"Adults should read adult books"

Nicole River · Apr 18, 2012

http://www.nytimes.com/roomfordebat...-adult-fiction/adults-should-read-adult-books

...I know. I couldn't believe my eyes either.
I wonder what he'd have to say about me trying to write YA books. At the ripe old age of *gasp* 25. When I should be trying to Contribute to World Literature.

It's not like me to get ranty, but this is exactly the kind of snobbery I can't stand. Because, y'know, when someone tells a good story, people are going to want to read it. Regardless of age. And in my mind that's exactly what makes a good book.

Discuss.

veinglory · Apr 18, 2012

Adults should mind their own business IMHO. I think have a cringe response to YA reading is pretty immature.

missesdash · Apr 18, 2012

oh I read this. There was the obligatory mini twitter storm. I think I've heard this POV so many times, it no longer bothers me.

Alpha Echo · Apr 18, 2012

Wow. That's insane. The older I get, the more appreciation and love I seem to have for YA. LOL

Nicole River · Apr 18, 2012

veinglory said:
Adults should mind their own business IMHO. I think have a cringe response to YA reading is pretty immature.

Hehe. More specifically, literary snobs should mind their own business. Adults should read whatever we damn well please.

Snowstorm · Apr 18, 2012

Unbelievable. I wonder if he segments every other portion of society (no adult watching cartoons, no adult can play in the sand, no singing "kid" songs, etc.). Sad.

Rina Evans · Apr 18, 2012

Snowstorm said:
Unbelievable. I wonder if he segments every other portion of society (no adult watching cartoons, no adult can play in the sand, no singing "kid" songs, etc.). Sad.

Of course. Adults should do all the adult things, don't you know?
When you reach the ripe old age of 18, you lose the right to do kiddie stuff.

A very nice way to alienate so many potential readers of his book.

WalpurgisQuill · Apr 18, 2012

Rina Evans said:
Of course. Adults should do all the adult things, don't you know?
When you reach the ripe old age of 18, you lose the right to do kiddie stuff.

A very nice way to alienate so many potential readers of his book.

Unfortunately, there are indeed many snobs who believe that. Those are the sad sacks of shit who never got to have a real childhood. The author of that article is probably just trying to get a stir out of people, trying to cause some debate around his name without offending any race or culture.

Snowybunny12 · Apr 18, 2012

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.

Does he realize how stupid he sounds?

Also the Harry Potter books were actually written for adults and then kids started liking them

maybegenius · Apr 18, 2012

Oh yeah, that guy. I'm 99% sure he was trolling the YA community. He has a habit of writing really opinionated pieces like this that ruffle a bunch of feathers.

I do dislike that this attitude persists, but I've reached a point where I just don't want to waste energy on people who insist that only certain types of literature are worthy of being read. I get the feeling it's kind of a self-important power trip to get other people riled up with trying to prove the legitimacy of their work.

Nicole River · Apr 18, 2012

WalpurgisQuill said:
Unfortunately, there are indeed many snobs who believe that. Those are the sad sacks of shit who never got to have a real childhood. The author of that article is probably just trying to get a stir out of people, trying to cause some debate around his name without offending any race or culture.

Oh yeah. I think that must be it.

Lady Goddess · Apr 18, 2012

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. Let’s not pump Justin Bieber in our Saabs and get engaged at Cinderella’s Castle at Disneyland. Because it’s embarrassing.

Embarrassing to whom? I don't know about you but I'd love to visit Cinderella's Castle at Disneyland. Sounds like fun on a bun! :hooray:

leahzero · Apr 18, 2012

I think we already had a thread on this.

Cyia · Apr 18, 2012

Rina Evans said:
Of course. Adults should do all the adult things, don't you know?
When you reach the ripe old age of 18, you lose the right to do kiddie stuff.

One of these days, I'm going to open a summer camp for adults. There will be rope swings and canoes and silly songs and food fights and macaroni necklaces.

It'll be a million-dollar enterprise for all those people who are sick of being told they have to act like adults because their cake has too many candles to count as juvenile.

Toothpaste · Apr 18, 2012

leahzero said:
I think we already had a thread on this.

Yup here: http://absolutewrite.com/forums/showthread.php?t=241411

I think what bugs me most now about this article is that people are now saying it was meant to be satire, or the guy writing it always does this kind of things, it's his schtick. And I find that really annoying, because it should be obvious if you are writing satire. You don't just write annoying things and hope people know your reputation. You put an effort into the writing itself, demonstrate a cleverness.

In my mind, this fellow failed miserably if this was meant to be satire. Why does such a bad writer get to work for such an outlet?

That's what bugs me the most now about this article (things also bug me about the article in and of itself - if it was sincere).

Nicole River · Apr 18, 2012

Toothpaste said:
Yup here: http://absolutewrite.com/forums/showthread.php?t=241411

I think what bugs me most now about this article is that people are now saying it was meant to be satire, or the guy writing it always does this kind of things, it's his schtick. And I find that really annoying, because it should be obvious if you are writing satire. You don't just write annoying things and hope people know your reputation. You put an effort into the writing itself, demonstrate a cleverness.

In my mind, this fellow failed miserably if this was meant to be satire. Why does such a bad writer get to work for such an outlet?

That's what bugs me the most now about this article (things also bug me about the article in and of itself - if it was sincere).

Oops, sorry. Didn't see it.
The satire thing kinda sounds like backpedaling IMHO.

Nicole River · Apr 18, 2012

Cyia said:
One of these days, I'm going to open a summer camp for adults. There will be rope swings and canoes and silly songs and food fights and macaroni necklaces.

