Young adults (and those who remember being one): What do you know about...

Barb D · Jul 15, 2009

Molière? Poll coming.

I'm thinking about including references to a Molière play in my next book. I need to know if YA readers would be at all familiar with it.

Kathleen42 · Jul 15, 2009

The only reason I would have known the name as a teen would have because it was mentioned in The Breakfast Club.

Kitty Pryde · Jul 15, 2009

In high school, I had one extremely geeky awkward friend who was into really old French and English lit. She would talk about him, and otherwise I'd never heard of him.

Shady Lane · Jul 15, 2009

Kathleen42 said:
The only reason I would have known the name as a teen would have because it was mentioned in The Breakfast Club.

We read "The Unlikely Gentlemen" or whatever. I despised it.

C.bronco · Jul 15, 2009

I think he was misanthropic, LOL. I had to read him in college.

AmandaAcidic · Jul 15, 2009

Kathleen42 said:
The only reason I would have known the name as a teen would have because it was mentioned in The Breakfast Club.

I knew I heard the new but I couldn't figure out from where.

Bingo!

eyeblink · Jul 15, 2009

I've heard of Molière, and studied Les femmes savantes for A-level French, in 1982-83. I remember finding him pretty dull - Prosper Mérimée (the original novella of <i>Carmen</i> that the opera was based on) was more my thing.

A-levels are UK exams taken in sixth form, which is ages 17-18. I'd think you'd be unlikely to study Molière much younger than that. If you did French at University/College I'd guess he would be very likely to come up as a literature option.

Imbroglio · Jul 15, 2009

Ai yai yai.

Never heard of... him?

Sage · Jul 15, 2009

I know about Moliere from Studio 60.

But I've noticed the name popping up quite a lot in the past week.

backslashbaby · Jul 16, 2009

The play came to our school, and I liked it, so I read "The Unlikely Gentlemen" later. Seeing the play was much better, I thought.

tengraceapples · Jul 16, 2009

That is so funny because my quote is from one of his plays. I have seen a few of his works but thats because I went to a performing art school for drama.

KTC · Jul 16, 2009

Moliere really pumps my nads. He always has. (yes, even before Bender said that in Breakfast Club)

nayner · Jul 17, 2009

tengraceapples said:
That is so funny because my quote is from one of his plays.

and what a great quote it is!

Parametric · Jul 17, 2009

Nothing. Zip. Nada. Zilch. Zero.

alleycat · Jul 17, 2009

I voted as if I were a YA again. I think I might have known the name, but that's about all.

MissKris · Jul 17, 2009

As a high schooler, I had probably heard of him. In college I studied in Paris for a summer and visited his gravesite at Pere Lachaise Cemetary. But I haven't read any of his works.

kaitlin008 · Jul 17, 2009

I don't think I ever heard about him in high school. If so, only in passing. Because I definitely don't remember him now. (And it was only 5 years ago that I finished high school, so I'm not all that ancient!)

MarieSheridan · Jul 17, 2009

I had heard the name and would have guessed he were a French writer. But even if teens today (I am in my 20s) don't recognize it, I still think it would be ok to use in your novel. If it connects to your plot and you provide context I think your readers will get it. Just like how we decode language and vocabulary by reading around the text and stealing clues from the content.

Doctor Shifty · Jul 19, 2009

Barb D said:
Molière? Poll coming.

I'm thinking about including references to a Molière play in my next book. I need to know if YA readers would be at all familiar with it.

Hi Barb D,

what does 'incuding references' mean in your context? Several options come to my mind.

A character saying, "Moliere deal with xxx in his play School for Wives', in some manner.

You quote a line or two of text and have some way of ascribing it in the dialogue.

You 'reference' some element of Moliere like a jazz musician will put in a line of a Satchmo number as a mark of respect.

You base your story line around the story line of the play, which is what some novellists do with Shakespeare etc.

These require different levels of background understanding on the part of the reader. But I would be surprised if more than a tiny handful of YA readers even knew his name.

misslissy · Jul 19, 2009

I didn't know his name in high school; I only knew it when I came to college a year ago because my school put on one of the plays. If I polled my friends who are still in high school they probably would not have a clue.

Young adults (and those who remember being one): What do you know about...

What do you know about Molière? Check all that apply!

Never heard of Molière. What is it, a cooking tool? A sauce?

I've heard the name, but that's all.

I know who he is, and am a bit familiar with his life or writings

I've read some Molière

I've heard of the Molière play 'The School for Wives'

I've read 'The School for Wives'

I've studied 'The School for Wives'

Never heard of 'The School for Wives'

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