It got E. Lockhart all riled up. It sparked rebuttals on A Chair, A Fireplace and a Tea Cozy and on Monica Edinger’s blog, via Jenny Davidson’s. It’s a review of The Knife of Never Letting Go by Patrick Ness, and it was posted in The Guardian.
What follows is the text by Frank Cottrell Boyce, the text that has gotten YA authors and readers all up in a tizzy:
If I have one quibble, it is that I think it should be sitting proudly on the shelf next to these books, rather than being hidden away in the “young adult” ghetto. There’s been a lot of fury among authors recently about the proposal to “age-band” children’s books, but in a way they’re too late. The real disaster has already happened. It’s called “young adult” fiction. It used to be the case that you moved on from children’s fiction to adult fiction, from The Owl Service, maybe, to Catcher in the Rye. There were, of course, some adult authors who were more fashionable with teenage readers than others – Salinger, Vonnegut, Maya Angelou. But these were chosen by teenagers themselves from the vast world of books. Some time ago, someone saw that trend and turned it into a demographic. Fortunes were made but something crucial was lost. We have already ghettoised teenagers’ tastes in music, in clothes and – God forgive us – in food. Can’t we at least let them share our reading? Is there anything more depressing than the sight of a “young adult” bookshelf in the corner of the shop. It’s the literary equivalent of the “kids’ menu” – something that says “please don’t bother the grown-ups”. If To Kill a Mockingbird were published today, that’s where it would be placed, among the chicken nuggets.
This is not just a question of taste. It seems to me that the real purpose of stories and reading is to take you out of yourself and put you somewhere else. Anything that is made to be sold to a particular demographic, however, will always end up reflecting the superficial concerns of that demographic. I’ve lived through an era in which demographic-fixation murdered popular cinema and replaced a vibrant art form with a kind of digital holding-pen for teenage boys. I think we’re in danger of doing the same to fiction. The best young adult fiction – The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time, A Swift Pure Cry, Noughts and Crosses and so on – strolls out of its category.
Yeah, that’s worth a tizzy or two. Here are a few of my thoughts on the whole thing:
1. It is a shame that more adults are not reading young adult literature, specifically because it is marketed to young adults.
2. It’s amazing that young adults have something good to read, something they can connect to, something better than what I had as a teen ager.
3. The ghetto? It’s an imaginary place. Young adult authors are writing young adult books on purpose. It’s not like they go into their cubbyholes, write a book, and then an agent or editor says, “Oops! Sorry, you accidentally wrote a young adult novel. We’re going to have to take you to the ghetto now.”
4. There are a few authors out there who have written YA books and then revolted because of the perceived ghetto. They’ve said to their agents and editors and publishers, “Look, I don’t want my next book stuck in the young adult section. I want it available to everyone.”
5. But the reason for that revolt is the incorrect perception that young adult fiction is only interesting to teen readers. What we need to understand is that it is indeed great for teen readers, because it’s generally about teens and about issues that are important to them. But it’s also fantastic for older readers. And so, if you’re over the age of twenty-one and you want to walk down the YA aisle in your local Barnes and Noble, you shouldn’t feel as if you’re a weirdo or a creep.
Let’s stay with this for a minute, okay? Young adult fiction is an amazing thing. It’s opened up worlds for both writers and readers. And there are authors going both ways now; Nick Hornby has a foot inside the doorway of the YA Ghetto. Meg Cabot and Sarah Mlynowski have their feet firmly planted on either side of the line. Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials trilogy caught on with adults, as did Harry Potter.
The aim is not to get rid of the YA label, but to make sure we all know YA is for everyone. It’s inclusive, not exclusive. It means, “Yeah. This is a book you might like if you’re fifteen. It’s also a book you might like if you’re fifty.”
The problem, of course, is one of perception. There are book buyers who don’t stock very much YA, specifically because they think it won’t sell very well. Publishers are making the mistake of marketing only to teens, when a lot of the stuff they’re putting out would be — and is — appreciated by people of all ages.
If there is indeed a YA Ghetto, it’s not because there exists something called “young adult literature.” It’s because people think that young adult literature is something it’s not, that it’s regressing, that it’s less than. That it is, in fact, not literature at all.
Right. Enough ranting for today. You want more? Go look at my manifesto.
FANTASTIC response. *applauds* You said everything that needed to be said.
Great response, especially #5. That review Boyce posted both angers and saddens me. YA fiction is not a bunch of chicken nuggets.
The article was not an attack on YA though I can see the extract makes it read like that. It’s worth pointing out that the article was giving a blisteringly good five star review to a YA book.
My worry is not about readers. Readers are adventurous creatures. I know that.
