Another article discussing the abundance of gruesome and depressing topics in Young Adult literature...why do adults (who publish and read J.M. Coetzee, Jodi Picoult, Chuck Palahniuk, Toni Morrison and the like) continuously seem surprised that teenagers look to literature for the same reasons they do; entertainment, education, catharsis, provocation. Why do so many adults need there to be such a separation between adult and young adult fiction? In the 1930's Melvin B Tolson wrote, "Somebody has to black hisself/ For somebody else to stay white." Perhaps it is this same perverse logic that drives the adult need to see teenagers as distinctly different so as to make their adultness seem more precious and profound.
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THIS! yes. I have a friend who is writing a book and over and over again she is told that it would be excellent YA. She hates this and rails against it and doesn't understand it.
ReplyDeleteI think it means she hasn't read YA for a very long time and is prejudiced against it. And that makes me sad.