It'll be a million-dollar enterprise for all those people who are sick of being told they have to act like adults because their cake has too many candles to count as juvenile.

I'm signing up! Dibs on the top bunk!

Discord · Apr 18, 2012

Yeah, because if I read the Hunger Games that automatically means I don't read anything else, ever. What a clown.

I like that he openly admits that he hasn't read the Hunger Games, doesn't even know the first thing about the concept, because he was too stuck up to look past a label on the shelf that some guy decided to put it on. Then he has the nerve to dismiss any potential complexity it might have without so much as a glance at the back cover.

As far as I can tell, the only difference between YA literature and adult literature is that YA is about YA protagonists. There is complex YA, there is vacuous YA, just like there is both complex and simple adult fiction. Some is violent, some is tame. Some has sexual content, some doesn't. Just like adult fiction.

Stiger05 · Apr 18, 2012

Cyia said:
One of these days, I'm going to open a summer camp for adults. There will be rope swings and canoes and silly songs and food fights and macaroni necklaces.

It'll be a million-dollar enterprise for all those people who are sick of being told they have to act like adults because their cake has too many candles to count as juvenile.

I'm SO there!

I hate literature snobs. People like this guy, troll or not, who read and say things to make themselves "sound smarter." Wonder what he thinks about kids reading adult books? Or should they stick with "kid" books?

I bet he absolutely despises Dave and Buster's. Ha!

lolchemist · Apr 18, 2012

Ohoho! If he's backtracking and claiming this was a 'satire' now, I really question whether he even knows what that word means? I read this already in the other thread and I'm still shaking my head at it.

There are sooooo many reasons why a person could be reading a YA book. Maybe they're a teacher trying to find books for their students to read or a parent monitoring their kid's books or a YA author reading up on the competition or a desperate passenger who had nothing else to read and found the book on a bench in the airport. Why automatically jump to the conclusion that the reader is a..... is a WHAT exactly? A horrible person who kills babies and eats puppies?

I'm re-reading that 'article' and the closest thing I can find to a description of what these readers are supposed to be is 'embarrassing.'

Yeah, the only person who should be 'embarrassed' right now is him.

maybegenius · Apr 18, 2012

Oh, I don't think he was going for satire at all. I think he just likes being contrary. And is a jerk.

Renee Collins · Apr 18, 2012

I love this top comment from "Readers Picks"

C.S. Lewis wrote, “Critics who treat 'adult' as a term of approval, instead of as a merely descriptive term, cannot be adult themselves. To be concerned about being grown up, to admire the grown up because it is grown up, to blush at the suspicion of being childish; these things are the marks of childhood and adolescence... But to carry on into middle life or even into early manhood this concern about being adult is a mark of really arrested development. When I was ten, I read fairy tales in secret and would have been ashamed if I had been found doing so. Now that I am fifty I read them openly. When I became a man I put away childish things, including the fear of childishness and the desire to be very grown up.”

LTMadison · Apr 18, 2012

This reminds me of a missive I read years ago in the collected letters of Mark Twain. In the back and forth of editing Huck Finn he expressed to his publisher his frustration with the book and said something to the effect that, what the hell, it was just an adventure book for boys. (This the book that Hemingway cited as the source for all subsequent American literature.)

Another thought is the new Australian novel Jasper Jones, which I recommend. It was published down under as general fiction, and won some literary prizes. It is being issued here as YA, for what I assume are marketing reasons.

I'm sure readers here can cite other books (HG being too obvious to count) which were issued as YA but due to their literary quality or narrative strengths achieved a broad audience. For instance, I think The Dog in the Night was issued as YA.

However, much of YA is appropriately geared towards immature or unsophisticated readers, just as much of adult publishing is. You could do a similar exercise picking up bad adult romances and thrillers in the supermarket.

WalpurgisQuill · Apr 18, 2012

maybegenius said:
Oh, I don't think he was going for satire at all. I think he just likes being contrary. And is a jerk.

Exactly. I know a lot of people like this in real life and its annoying. They just like to get people riled up and its a waste of time. Especially when its not even funny.

Stiger05 · Apr 18, 2012

LTMadison said:
This reminds me of a missive I read years ago in the collected letters of Mark Twain. In the back and forth of editing Huck Finn he expressed to his publisher his frustration with the book and said something to the effect that, what the hell, it was just an adventure book for boys. (This the book that Hemingway cited as the source for all subsequent American literature.)

Another thought is the new Australian novel Jasper Jones, which I recommend. It was published down under as general fiction, and won some literary prizes. It is being issued here as YA, for what I assume are marketing reasons.

I'm sure readers here can cite other books (HG being too obvious to count) which were issued as YA but due to their literary quality or narrative strengths achieved a broad audience. For instance, I think The Dog in the Night was issued as YA.

However, much of YA is appropriately geared towards immature or unsophisticated readers, just as much of adult publishing is. You could do a similar exercise picking up bad adult romances and thrillers in the supermarket.

Furthermore, on this point, look at "Classic YA" before YA was a true genre, like "The Outsiders" and "A Separate Peace." If published today "The Catcher in the Rye" would be placed in the teen section. Most of Jane Austen and the Bronte sisters books are in the YA section at B&N.

This guy is a pompous jerk and an idiot.

"Adults should read adult books"

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volitare nequeo

You can't sit with us!

I should be writing.

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might be a giant

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The colors! THE COLORS!

Rewriting My Destiny

THE RECKLESS RESCUE is out now!

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Shooting stars.

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Plotting . . .

Poobah

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