Using the Program Guide of the World Science
Fiction Convention in San Jose, California in August 2018 (to which I will be
unable to go (until I retire from education)), I will jump off, jump on, rail against,
and shamelessly agree with the BRIEF DESCRIPTION given in the pdf copy of the
Program Guide. The link is provided below where this appeared on page …55 and
56.
Young Adult:
Looking at the World Through a Skewed Lens
One of the key
advantages that SF/F has is allowing us to tip the real world to the side to
expose the interconnective tissue. This is often a powerful lens for Young
Adult authors. It allows them to obscure issues with fantastic set dressing.
Our panelists look at what that skewed lens offers, be it fantasy, science
fiction, steampunk or other genres. How does it affect the stories they can
tell and the audiences they can attract? What are some of the best ways to
leverage the skewed lens of SF/F for a Young Adult audience?
Diana M. Pho: Hugo-nominated editor at Tor Books and
Tor.com Publishing, Beyond Victoriana, an award-winning, US-based blog on
multicultural steampunk, articles on science fiction and its community.
Tina Connolly: Writer of the Ironskin trilogy, the
Seriously Wicked series, one of the co-hosts of Escape Pod, runs winning flash
fiction podcast Toasted Cake.
Scott Sigler: Writer of fifteen novels, six novellas
and dozens of short stories, co-founder of Empty Set Entertainment, which
publishes his Galactic Football League series.
Gail Carriger: Writer of comedies of manners mixed with
paranormal romance (imagine all the Jane Austen with psychic powers…).
Fonda Lee: science fiction and fantasy for adults
and teens; nominated for the Nebula, Locus, named a Best Book by NPR, Barnes
& Noble, Syfy Wire, Junior Library Guild Selection, Andre Norton Award
finalist, Oregon Book Award finalist and winner, YALSA Top Ten Quick Pick.
“It allows them to
obscure issues with fantastic set dressing.” I read this sentence and I laughed
out loud, “Hahahahahahahahahahaha!”
Clearly an adult
who has little to no contact with young adults wrote this sentence. Otherwise
they would have never been able to lay the accusation that YA authors “…obscure
issues…”.
IMHO the reason
adults fell into the YA orbit is because it is “adult” literature that obscures
issues and YA story that illuminates them by facing them head on.
*shakes head in
amazement*
I hope that the
authors above kicked that absurd statement right where it needed to be kicked –
in its “sensible adult” head. Of course, that sensible adult head was probably
in a very dark place as it wrote those words.
YA has been facing
issues that “adult literature” has been avoiding ever since the publication of THE OUTSIDERS (I know SE Hinton didn’t create
YA) but, “…it’s not true that The Outsiders was the first book written for—or
about—teenagers and their problems…Hinton's greatest strength lay in
re-translating all these influences and writing about them through the eyes of
a teenager writing for other teenagers, he writes. In that sense, she did
create YA. At the same time, Hinton's book was received by other teenagers in a
way that indicated there was a market for literature dealing with the teenage
experience, including its dark and difficult parts.”
Science fiction and fantasy does deal directly with issues that adults ignore. The entire HARRY POTTER series begins with child abuse – direct, intentional, and deadly abuse in the form of Voldemort, and un-subtle emotional abuse of Harry by his aunt and uncle, and bullying by his cousin because they feel superior to him and entitled to do with him as they please. (An argument could be made that it was racism as well – but you’d have to answer the question: are witches and wizards a different RACE than muggles? Hmmm…). The end of the HP series reads like an expanded version of IT CAN’T HAPPEN HERE, Sinclair Lewis’ masterpiece of fiction detailing the voluntary fall of the US to a duly elected totalitarian regime, though HP has more to do with Nazism than the sort of the lazy, non-directional regime Lewis imagined (and countless writers have compared with the current administration (as well as GW’s administration…I’ve wondered if democrats are somehow immune to having totalitarian visions, and if so, why.)) It appeared to me that DFL leader are more apt to ignore parts of its constituency (central states and young adults) and suggest, “No, no, you don’t want Bernie Sanders. You REALLY want HC! See, she’s just what you wanted all along.”
YA confronts
issues that old adults ignore by burying themselves in adult SF like Ada Palmer’s
TOO LIKE THE LIGHTNING and feeling superior because of her radical vision of
the future and how it confronts issues boldly but doesn’t really call for any
change in their lives. YAs were dealing with GLBTQ, race, economic, violence, toxic
masculinity, and bullying issues long before adults noticed them and announced
that NOW they would deal with these very important issues. A poke around these
books might give you an idea of what YA’s were reading years ago in which the “issues
have been obscured”. I might also direct you to A WRINKLE IN TIME (1968) (bullying
by both peers and adults); THE CHOCOLATE WAR (1974) (social and class bullying,
classism, terrorism); THE WAVE (1981) (a YA version of Lewis’ book); I’LL GET
THERE. IT BETTER BE WORTH IT (1969) by John Donovan (the first gay teen novel).
End rant, and not
doubting at all that this will irritate one or two people.
On second reading, I realize this is pretty fragmented. I may take this apart more methodically later. For now, there are family issues waiting to be dealt with...
On second reading, I realize this is pretty fragmented. I may take this apart more methodically later. For now, there are family issues waiting to be dealt with...
Resources: Read
more: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/why-outsiders-didnt-create-ya-fiction-180962967/#HPf6lbp1FLys34Ij.99,
https://www.amazon.com/Ill-There-Better-Worth-Trip/dp/0738721344/ref=sr_1_fkmrnull_1?keywords=I%E2%80%99ll+Get+There.+It+Better+Be+Worth+the+Trip&qid=1548008002&s=Books&sr=1-1-fkmrnull
Program Book: https://www.worldcon76.org/images/publications/WC76_PocketProgram_2018_Final_WEB08152018.pdf
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