Last week, I posted a link to an article about the state of YA fiction. I want to start by thanking those who commented. You basically touched on everything I wanted to discuss but didn’t have the working brain cells to do so. Sarah followed up with a great post the next day and Dave’s post yesterday is another one to read on the topic. So I’m not going to rehash what they said. However, that doesn’t mean I don’t have a few thoughts of my own on the topic. Bwahahahaha.
Let me start by reiterating that I hated most of the “required” reading we had to do back in the Dark Ages when I was in school. Sometimes it was because the books really did suck eggs, at least to the teenaged me. Sometimes it was because it was easy to tell the teacher didn’t like the book. It’s hard to get excited about something you’re being taught when the person teaching has no enthusiasm for the subject. There were even times when I hated it because I’d already ready the book, usually several times, years before. It’s never a good thing to let the Amanda get bored. It’s worse to do it in school where there’s no outlet for the boredom.
However, back then the required reading didn’t revolve around whether or not the book or story was socially relevant. The required reading was the classics: The Canterbury Tales, Beowulf, Shakespeare, Austen, Poe, Bronte, Hemingway and Steinbeck to name a few. There were the ancient Greek and Roman tales, translated into language we could understand. We went through the debate of whether or not Catcher in the Rye should be taught or if it was too explicit for our high school selves.
What we were doing, in short, was reading to study the writing. It was literature class at its best and worse. Things were put into historical context and we were offered a window into the world of the author. Sometimes it was something we enjoyed. Sometimes it wasn’t. But the novels and stories weren’t used to beat us over the head in an attempt to make us into “better, more politically correct and socially conscious” people.
Yes, we read Huck Finn and Tom Sawyer before the text was sanitized as it has been in some school districts. When we got to the N-word, we discussed it. We discussed it in the context of the time and compared it with current day. We didn’t need to have it removed from the book to know it was bad. We weren’t idiots and we knew better than to use it. Hearing our classmates who were African-American discuss how the word made them feel only reinforced our own abhorrence for the word. Of course, when we asked them why it was bad for the rest of us to use the word but not for them, it gave them a moment of pause and, for the most part, they quit using the word as well.
What we came away from in those classes was the acceptable social and political stances at the time something is written will not remain stagnant. Just as people change, so does society. Sometimes that change is for the good and sometimes it is for the bad. But nothing stays the same. However, those novels written a hundred years ago — heck, those written fifty years ago — give us a window into the world at the time. They help us understand what the world was like back then. By removing those now objectionable terms or phrases, we do not help anyone.
There’s a quote that says, “Those who cannot remember the past are doomed to repeat it.” I’ve most frequently heard that applied to the Holocaust. However, it can apply to just about anything in our past. That’s why it is dangerous to sanitize literature from the past to meet today’s socially acceptable sensibilities.
Let’s play a little game. One of the most popular series in Young Adult literature in the last few years has been the Twilight series. Anyone who is a frequent reader of this blog knows I’m not a big fan. To me, the only thing the series has going for it was it did have a lot of girls — and women — reading it. Reading is good. But sparkly vampires are bad — unless they are sparkling because they stepped into the sunlight and burst into flame. I could make a case for the fact that there was more than a few sexually deviant themes in the series as well. After all, the so-called hero, Edward, is hundreds of years old and pines for a minor female who is, at least through most of the series, human.
What would happen to that series if, at some point down the road, it is no longer socially acceptable or politically correct to have a romance between a vampire and a human minor? Do the publishers go back through the books and change things to fit the current acceptable standard or do they just no longer print the book, even if it is still selling? What if it is no longer acceptable to have magic in a book? Does Hogwarts in the Harry Potter series simply become a boarding school and all references to magic and potions disappear?
On another blog, MGC was accused of wanting to censor what is published. That is pretty much the farthest thing from the truth there is, as should be evidenced by the previous couple of paragraphs. When it comes to YA literature, what I want to see are books our youth wants to read. Almost any parent out there knows the pain of having the summer reading list handed out and first having to find the books and then having to get your kids to read them. Why is it a struggle to get kids to read these books, even kids who love to read? Because the books are, on the whole, chosen by adults who look at the list as a teaching tool, something to make the readers into better people. Of course, they are also defining what “better” means. That’s why there are so many books about drug abuse, sexual identity issues or abuse or both, mental illness, homelessness, etc. etc. etc.
Tell me, how many kids want to read this sort of thing on their summer vacation and aren’t there better ways to teach our children about these issues?
