Very good. I remember reading A Series Of Unfortunate Events as a kid, and the author flap simply explained that he really did just want to write a story where bad things happened to children. Yet somehow it was very popular. Kids have far more range than we expect of them, and that range should be exercised, as a muscle should be put through its range before working out.
The question in the room is then what are _you_ doing?
Hear, hear! One of the worst lapses of the "Conservative Right" was a treasonous departure from art. Possessing neither noble condescension or sensitive curiosity, they surrendered the artistic battleground to the mutant moral vision of aberrant fetishists. It is a high abdication of responsibility to allow even the lowest genre of art to languish in filth and squalor. As the article points out, YA fiction is simply too formative a category of art to hand over to the petty-souled barbarians hammering away at the pillars of civilization.
I think it was Aristotle that said the aim of education is to “teach children what to love”. C.S. Lewis agreed, and showed us that one can use a child’s innate love of simple things to teach them a love for adult things via children’s literature.
Dunno if we need YA specifically as that comes with a set of preconceptions on content and can be limiting as to what one thinks "YA" should be. What if instead we reverse the thought and just make something so good and popular that it defines the next big classification?
This essentially avoids checkboxing and focuses more on making sure products are high-quality and worth sharing first and foremost. Then you can make up new and sexy marketing classifications later that could quite possibly eclipse "YA."
Agree! The term "YA" really is nuclear contaminated. I think whatever the next young reader appealing fiction will be, it won't be called YA. Really what we're talking about at the end of the day is fiction for teens/boys and young men.
Very good. I remember reading A Series Of Unfortunate Events as a kid, and the author flap simply explained that he really did just want to write a story where bad things happened to children. Yet somehow it was very popular. Kids have far more range than we expect of them, and that range should be exercised, as a muscle should be put through its range before working out.
The question in the room is then what are _you_ doing?
Hear, hear! One of the worst lapses of the "Conservative Right" was a treasonous departure from art. Possessing neither noble condescension or sensitive curiosity, they surrendered the artistic battleground to the mutant moral vision of aberrant fetishists. It is a high abdication of responsibility to allow even the lowest genre of art to languish in filth and squalor. As the article points out, YA fiction is simply too formative a category of art to hand over to the petty-souled barbarians hammering away at the pillars of civilization.
Very cool essay.
I think it was Aristotle that said the aim of education is to “teach children what to love”. C.S. Lewis agreed, and showed us that one can use a child’s innate love of simple things to teach them a love for adult things via children’s literature.
Dunno if we need YA specifically as that comes with a set of preconceptions on content and can be limiting as to what one thinks "YA" should be. What if instead we reverse the thought and just make something so good and popular that it defines the next big classification?
This essentially avoids checkboxing and focuses more on making sure products are high-quality and worth sharing first and foremost. Then you can make up new and sexy marketing classifications later that could quite possibly eclipse "YA."
Agree! The term "YA" really is nuclear contaminated. I think whatever the next young reader appealing fiction will be, it won't be called YA. Really what we're talking about at the end of the day is fiction for teens/boys and young men.
Yeah, agreed on that! There's a pretty big dearth there. Which means a huge opportunity for us.
So what you're saying is that we need trad anime fanfiction.