Wow

[yendi]

This might be the dumbest thing the Wall Street Journal has ever published.

And yes, that says a lot.

I suspect that, at the bottom, when they wrote "Mrs. Gurdon," they meant to say, "Mrs. Grundy."

And like Heinlein, I believe pretty strongly that "freedom begins when you tell Mrs. Grundy to go fly a kite."

Of course, like many folks of my generation, since there really weren't a ton of books aimed at the old-than-twelve set when I was growing up, I was reading Heinlein and other folks then. You know, books filled with sex, violence, and *gasp* ideas (which, let's face it, is what's really scaring Gurdon and her fellow Grundys). Heaven forbid that kids should be allowed to think.

ETA: Also, I cry shenanigans on that opening anecdote. A parent who can't find something devoid of sex and violence at a chain store isn't trying, or isn't even tuned into the genre.

Comments

[sparkfrost.livejournal.com]

That article pissed me off. I *wish* there'd been YA books like those described 10 years ago. I had HP, The Golden Compass, and that was pretty much it. Unless I wanted to read Sweet Valley, or other "teen series" I was stuck with kids books or adult books. Nothing aimed at me as a reader. Granted, I loved kids books and I love adult books, but it would have been nice to have more protagonists who were my age going through things that I went through. Blah!

Brb, off to read "Shine."

[yendi]

Heh. Yeah, I wonder how many folks are now buying or checking out that book as a result of the article.

[jerel.livejournal.com]

I object to her assertion that [paraphrase] the minute a "gatekeeper" questions a book's content, the rest of the world yells "Censorship!"

No. If Jenny's Mom doesn't want Jenny to read a book, for whatever reason, that is Mom's right. We may think Mom is closed-minded, clueless, and naive about what Jenny is exposed to daily at school and/or in the media. But Jenny's Mom has the right to govern Jenny's life. The problem becomes when Jenny's Mom says that Johnny shouldn't be able to read a certain book, or know that the book is available in the public or school library.

I have had parents ask for an alternate reading, which I've done. But never once has a parent requested I not teach a book.

[bardiphouka.livejournal.com]

From what I gather,the author is an uberreactionary who writes or wrote for the National Review.

And when I was a teen I was reading Poe in cemetaries, and keeping Kerouac hidden under the bed. Poe vs Twilight? meh.

[kk1raven.livejournal.com]

That's definitely one of the dumbest things I've read in the Wall Street Journal.

I'm pretty sure that B&N has a much wider selection of YA books than "vampires and suicide and self-mutilation". It might be easier to find an appropriate book if she actually looked at more than just the covers.

Mrs Gurdon doesn't seem to understand the difference between saying "no young adult should read this book" and "my child shouldn't read this book". The former is called "banning". The latter is what she calls "judgement or taste".

[haikujaguar.livejournal.com]

I guess I'm the only one worried about this kind of thing, then? :,

Seriously, when I was a teen reading books, the YA stuff I read wasn't like that. I'm glad it wasn't.

[yendi]

And there's still a ton of YA stuff that isn't like that. I love the idea of a genre being a big tent, able to meet the needs of people with a broad range of interests, but her article makes it sound like the genre has become some sort of sex-and-violence monolith.

[haikujaguar.livejournal.com]

I am okay with a multiplicity of books being available, as long as no one gets on my case about me not wanting my kid to read certain kinds of books. That includes me objecting to a school teaching one of them when I feel it's age-inappropriate. :,

Otherwise, I couldn't care less what other people are reading/writing/publishing.

[xiphias.livejournal.com]

There were. There were YA books like that twenty years ago, when I was a teenager, that were that dark. They were in the school library, and pretty beat up by then.

Nobody gets darker than William Sleator . . . I still have nightmares about HOUSE OF STAIRS.

[amokk]

Oh but life was so much easier 40 years ago in the 60s! Er, 70s. Math is hard, apparently!

Seriously, I was a child of the 80s, and a teen in the 90s, life was pretty fucked up then, it's not gotten any rosier or cleaner. Fiction reflects that, it doesn't create it.

[ex-gnomicut.livejournal.com]

seriously, that book totally creeped me out, and still does.

But yes, there have been creepy young adult books for 20 years, and the whole trend of fantastic young adult coming in surpluses has been going on for at least 12 years, arguably longer.

[ex-gnomicut.livejournal.com]

Pretty much every school in existence has a appeals policy by which parents can appeal whether or not they think the book is appropriate for their child, in which case there is usually a process by which the child can do alternative work.

That being said, the Wall Street Journal article calls out notions of childhood innocence which just don't represent most children's lives. And it's not just questions of eating disorders, sex, violence, abuse, etc. -- and I grew up in a privileged environment but every single one of those was going on around me -- but more rare issues which nonetheless happen to children. Rita Williams Garcia's amazing and distressing No Laughter Here, for example, deals with the genital mutilation of a fifth grade girl. On the one hand, the subject matter ought to be age-inappropriate. But it's a heck of a lot more age inappropriate that the actual event occurs to real live fifth-grade girls.

[xiphias.livejournal.com]

Heck, you ask me about "disturbingly dark YA books", and I go to HOUSE OF STAIRS (William Sleator, 1974), and GO ASK ALICE (Anonymous, 1971 supposedly an autobiography, but almost certainly a piece of fiction written by Beatrice Sparks). Maybe A SEPARATE PEACE (1959, John Knowles). Or THE CHOCOLATE WAR (1974), and I AM THE CHEESE (1977), by Robert Cormier. And THE BUMBLEBEE FLIES ANYWAY (1983). Actually, EVERYTHING by Robert Cormier. Sure, there's really great dark YA stuff written today, but there's been really great dark stuff for a while now. And a bunch of those were assigned reading when I was in high school. Probably because my teachers were traumatized by them when they first came out, and they wanted to share the damage.

[haikujaguar.livejournal.com]

I know it doesn't... but my misgivings are based on my observation that we become what we contemplate. I think, had I been given books as a teen that reinforced the message of suffering and 'you're not alone'ness, I would have become a lot darker and untrusting, because it would have led me to contemplate not just my own sorrows, but that the sorrows exist so broadly that other people discuss them in books also, and then I would have done nothing but dwelt on those things. In short, it would have been unhealthy for me. The fantastical stuff I read as a teen had its share of sorrows and pains, but it wasn't "gritty" in the sense that a lot of people seem to pride themselves on. And I think having as my formative reading some gentle and uplifting things made a big difference to my ability to cope with... just about everything.

I'm sure I'm not the only one who takes on monstrous qualities when I stare too long into the abyss. And kids in particular, with their far more extreme emotional states, can get thrust into that 'too far in the wrong direction' direction even more easily.