"I have an existential map. It has 'You are here' written all over it." - Steven Wright
"There are those who give with joy, and that joy is their reward." - Khalil Gibran
http://www.nytimes.com/roomfordebate/2010/12/26/the-dark-side-of-young-adult-fiction/a-role-for-childrens-literature
I just read a bunch of articles on the NY Times website regarding the trend in dystopian and post-apocalyptic fiction. The link above is to one of them, and the others are in the left-hand sidebar of that page.
I don't know why I love dystopian/negative uptopian/post-apocalyptic books. I just know that I do.
So I'm not going to speculate about that.
What I really find interesting is how in the article linked to above, the author says that there is a very liberal ( "in every sense of the word" ) trend in YA literature. Except I just read the first pages of her book, and it says in there that there is an awful lot of conservative literature that is growing increasingly popular.
Which is true, and why is it happening?
It's a very potent question, and one that needs thought on my part. All I know for sure is that I love dark YA fiction, told well. Not dark for shock value, but dark at a deep and existential level.
ReplyDeleteGreat post, and thanks for the link!
As someone who doesn't consider myself liberal or conservative. I would think that it just implies that there is a divergence in the types of literature that the two sorts read (that makes it seem as if the division was clear cut, but that's my approximation. Unless I'm misunderstanding your point?)
ReplyDeleteI'm not beating up on YA authors, but it's a shame that writers feel the need to cater to younger tastes (since they are the people that have the most free time,) and end up over-simplifying their work (I know that this isn't a universal rule...) In some sense I think it is better to read things that you don't understand at first and then you begin to understand them when you are older. It's more realistic, and perhaps that is why we like dystopian fiction, since it presents a caricature but it is a more complex and seemingly more truthful representation of the world as it could be.
those are probably the stuffiest-sounding 2 paragraphs I've ever written... what I meant to say is: thanks for the link.