Today, I came across Joel Stein’s op-ed piece in The New York Times about how adults should stray from reading Young Adult fiction such as Twilight, The Hunger Games, Harry Potter.
” Let’s have the decency to let tween girls have their own little world of vampires and child wizards and games you play when hungry”
Yup, that’s a direct quote.
As Mr. Stein emphasizes in the opening of his piece, and as evident in the above quote, he has not bothered reading any of these popular series and has no idea what they are about, what themes they touch upon, and in a sense has no real relevant opinion on them. He strongly feels that adults should solely read adult literary fiction, and is sometimes pejorative and condescending in the language he uses to emphasize this point.
Point. Counterpoint. Lev Grossman wrote an op-ed piece for the Times as well explaining why the book group of adults he belongs to only reads YA books. He feels that YA books are rarely boring, have strong and clear narrators, and rely more on structured plot and character development then on writing style, linear vs. nonlinear plot lines, or metaphor.
Both articles are part of a discourse that is happening today, due in large part to the success of The Hunger Games. Obviously, whether Mr. Stein wants to acknowledge it or not, the themes and stories told in these books are resonating with both young adults and adult adults. People are overlooking the suggested reading level of books and are reading them either for personal enjoyment or to keep up with the zeitgeist.
I’m really not a huge consumer of YA, but I’m in Mr. Grossman’s corner, because anyone who tries to dictate what I should or should not be reading isn’t cool in my book.
Check out Mr. Grossman’s article here and Mr’s Stein’s article here