The real story behind the war over YA novels
What’s really motivating the cultural panic over The Hunger Games and The Fault in Our Stars?y’all should probably spend some time reading this
Oh my god this was supposed to be about books but it’s actually about my relationship with my parents I was unprepared for these feels
yep yep yep this
“The hot insistence on labeling YA as “trashy” and not fit for adult reading isn’t just about a visceral hatred of genre fiction. It’s also a form of denial from older adults who don’t want to engage with the issues faced by Millennials. If the validity of experiences underlying the desire to read YA can be eliminated, then older adults can feel less responsible for what they did to the generations that followed them”
This is a great, smart article, and well worth reading. It’s also worth sharing around.
I think I always subconsciously knew that the dismissal of YA lit as “real” literature stemmed from baby-boomer disdain of (and avoiding accountability to) younger generations… but it’s nice to see it written out.
I think that what we have to remember is that this happens to every generation, so that when subsequent generations become the 15 – 30 crowd, we don’t dismiss their life experiences and call it “just noise” or “trashy lit” or whatever.
I mean this is how the older adults saw the beginning of the rock and roll movement. This is how older adults saw the counter-culture movement of the 1980’s when the children of the baby boomers tried to distance themselves from their parents influence. This is nothing new. It’s just books this time instead of music or clothing. Who knows what the youth entertainment culture will take itself in the 2020’s or 2030’s, but if we remember the things this article says and apply it to the youth culture of the future, then maybe we can help our youths instead of alienate them in the future.