spx:
Chris Ware’s beautiful poster art for the 2012 Small Press Expo.
I have no words.
The mega sized version lives here.
Chris Ware’s breathtaking poster for this year’s Small Press Expo. Just look at that lineup of names, and that’s not even getting into the titular “small press” exhibitors, which the show is ostensibly about. And which number includes not one but three Drawnists.
by T.S. Tate Writing is no different than any number of dreams. Becoming a successful writer— whether the ultimate goal is millions of your books in print or simply the satisfaction that comes with knowing you’ve developed your craft— is no different than the singer wanting to see their name on a marquee or the artist [...]
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Okay. Let me tell you how much I hate YA.
I’m letting all the big reasons out today, so hang on.
First, a little backstory. I was e-talking with Lia Keyes the other day, and she mentioned to me about another author who thought that YA as a category should be done away with. She thought it would be interesting — fiery — to have me participate in this debate.
And, I’m, like, what debate? I totally agree.
I hate YA.
Here are my three biggest reasons:
1. YA has no definition. You may just as well call it “fiction.” And, because of this ill-defined super-categorization of what I believe to be a non-existent genre, people carry too many pre-conceived expectations about constraints on content and embedded curriculum (see point 2).
The thing is — and why YA is a pointless label — is that YA contains every genre of the broader category of fiction, from contemporary literary, to science fiction, paranormal romance, chick-lit, fantasy, humor, and so on. But the YA section in a bookstore is the vampire section.
It’s kind of like putting all adult fiction in the “Dan Brown” section. Remember, “YA” didn’t exist when Twain wrote The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, or even when Harper Lee wrote To Kill a Mockingbird. I don’t think there was such a category when Stephen King wrote Carrie or ‘Salem’s Lot, both of which would definitely be stamped with the big Y and A if they were published for the first time today.
All those titles up there (and I’m sure you could think of many others) were just novels.
Let’s revisit the Venn Diagram from two days ago:
They’re still “adults,” right? Just “young” ones.
2. The Expectation and the Blues. (That’s the title of a really great song from Corb Lund)
(The Blues)… best “back-at-ya” comment I received from someone on the “Part 1″ installment:
“As a writer you can write for any age group you want, can’t you?
If you hated being a teenager why write for and about an age that made you unhappy?”
Okay. Now, I am definitely NOT speaking on behalf of all authors here, so don’t give me any superpowers I don’t already possess.
First, question one: I don’t write for an age group. Not ever. Nope. Totally wrong assumption. I write to tell a story. The only target in my mind is a story, NOT a demographic.
As far as question two goes: ouch. huh?
What a downer.
So, the expectation part: See, when people pre-suppose a work of fiction is only for a particular age group (and that age group happens to be… let’s say, high school kids), then they frequently get all caught up in the thought that what you write must contain some kind of curriculum geared toward the elevation or the insulation of the fragile “young adult” soul.
It’s pretty much what I’ve been railing against for two days now. And for those people who want to put the cart up front of the horse, and pre-plan a target demographic and constraints on content, that’s all totally fine with me.
Do you hear me? It’s fine with me.
Just don’t expect me to do it.
I just write stories. If people want to get all caught up in the debate about a writer’s lack of responsibility for including certain content elements, then they can’t possibly be talking about books for “adults,” whether they’re young, old, or anything else.
My readers are adults. Young ones and old ones. It’s a disservice, in my opinion, to treat them like children.
3. Back to Taxonomy: (And I know this will likely tick off a lot of my author friends, so, for that, let me apologize in advance)
Take a look at the Venn Diagram above, one more time. Now, where it says “People,” imagine the word “Literature.”
One of the things I’ve struggled with most — and, given
I still hate YA.
You remember all those times your mom told you the old if-all-your-friends-jumped-off-a-cliff-would-you-do-it-too line? You know what I told my mom when she tried that one on me?
Um… no. I’d go down to the bottom and start looking for wallets and jewelry.
So, there’s this assumption that “young adults” make some kind of moral and ethical connection between choices made by fictional characters they empathize with and the REAL-WORLD decisions and actions they assume themselves.
Again, I’m not making this up, this comes straight from the Thought-Police sites of the Wonder(bread)blog I mentioned yesterday.
I think we’ve all known some particularly dumb kid at one point in our lives who jumped off his roof wearing a red blanket clothespinned to his neck after he watched an episode of Superman.
Yeah… broken femurs are actually pretty damned funny sometimes.
Everyone loves observing idiocy from a safe distance, but give kids… er… Young Adults credit that their B.S. filters are functional. For those whose filters are a little “glitchy,” like the red blanket boy mentioned above, we have one great hope: please do not attempt to breed.
One more bit about why I hate YA. I’ve been accused — multiple times, and by different “adults” — of being a bad father, because of what I write about.
First, allow me to fully confess and lay it all on the table: My first two books, Ghost Medicine , and in the path of falling objects have the words “damn” and “hell” in them (this is a hint that my next book,The Marbury Lens has quite an “expanded” vocabulary). They also include on- and off-screen references to underage sex, drinking, smoking, getting tattoos, chewing tobacco, suicide, driving without a license, and marijuana use.
So I’m a bad father. I made those things happen in my teenage kids’ world, didn’t I? I should have shielded their eyes and ears from such goings-on, and hope and pray that they remain untainted by reality, so they can live with me and their mother until well into their forties. As untattooed virgins.
Shoot me now.
You see, the clean-YA bloggers insist that you should never write anything if the prospect of your own kids reading it makes you feel “uncomfortable.”
Sometimes, dealing with things with your kids that make you feel a little uncomfortable is a preferential strategy to burying their heads in the sand and hoping they don’t catch passing glimpses of what the rest of the world is like.
So, yeah… I honestly do not feel uncomfortable at the thought of my fifteen-year-old son or my soon-to-be-thirteen daughter reading my stuff, because I know who they are, and I am there to talk about things with them (my son was devastated by something that a character did inGhost Medicine, which he read at thirteen).
Sometimes kids do have to make tough choices, and we can always count on the fact that fledgling, “Young” adults are definitely going to make mistakes — and, unlike red-blanket-boy, hopefully learn from them.
The bottom line, though, is that when we do let our “Young Adults” out into the world (as we do every single day — at school, at malls, hanging out with their buddies) and they get confronted with difficult choices, the voice in their head that tells them which course to take is not going to be that of a character in the most recent book they enjoyed.
If you’re worried about that, you better round up and hide all your red blankets, clothespins, and step-ladders.
Coming up tomorrow: My BIGGEST reasons why I hate YA.
About the Editor:
Karen Chaplin is an Editor at Puffin/Speak Books, Penguin Young Readers Group. Karen acquires middle grade and young adult fiction. Some of the projects she has worked on include the Students Across the Seven Seas (S.A.S.S.) series, Paris Pan Takes the Dare by Cynthea Liu, Zombie Queen of Newbury High by Amanda Ashby, Exclusively Chloe by J. A. Yang, and The Specialists series by Shannon Greenland. Karen is looking for fun, original series fiction as well as stand-alone fiction for the middle grade and young adult markets. The genres she is looking for include chick lit, fun action/adventure series (boy and girl), mysteries, horror/paranormal, romance, stories with strong female characters (including topics such as sisters and friendships), anything boy-centric, and commercial literary and edgy fiction.
Related posts:
- Win Critique from Editor Karen Chaplin, Puffin/Speak Books
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