There’s another problem with YA literature right now. YA generally is defined to cover tweens and teens. What is appropriate for a sixteen year old to read isn’t necessarily appropriate for an eleven or twelve year old. As a mother, I threw a fit when my ten year old was given a book to read over the summer that had a graphic rape scene in it. It was not appropriate, but it was on his summer reading list WITH NO CONTENT WARNING. However, had he been fifteen or sixteen years old, I might not have been happy, but it would certainly have been easier to discuss what happened with him.
What I want to see are stories written that are appropriate to the age group. I want to see stories that aren’t all downers or feel like the kids are being preached to. If our children and teens don’t enjoy the stories they are reading, guess what: they’ll quit reading. Our teachers and education administrators — and our politicians — have to realize there are other ways to teach our children about being responsible members of society without forcing them to read about drug abuse and teen pregnancy, etc. As the article said, if they read it often enough and at the behest of authority figures, they are going to draw the conclusion that those same authority figures expect that sort of behavior.
We should use literature to help our kids dream and to reach for the stars. We should use it to give them a window into the past, something they can remember so the mistakes aren’t repeated. We have to remember that if we make reading a burden or so boring and depressing that they don’t want to do it, we will have yet another generation that turns to other forms of entertainment. There is a reason why movies with superheroes and exploding spaceships do better at the box office than the latest critically acclaimed, socially relevant movie. It’s entertainment and lets the viewer imagine a different world for a couple of hours.
Is there a place for books that are socially relevant? Absolutely. But they are not and should not be the only things our schools and pols want our kids to read. As a parent, I don’t want the government deciding what is “socially relevant” any more than I want it telling me what I should feed my kid. After all, just as soon as it is decided that something is good or bad, society changes and so do the rules.
And this is where we, as parents or concerned friends and relatives have to take a stand. We have to let our school districts know what we think about the curriculum they are offering. We need to be involved in what our children are reading. We need to object loud and strong when we discover that districts refuse to teach a classic unless it has been sanitized. What a wonderful teaching tool it can be to take a book written 150 or 200 years ago (or about that time) and discuss the differences between then and now. Yes, it might go against current sensibilities, but that makes it a teaching opportunity, not something to hide from. We need to be reading what is out there as well. As authors, we need to encourage those of us who are YA authors, especially those who are middle grade authors, to write books our kids want to read. Then we have to help spread the word about what they’ve written.
Frankly, it’s time we concentrate on showing our kids that there are books out there — new and old — that are fun to read. Then, as they read, it is time to listen to what they think about the book. Who knows, we might just learn something from them — like the fact they don’t need to be protected from the evil past nearly as much as some folks seem to think they do.
Mad Genius Club 
49 responses to “Here a hodge, there a podge”
Fun is the key ingredient, if you want them to read at all. Seems to me all stories are socially relevant to some extent. It’s an expression of someones worldview after all.
Whatever bureaucrats decide is relevant is probably the least.
JMO
dang! notify
Yep, on all points and especially so on the last one.
Just this morning, I went through the reading list for my own daughter’s Freshman year. I was sort of expecting to be horrified, but while there were some books on there that I wouldn’t recommend (do not get me started on Return of the Native), there were some pleasant surprises – like The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, Watership Down, Ender’s Game (and Ender’s Shadow), etc., and a good selection of classics – the Greek plays, Shakespeare, Twain, etc. I think we’ll get through this year just fine.
But that’s half the point – the parents do need to be familiar with the books, which now that I’m thinking about it means they need to be readers themselves. So we can’t JUST give kids entertaining books – the parents need to be reading as well.
Right?
Zachary, I loved reading lists like that for my son almost as much as I loved the teachers who basically threw out the reading lists and made up their own because they understood what would interest their students. As for not only knowing what’s on the list, as a parent, and also reading it, you are absolutely right. It is something I did when my son was in school. The way I looked at it, I wouldn’t let him go to certain movies when he was younger without seeing them first. I also wouldn’t let him play certain video games without checking them out first. As a result, we wound up bonding over some movies and we both love gaming now. I wouldn’t give up those bonds for anything.
So, yes, parents need to be readers first so they can help instill the love of books in their kids.
So, maybe that’s the next (prior?) question. How do we get parents reading? Can we?
