Using the panel discussions of the most
recent World Science Fiction Convention in Spokane, August 2015, I will jump
off, jump on, rail against, and shamelessly agree with the BRIEF DESCRIPTION
given in the pdf copy of the Program Guide. This is event #2417 (page 53). The
link is provided below…
PG-13: Violence, Sex, and Teen Readers: When
writing for teens or choosing books for young adults to read, is there a PG-13
line that needs to be drawn? Is there more violence, sex, and alcohol in young
adult books today or have we just become more aware of it? And what the f’ing
language kids are using in books? How does a writer address difficult or sensitive
topics without going too far? Panelists discuss the danger zones within young
adult fiction. Darlene Marshall (m), Wesley Chu, Fonda Lee, Jenn Reese, Alaina
Ewing
You know, I was
going to rant here, asking what these writers know about young people today;
and while some of them are “young”, Chu’s bio doesn’t appear to give him a lot
of contact with young adults – except for the fact that he’s just shy of thirty
and might still be considered “young”. Fonda Lee has one book and her resume is
impressive – but has nothing to do with young people, except for the fact that
she’s young. Jenn Reese has been writing for many years, almost entirely in the
YA genre. Alaina Ewing is a relative newcomer but has one other book in the YA
genre. Moderated by romance writer, Darlene Marshall, this must have been an
interesting panel. As I read about these folks, I found my focus shift.
I confess that I
am puzzled. I am sure that all of these people were young adults once.
I am sure that
all of these people have some number of young adults in their lives.
I am certain
that I have wondered why Judy Blume’s book, THEN AGAIN MAYBE I WON’T, is still
in print as I can’t imagine what she could possibly know about a boy going
through puberty who is on the road to becoming a peeping tom. She could have
probably written more convincingly about a what it was like growing up as a
slave girl in the South and I’d have been more convinced. (But then, “Judy is a
longtime advocate of intellectual freedom. Finding herself at the center of an
organized book banning campaign in the 1980's she began to reach out to other
writers, as well as teachers and librarians, who were under fire. Since then,
she has worked tirelessly with the National Coalition Against Censorship to
protect the freedom to read.” [http://www.judyblume.com/about.php]
It may be that questioning her writing is unwise, so I am NOT questioning her
writing, I’m just wondering at the level of experience with the subject matter.
OTOH, I have never lived in the clouds of a Jovian planet, either, so my right
to write that story could easily be called into question.)
To the subject
at hand, I wonder a couple of things: What do these authors know about how kids
in a high school talk today and what kind of language they use?
Also – if these
novels take place in the future, on another world, or in a magical place, how
can anything be “wrong” or go “too far”?
My bigger
question is if authors attempting to be relevant, address issues, or be “edgy”
and are proud of their work – do they ever wonder what their YA/Teen/NA
audiences think? Can we be edgy today, as we’re writing, only to find that we’re
passé by the time the story comes out.
Even with my own
writing, I wonder if what I have to “say” matters. I think I’m addressing
issues and providing an entertaining story, but AM I?
Are ANY of us
old folks (aka: “YA writers”)?
No comments:
Post a Comment