th grade level. Heck I was reading Stephen King, Tom Clancy, John Grisham, Michael Crichton and the various old school greats of science fiction before the age of 13.

 

[Casi]

I would cite some other funny novels for adults:

Good Omens by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett
Discworld Books by Terry Pratchett
Pride and Pejudice and Zombies by Seth something or other

They do exist. Books with no other purpose than to be kind of silly. But I would also say that there are lots of books meant for young adult readers that are fantastic and better, in my opinion, than a lot of the adult literature out there.

 

[Canadave]

Three posts in and no one has mentioned The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy as a "silly" novel for adults? That's perhaps the ultimate indication that a book can have a completely ridiculous plot, be hilariously funny, and still manage to say something about society.

 

[barnaclelapse]

Some of Kurt Vonnegut's books would certainly qualify.

And anything written by Simpsons writer John Swartzwelder would, too.

 

[Cain]

Kurt Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse Five is silly and serious at the same time. Quite a lot of his books are. Stardust is another example of a silly "adult" novel.

 

[Winged Victory]

I would cite some other funny novels for adults:


Pride and Pejudice and Zombies by Seth something or other

I'm reading that right now! Very hilarious. Love all of the unmentionables, the ninjas, and I can't get enough of the zombie action!

 

[zakkrusz]

Another example is Japanese author, Nagaru Tanigawa's "The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzimiya". In addition to having plenty of sardonic humor curtesy of the main character's hillarious inner monolouge about the strange events and people he meets it also can be quite complex and serious with discusions on complex philosophical concepts like the anthropic principal. It's the first in a series, the next is due out here in the fall. There's currently 9 books in the series, so no shortage of material.

 

[Super Grover]

Has anyone read any Carl Hiasen (sp?) He writes humorous crime novels that are pretty good.