I think we already are. A lot of people quit reading, or at least quit reading as much as they once did, when the cost of buying a book kept increasing and the quality kept declining. Add in the attempts by legacy publishers to drive books so they were PC etc., and there were a lot of people who quit reading newer books. With the advent of the kindle and other e-book readers and the increase in the numbers of small publishers and good indie published material, we are seeing more and more people reading. The reason: they can find the sort of books or stories they want now. Readers are now the gatekeepers in a way. So we just keep doing what we’re doing and we keep honing our craft.
That’s certainly true of me. I read from my collection or online stuff. Completely gave up on new fiction.
I even read mysteries for a few years in desperation but they are all the same.
That’s one of the great things about e-books. You can preview them, at least most retailers allow you to, so you can see if it is going to be something you’re interested in. I love the fact there is more science fiction — good sf and not what we’d been getting from the legacy publishers (Baen excluded) — and urban fantasy that doesn’t have to revolve around sex that does nothing to progress the plot or characterization.
One problem I’m having with writing YA (which is sort of what my WIP is looking as if it wants to be), is keeping a light touch on the message. It’s amazing to see just how easy it is to start pounding on something at the expense of story, especially if that something is in the air, water, and food. As Heinlein put it, I’m fighting “selling my birthright for a pot of message.”
So, the challenge is to slip exciting, encouraging, daring ideas past both sets of gatekeepers. Without preaching the other way.
You nailed it on the head. But think about the authors you like best. They can tell a rip-roaring tale — and get a message across — without preaching. Figure out how they do it and then let me know. It’s something I’m fighting right now as well 😉
I was thinking it’s best to ignore your message and just let it bleed through on it’s own, but I’m a tyro.
Frankly, that’s what I do. Heck, I never go into a project thinking about the “message” I have to get across. Does one appear anyway? Usually, but it is because of who and what my characters are and usually has something to do with not letting yourself be a victim and not sitting back and waiting for someone else to come riding to the rescue, be it physical, emotional or economic rescue.
radical!!!!! 😉
The “prequel” to Stasheff’s “Warlock” series – escape velocity – has Rod and his wife go back in time to help some SCA types get off earth. On the way to earth, two things I will never forget:
1) They meet a girl who is counter-culture, and the observation is made that those who place themselves outside of “uniform” society are often far more uniform to their group than most members of normal society.
2) They meet an entertainer who’s using cheesy B-movies to drop in bits of history, philosophy, and learning as part of the background, but never as the main message.
I’d forgotten that one and now you have me wanting to go find my copy and reread it.
No kidding. I loved those
It does creep in, doesn’t it? I noticed the other day that in the book I’m telling myself that I’m currently writing, a corporation comes to the rescue in a giant cargo ship – a giant white colored cargo ship. And I realized, they were coming in on a big white horse, and… well… it creeps in, is all I’m saying.
LOL. Yeah, it is amazing what our subconscious does.
It really creeps in, especially when one of the main characters is given to flights of grandiloquence anyway. I think I’ll have to shift some stuff around so the other main character sees and remembers, or have someone grousing off to the side, instead of letting the protagonist pontificate (which he is prone to do. Especially when recovering from writing canned police procedurals. He’s really tired of working for Polar Bear Press. [*wink*]).
LOL on the pontificating protagonist. Been there, doing that and she won’t shut the bleeeeeeeeep up.
I remember getting to middle school and looking for new things to read. The librarian handed me a few books because they were “age appropriate and written about things girls wanted to read about”… I remember one of them was a bunch of cutesy short stories about dating in high school and bad hair cuts. I brought it back and said “This is stupid, you probably shouldn’t recommend it anymore” and went looking for books on a list my English teacher had given me. I ended up with The Count of Monte Cristo.
My best friend is going to school to get her MA in Library Science and is currently working as a YA librarian. I keep bugging her about making sure to recommend the classics and that she needs to read more of them.
“and that she needs to read more of them.” And there, I suspect, lies a large part of the problem (with parents, teachers and librarians). 1)The “I don’t read that myself but I’ve been told” 2) I read some of it — but I am not a particularly observant/empathetic person, and am completely incapable of reading this as if I was 14 and a boy/girl who is somewhat different to myself, and I hated/loved it, so they must too. 3) I read tons of YA, so therefore I’m looking for something different, edgy and exciting (to a 30+ year old of some experience) heaven spare me (and the child I am recommending the book for) something that would really appeal to a kid who reads three books a year.
Being a great librarian (or acquiring editor!) is very hard and means you have to be able to make a good stab at putting yourself into the shoes of your young reader (which means great judgement, and a breadth of experience, imagination, empathy, and… reading a huge amount.)
