I suppose I'll break out the Sparklepire Adventures tag for this

[meganbmoore]

Rants about Rants about YA and girl cooties

I suppose it says something about the people talking about YA who I actually notice that I don't think I'd heard of John Green until I read this yesterday.  Looking him up on wikipedia, his books don't sound like my thing, based on the brief mentions in his profile.  They don't sound bad, mind you, just

Comments

[linfer]

I read two books by Green and it was one hit and one miss. Coincidentilly the miss was the hugely popular "The fault in our Stars". *coughs*
I like him and will check out his other books, but well, he writes "normal" stories, so of course he is the voice of reason in the YA genre...at least in the eye of all those people who love to badmouth the paranormal and fantasy part of this genre.

[lyssie]

I have this sudden urge to go find my copy of Stranger With My Face now.

[rose_griffes]

I only knew John Green as that guy who makes those history videos, so...

But no one ever seems interested in talking about how, accidentally or otherwise, Bella is one of the more honest and accurate portrayals of a teen girl in recent years

YES. Thank you. I read them (I teach HS, so I knew that they were becoming a Big Deal), and that was the main impression that stuck with me.

And it reminded me of those Harlequin romances that I used to read on the sly when I was that age. Which is why I was so hilarified at the idea that somehow Stephenie Meyer had invented the problematic aspects in her novels out of nowhere.

[meganbmoore]

Yup. I read a lot of old school Harlequins as a teen and thought they were awesome, and am now horrified by a lot of that as an adult.

I mean, do I think the books have bad messages for teens? Yes. I also think there are good messages buried underneath them (very buried) and that most teens will grow out of it. Not to mention that equally bad or worse messages in plenty of other, often more socially acceptable things.

[moonspinner]

I grew up reading Mills & Boon and my mom's old Barbara Cartland novels (see a pattern?). I grew up. Never once did I think that my ideal man would be any colour-hair version of the controlling, domineering, "seduce her until she admits she likes it" tall, dark (or dark blond) and handsome Romeos that starred in those novels. The idea that Twilight needs to be roundly condemned because... "think of the poor, innocent, vulnerable little girl-children!" ... always, without fail, makes me want to blow a blood vessel.

And for all the talk about Bella being in an abusive relationship with a controlling dude, it seems to escape everyone's attention that Bella always gets what she wants. Always. From wanting to be Superman, instead of Lois Lane (actual quote) to having her disgustingly sweet and perfect Dhampir baby*.

*Also why is it weird and silly for Meyer to write a half-human/half-vampire character into her story but when Angel and Darla have Super-man Connor, it's the highest form of the creative and imaginative experience?

[meganbmoore]

Because Joss Whedon can do no wrong. (IMO, it's also the only reason anyone considers Dollhouse or Cabin in the Woods to be good. A bit harsh there, but...)

[meganbmoore]

Yup, only in fiction, the girl who goes after what she wants is usually set up as an antagonist against the more virtuous, self-sacrificing heroine, who the reader is meant to identify with. (Which is not to undermine those heroines, mind you.) That Bella is a protagonist who has that quality may not make her more likable, but ti does make her more real. (Though, honestly, this is one of those things that I think were more accidental than not, and that Bella's singlemindedness in going after becoming a vampire to be with Edward forever is ok with the narrative because Meyer herself wholeheartedly believes in the epic perfection of Bella/Edward and that it must happen for all to be right with the world, as opposed to because that's the way teenagers are when they really really want something that's being denied to them.)

[moonspinner]

Yeah, I was just about to say something in this vein. That moral of Twilight seemed to be pretty much, "Go after what you want, whatever the price to you and to others... and not only will you get it, but everything will work out perfectly fine!

"Turn into a vampire and lose your human family... LIES! Turn into a vampire and not be able to have children... LIES! Turn into a vampire and become a blood-thirsty, mindless monster for the first decade... LIES! Get married and turn into a vampire and lose your best friend/ also-ran boyfriend... LIES! (He becomes your son-in-law and as immortal as your baby! Goody!) Turn into a vampire and NOT be able to have mind-blowing sex... ROTFLMAO

[walkwithheroes]

John Green. I've read two of his novels, Paper Towns (didn't care for it at all) and The Fault In Our Stars (liked it a lot). He seems cool, but aside from TFIOS, his books all seem to be the same: quirky boy loves manic pixie dream girl. Actually, TFIOS could be quirky (and dying girl) love manic pixie dream boy (whose also dying). Though TFIOS is a bit more mature in writing style than his other works.

Just Jumping In With:

I find the recent trends in YA to be very interesting. I scanned the tumblr entry and the author does have a point: there are a lot of paranormal romances that are basically 'Girl Must Chose Between Two Supernatural Guys or One Super and One Normal' - most of which have come out post-Twilight. And The Huger Games has given way to a whole lot of 'Girl Saves Post-Apocalyptic World' series. I remember reading that because of the popularity of Twilight and The Huger Games, many publishers took similar books and asked for series. Which in turn became popular, which lead to more. But, I hear its slowly dying for

[meganbmoore]

Well, neither Twilight nor The Hunger Games introduced the story types into fiction, much less YA fiction specifically, they just made them the In thing for a while. Popular things trending is nothing new, though, and it's typical for a lot of things to show up like something popular right after it gets big, it's just apparently considered unusual when it's about girls. I mean, no one thoughts the upsurge of young boy magicians/with destined magic powers who learn with others like them was unusual or worth noting as following a trend over the last decade.

[walkwithheroes]

That's true about the story types. Things like that seems to come in and out of style. In fact I've heard that there are people who, for a living, watch trends to see if they can come up with what will be popular next. Then they report back and that is where YA novel trends/tv/films get some ideas. I remember reading about it when I Am Number Four came out - they thought aliens would becoming popular, but. . .yeah.