My worry is about what demographics do in the long term to the writers.
I really do know about this because I work in the film industry.
You start by aiming stuff at a demographic. You end up writing for that demographic. And that’s very narrowing both for the writer and the audience.
If you don’t believe me look at your multipliex. Then go and look up what was on at your local cinema twenty years ago.
can I point out actually that your point number 5 – with which kyrinthia agrees so forcefully – is identical in tone and meaning to the conclusioin of my article as quoted about two inches above it
and that the book is called The Knife of Never Letting Go, not the silent bark
Frank, I appreciate your taking the time to respond. Thanks, also, for the correction. I do feel compelled to point out that your initial response here is identical to the one you posted on another blog.
As far as what the demographics will do to writers … well, I imagine we’ll all sit back and say, “Wow. I have a lot of options.”
The existence of a sci fi genre doesn’t keep people from writing books that are not pure science fiction, or simple sci fi pulp. The existence of a romance genre doesn’t mean that all novels with a bit of a love story in them are shelved in the romance section of the book store. But in my opinion, the legitimization of young adult literature opens doors for writers rather than closing them. That, I think, is what you seem to be missing.
Your use of the term “young adult ghetto” is what got people’s hackles up to begin with; additionally, your suggestion that young adult books are like chicken nuggets has upset quite a few writers and readers. To Kill a Mockingbird is indeed shelved in the YA section, as well as the general fiction and literature section. The creation of a place where there is good literature for teens is not a bad thing. It’s amazing.
By the time I was twelve, I had graduated from what we today call YA. There simply wasn’t enough “scope for the imagination,” or enough writing that addressed teen issues in a realistic way. It’s wonderful that there are now hundreds of books that do speak to teenagers.
Your insistence that there should be no young adult literature is really another way of saying, “Don’t bother the grownups.”
Great response, and very well-said (including the comment you wrote to Frank right above my comment)!
I honestly don’t think that YA is limiting to a writer or even a reader- in fact, most YA writers say they love the YA genre because it’s so open and limitless. When you look through a shelf of YA books, there’s so many different genres there- romance, sci-fi, suspense, humor, horror, etc. Not only that, but a lot of YA authors write for adults as well, so they certainly don’t feel constricted to the YA genre.
Yes, we could go straight from children’s to adult books, but I think there’s that whole teenager part that’s forgotten about. Sure, some classics are about teenagers, but there’s so few of them. Now, there’s a whole plethora of teen books which means that there’s more opportunity for teenagers to be reading, and reading something that they actually like (I’m not a huge fan of classics) and can identify with, much like adults do with their books. Why shouldn’t teens be able to do the same? Teens can’t always relate to adults, so going to the adult section at 13 is not necessarily the best thing, in my opinion.
Read more YA books- they’re fantastic, and offer a lot to today’s teenagers. And because of the YA/adult fiction crossover that some authors have (like Meg Cabot and Sarah Mlynowski, mentioned earlier), teenagers are reading adult books as well because they love that author so much that they want to read everything by them. So fans of Meg Cabot’s Princess Diaries series will want to read more, and check out her Queen of Babble adult series or something. The YA section is not as limiting as you seem to think it is.
Well said.
Oh sheesh maybe you’re all right.
Can I just say that I never meant to say that YA books were like chicken nuggets. I can see how you got there – sloppy metaphor. But i did sort of thnk that the fact that I was giving a rave review to a YA title would have made that clear – and that I’ve been doing just that for years.
I am scarred from years in the film industry where the demographic gave way to second-guessing the demographic, gave way to neer doing anything that in any way would challenge the second-guessed opinions of the demographic and that led to the World you can now see at the Multiplex. Maybe it won’t happen in books. Maybe I’m just too hurt.
I hope — and think — that most fiction writers are too independent to write solely based upon what the industry wants. Writing a novel takes soul, and I think it’s impossible to put your soul into something just because it’s popular.
Of course there are books out there that are a bit like some Hollywood films: mass-produced, assembly line type things. They exist in almost every genre. But I doubt they’ll ever take over the realm of literature entirely. Writers, readers and even publishers demand more. (Which is not to knock publishers, but just to say that they are at the business end of things and must publish that which they think folks will buy.) From what little I know, the book business is quite different from the movie business in most arenas. Writers are humble little folks who pour themselves into something, create some world in their heads, and then pass it on to agents and publishers. I hope there will always be a certain sense of independence amongst writers, who will write what they need to regardless of what demographics demand.
I do appreciate and understand where you’re coming from. Thanks, Frank, for the clarification, and for stopping by.
i dont usually comment, but after reading through so much info i had to say thanks