Yep! And I know she’s trying to make up the difference and be more widely read but she, quite frankly, had a crappy (though typical) early literary education. A recent head injury has slowed down her reading speed more than a bit so she’s coming to me for recommendations to fill in her education. The fact that she can’t go to her professors saddens me but I ran into that as an undergrad so it doesn’t surprise me.
Gah. I’m sorry to hear not only about her injury but about the fact she can’t go to her professors. I was fortunate in undergraduate school. I found an English prof that most of the students hated (simply because she required you to do the work) but who was an excellent instructor on the classics and who knew how to make them something a late teen and early 20-something could identify with. I did my best to take her classes to fulfill not only my basic English requirements but to have enough credits to have a minor in English. Yes, she was a stiff-necked prof who was of the old-school, but man did I learn a lot from her. So here’s a tip of the hat to Professor Whaling.
Honestly, I’m proud of her for going for the MA. She was a fantastic writer before the accident and she’s working on getting there again. Mostly she needs to get her confidence back. She edits my stories and is brutal with finding my mistakes. She says I make her exercise and that is helping her recovery a lot more than the courses she has to take for her degree. That makes me happy to help but sad about the course work.
My favorite professor, and the one who helped me the most, was a nun who taught British History. All my English profs had me subbing their classes half-way through the semester because I knew most of the material as well as they did. And that was thanks to my high school English teacher who I had for 3.5 years. He kicked my ass because he knew I was phoning it in and called me on it every single time. He’s the one who gave me the list when I complained within earshot that I couldn’t find anything interesting to read.
I must have had his spiritual twin over here. *grin*
Ms. Collison was a snow white haired, stocky, tough looking lady. I first met her in the chemistry class I was desperately trying to stay awake in. She stuck her head in, whispered to Forgettable Prof No. 3, turned to us students and said:
“SOME of you are going to make it to your fourth year English class. SOME of those are going to get stuck with ME. Should this happen to YOU, you can kiss your little A’s goodbye!”
And she cackled a malicious, evil laugh, like the wicked witch in every story I’d ever heard did. I *had* to take her class. I’d always liked that class because hey, reading was part of it and I love reading.
She failed the entire class on the first essay exam. “I have tenure. Do you know what TENURE means boys and girls? It means I don’t bloody care if you fail my class and have to take it in summer school to get your shiny little diplomas.” Cackle. Then she taught us how to learn on our own, which no one in our entire school career had done to this point.
My last exam a couple of kids had questions about why they failed. She snatched my essay out of my hand sight unseen and said “Read this. That’s how I want it done. And that’s why you failed. You didn’t do the work.”
Color me proud. *grin* Read some good stuff, too, from Gilgamesh to the Gods of the Copybook Headings. She’d ask us oddball questions, too, like “How many of you are going to name your bouncing baby boys ‘Humbaba’? None? That’s culture, my little chickadees. It changes over time.” Good teachers reward curiosity. I was lucky. *grin*
Well said, Dave. Of course, finding an author who can write the books those kids want to read is difficult as well — and I’m going to plug your middle grade Without a Trace here. My son, who is out of college read it and loved it and wanted to know why you hadn’t written stuff like that when he was still in public school.
I had a couple of librarians like that. Fortunately, I had more who knew how to think outside the box when it came to recommending books — a few teachers like that too.
And good on you for helping your friend and pointing out that she needs to look at the classics and read more of them.
Is it censorship to tell a teenager, “Don’t read that book”? Well, it kind of depends on the rest of the message.
If you’re saying “Don’t read that book, I forbid it” — then yes, that’s veering towards censorship. And more importantly, it’s not going to work: teens have a natural rebellious streak. (Even the ones who, like me when I was a teen, would never rebel outwardly… would be more enthused for reading a book if it was forbidden.) But if what you’re saying is “Don’t read that book, it’s crap and you won’t like it. Try this one instead” — and, crucially, you allow the teen to ignore your warning and read the book… then he/she is probably going to discover that you were right, the book was crap, and the one you recommended was much better. In which case he/she will be likely to follow your recommendations in the future, because you actually know how to find good books — and so you’ll have a chance to steer him/her towards the really good stuff.
