Talk:Calvin (novel)

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Category:Calvin and Hobbes

While clearly the author of this novel has chosen the characters' names, etc., as a nod to Calvin and Hobbes, I'm not seeing any evidence from secondary sources that this book should be categorized under Category:Calvin and Hobbes. See WP:CATV. 162 etc. (talk) 16:17, 6 July 2024 (UTC)[reply]

I think it's considerably more than a 'nod'. Do you want secondary sources to support the statement that Calvin, his childhood friend Susie, his hallucinated tiger companion Hobbes, and his quest to reach Bill Watterson, are deliberate references to Watterson's comic strip? DS (talk) 20:12, 6 July 2024 (UTC)[reply]

From WP:CATV: "The defining characteristics of an article's topic are central to categorizing the article. A defining characteristic is one that reliable sources commonly and consistently refer to in describing the topic." So, do reliable sources commonly and consistently refer to this novel as a Calvin and Hobbes book? 162 etc. (talk) 20:35, 6 July 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Reliable sources commonly and consistently refer to this novel as being about a teenager whose hallucinations are explicitly based on Calvin and Hobbes, and as having been the direct result of the author reading a Calvin and Hobbes collection. "When Your Brain Gets Transmogrified: BYU Professor Explores Mental Illness in Award-Winning Book Inspired by Calvin and Hobbes."

"(The novel) assumes an acquaintance with the Calvin and Hobbes comic strip." - Common Sense Media.

"Due to a series of coincidences (he was born on the day the last Calvin and Hobbes comic was published, his father wears glasses, he had a toy stuffed tiger named Hobbes when he was a kid, etc.) Calvin is convinced that he actually is the boy from Watterson's strip - Quill and Quire.

A boy named Calvin and a girl named Susie set off on an adventure with a talking tiger named Hobbes. Sound familiar? In her YA novel Calvin, Martine Leavitt mines her favourite comic strip to tell the moving story of a schizophrenic teenage boy on a singular quest to meet his maker and heal himself. - CBC.ca

Insider references to Calvin and Hobbes abound. - The Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books

The protagonist of the novel explicitly believes himself to in some way be, or be linked to, Calvin, the protagonist of the comic strip Calvin and Hobbes (it's schizophrenic delusion; don't look for logic). He is explicitly on a quest to find Bill Watterson, the creator of the comic strip Calvin and Hobbes, so that he can ask Bill Watterson, the creator of the comic strip Calvin and Hobbes, to create one last installment of the comic strip Calvin and Hobbes and thereby break the link he perceives between himself and Calvin, the protagonist of the comic strip Calvin and Hobbes. This novel is explicitly, inherently, fundamentally, and inextricably linked to the comic strip Calvin and Hobbes. To argue that the novel is so distinct from and unrelated to the comic strip Calvin and Hobbes to the extent that it should not contain the category tag "Calvin and Hobbes" is, I feel, an example of wilful blindness.

If we had a category "Works based on Calvin and Hobbes", this would obviously go there. But we don't, and barring more examples, we shouldn't; as such, it goes in the primary "Calvin and Hobbes" category. DS (talk) 21:39, 6 July 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Category:Works based on Calvin and Hobbes seems much more accurate, and I've updated the article accordingly. 162 etc. (talk) 22:26, 6 July 2024 (UTC)[reply]