When I was a teen and started to go to the library on my own, my mother (who was also my teacher, homeschool) told me there were two authors I was not allowed to read. Well, I disobeyed her on one of them, but have never read the other. I think what she was trying to do with Heinlein was keep me from reading his later stuff with all the “ewww!” bits in it (I was a very sheltered young lady, at least in theory). The other author (Danielle Steele) I read cover blurbs and went oh, yuck! and avoided after that.
I will add that I never conciously read any YA until I was a mother with children of an age to read it. I have been reading “adult” books since I was about 7, I believe, when I first got into my parent’s shelves of Louis L’Amour and Zane Grey. It wasn’t too much longer before I couldn’t stand children’s fiction because it was just so far below my reading level. Which is why when I write for young people I deliberately do not try to write to a grade level. Looking up a word every so often is good for them!
Cedar, you sound like you read like I did. I don’t remember a time when reading wasn’t a major part of our lives. My parents rarely told me not to read something — and when they did, they offered reasons why and it usually came down to the fact the subject matter was in appropriate for my age. They never did it once I hit junior high. They just made sure they were there to answer any questions I might have.
Now, there were authors they said they weren’t sure I’d like and they usually based it on their own tastes.Almost always, I found myself agreeing. But those books were still in the house because they were considered classics and my folks knew I’d have to read them at some point during my schooling.
I will let you know that there are school districts and even public libraries that have a list of words that are supposed to appear in YA books just so the kids will have to go look them up. When I first heard that, my mind boggled. I like the thought behind it but judging a book on whether or not it has enough of the “challenge words” in it seems wrong. It is still a book and the story still has to be the driving force behind it, imo.
Well, Mom didn’t tell me “why” she didn’t want me to read those two authors, I intuited it much later.
And I have just written a far-too-long rant on my blog about literary classics and classism in Lit. class. Because I’m being forced to read stuff and it makes me gag.
Just read it and loved it. And, for the record, Hemingway was one of the two or three my folks warned me I wouldn’t like. Steinbeck was another and Sinclair Lewis was the third. They also had little patience for the books where stealing from someone to “better” yourself just because they have more than you do or are a different color/religion/nationality/etc and that’s pretty much how I feel. But then, I’m odd that way 😉
Where is it, please?
Click on Cedar’s name above and it will redirect you to her blog.
Tried that. Maybe I missed something. I find wordpress barely functional.
No that worked. Just gotta know the right lever to pull. 🙂
Why do we even have that lever?
Man, How do you do that? lmao
Someone at ATH explained it to me – just paste in the bare youtube link, no html or other coding.
I’ve been wondering about that, too, thanks. But I was referring to instantly coming up with relevant content. Files system in your brain.
My memory palace consists of a large series of piles.
“I know I left that honors calculus class around here somewhere…”
Sorry – I was in Chemistry Lab this morning (no kabooms [yet]) and couldn’t see this until much later. Glad to see you found it. Also, sanbornton farm is just that, a farm blog, now defunct.
Absolutely right. Of course, you hit the problem though. To be able to do that, you have to 1) be open-minded enough to let them choose what they want to read and 2) you have to be well-read enough to be able to recommend an alternative and be able to give them reasons that will hold up as to why you think they will like that book better.
A few days ago, sitting in a fast food restaurant, I was talking to the manager. As usual, I had a book in front of me to read. (Guards of Haven by Simon Green I’ll confess). She told me that her 13 year old son was an enthusiastic reader. She sounded baffled how to afford to feed his interest, so I told her about the local Friends of the Library book store a mile down the road.
Then I went out to the car, and pulled a couple of books from my stack of same. I gave her copies of “First Lensman” and “Spacehounds of IPC” by E.E. “Doc” Smith. To me, 13 yrs old is an odd age. They can be fairly mature or very much not. (At 13 years old, I was working my way through the general fiction shelves at the local library, I think I’d finished up “Fleming” and had hit “Dahl” by then … and I don’t mean Dahl’s kids books). But I told her that Doc Smith was very much not going to present any material she’d have to explain or excuse.
Good suggestion with the Friends’ bookstore. It is one I have used often now that our Friends organization has a book store just outside the library. I also pitch the big book sales as well. And I think your offerings of the Doc Smith books were spot on. Fingers crossed that her son likes them.
And great picks for the little guy. Of course, now Mom is going to have to find the rest of the Lensman books for him. Probably cursing your name under her breath (though if the young’n has any initiative, he’ll find them himself at the local library).
The Friends of the Library bookstore I pointed her at has quite a few in fact. And worse case, I’ve still got a few duplicate copies.