Surprised, dear readers? I’m keeping my promise to you and updating this first weekend of January! Although some of you may have been looking forward to my latest book report, you’ll have to wait just a little bit longer; I recently read an infuriating article to which I had to respond, just like in my post about the concert hall.
Unlike that blog post, this one has absolutely nothing to do with orchestra and everything to do with my other personal passion: Young Adult literature. As a genre, critics usually deem Young Adult as inferior to other published novels because it is tailored to the younger generation - readers ranging from 12 to 18 or about 25 (no definition is exactly the same). However, the most popular novels published in this genre, such as the Harry Potter books, the Twilight series, and the Hunger Games trilogy, have become international phenomenons read by adults and children alike. I definitely fall toward the upper end of the “intended” YA reader set as I’m currently in my 20s, but I still enjoy reading YA novels as much or more than novels for the “adult.” Appropriately, I read a few blogs about the subject as well, in order to find the latest YA stories with great reviews.
A few weeks back, one of my favorite book blogs, Forever Young Adult (which caters to adults well out of the readership range who still appreciate a well-written YA novel), posted a link to a New York Times article titled “Beyond Wizards and Vampires, To Sex.” This article discusses the apparently groundbreaking genre publishers have dubbed New Adult. If you’re intrigued, like I was, read it and report back here!
Read it? Okay, let’s get on with my response. My somewhat disgusted response.
Like the writers at FYA, I was fairly surprised at the article’s contents, which describes New Adult as the Young Adult genre with added explicit sex. As if Young Adult novels do not actually include sex, or as if readers ages 12 to 18 have no knowledge of sex at all.
Admittedly, the current famous YA novels - the Harry Potter books and the Hunger Games - have no mention of sex; the romantic relationships in them are unusually chaste for typical characters of their ages. Admittedly, the characters in these books have a lot to deal with (dark wizards taking over the world and cruel and controlling governments trying to kill children in televised game arenas), leaving them less time than the average teen to focus on sexual relationships. But the article is right, these two series do not involve sex. The other famous YA lit, the Twilight novels, have a strong commandment of abstinence before marriage (with potentially deadly consequences if broken) but (spoiler alert) there eventually is sex in the final novel. Thankfully, it is hardly descriptive, but it is descriptive enough for me to regret reading it. I’m not prudish when it comes to sex in novels (I’ve read plenty of Young Adult with well-written sex scenes, and I’ve read quite a few novels from the Romance genre as well); I’m just not the biggest fan of the Twilight series. Yes, I’ve read them; yes, I am somewhat ashamed; and yes, my experiences reading them will probably at some point be the subject of a blog post.
But back to the topic at hand: sex in Young Adult novels, or the mysterious lack of it according to the NYT article. While the famous wizard and vampire novels to which the article title refers lack explicit sex, sex is very much a part of Young Adult novels as it is in any other genre. Young Adult novels deal with the experiences (as you can imagine) of young adults, from junior high to high school to college and sometimes even beyond. The major subject of nearly all of these novels features the main character resolving trouble and coming to an epiphany that helps him/her grow internally. Often, these novels involve relationships with friends and family, but usually they either focus on or at least somewhat involve romantic relationships and everything those encompass, including (and not limited to) sex.
There are novels that deal with having sex for the first time, the after-effects of rape, the discovery/acceptance/frustration/worry of different sexual orientations, and countless other topics where the authors are able to describe sexual experiences, both explicitly and non-explicitly. Just because Harry Potter is too busy trying to kill Lord Voldemort and Edward doesn’t want to lose control and accidentally turn Bella into a vampire doesn’t mean that countless other young adults in novels also avoid the multifaceted world of sex.
But what I took from the NYT article is that publishers realize that current readers want novel sex as quickly as they can find it, and apparently these readers can’t take the time to find sex scenes better than the poorly written ones found in their favorite Fifty Shades books, particularly in the Young Adult genre. Considering they turned to Fifty Shades when the actual Twilight novels didn’t provide enough sex as their dreadfully written yet published fan-fiction, I’m not surprised that they turned to self-published novels as the New Adult source, as opposed to the novels in YA that do actually feature sex. I’m not surprised that this has caught the publishing industry off-guard, and I’m not surprised that the publishing industry is at a loss for the best way to address this non-phenomenon. But I’m somewhat ashamed that “New Adult” is their solution.
The publishing industry doesn’t need a new genre of literature to fit these novels, and bookstores don’t need a new section to shelve them. These so-called “New Adult” books either fit well into Young Adult fiction already, or they fit a centuries-old genre - Romance. And if publishers find these “New Adult” books too explicit even for Romance, there’s always the thriving genre of Erotica. Just because these newly published (and self-published) novels feature teenagers and college-aged adults doesn’t make them any less Erotica. In fact, it seems that the “New Adult” genre’s only defining feature is that it is for sexually explicit novels written for the 18 to 25 set. Young Adult as a genre encompasses far more than just stories for those slightly older than children; YA offers fantasy, romance, science fiction, history, and more, with protagonists ranging from 12 to 25. New Adult apparently just offers sex. Is that really enough to warrant an entirely new genre for publishing when it doesn’t seem to differ from already-established genres at all?
An excellent proof of the non-existence and lack of necessity for the New Adult genre comes straight from an example that the NYT provides in this very article. It cites Meg Cabot and her series about Heather Wells as an example of currently published “New Adult” fiction. Meg Cabot, whom you know from this post, is one of my favorite authors, so of course I have read all of the previously published Heather Wells books. What the NYT fails to realize is that Meg Cabot published the first book in her Heather Wells series in 2005, long before the non-phenomenon of New Adult came into existence. Furthermore, she herself classifies the novels as Adult; the series is listed among her adult novels on her own website. So sorry, NYT, but these mystery books work well in their already established genre. No need to reconsider where to shelve them or to re-shelve any other novels that fit in already available categories.
Ultimately, sex should not be the subject matter that separates adult literature from youth literature. Books, no matter the subject matter, help people understand life situations and, ultimately, themselves. Adults may not like it, but young adults deal with sex before they turn 18. It is ridiculous to try to separate books containing sex into a special, age-restricted genre when it takes far different defining features to truly classify books into genres. If the publishing industry really wants to find a place for their explicit sex novels, they already have plenty of genres to choose from. No “New Adult” needed, thanks very much.
And that’s my rant for this month. Agree or disagree, feel free to comment! And stay tuned, dear readers; my next post (the long-awaited third part to my Favorite Books series) will be online in a fortnight or less!
Until next time,
Julia
I've got a problem. Is disliking Young Adult fiction solely because it is labeled such morally wrong? Probably, yeah. I was immersed in the so-called 'classics' even before I started going to school (yay for parents who bought me The Wind in the Willows/Watership Down/unabridged Andersen for birthdays and holidays; so appropriate) and can't seem to catch the 'feeling' of YA. Surely, HP is great - but John Green isn't that good, and THG feel like an uneventful reprise of Battle Royale with a few fine moments. I don't feel tense reading through The Giver 'cause I've downed Zamyatin, Huxley and Orwell. So, it's a problem of mine. If NA books retain the low complexity and limited characterization (teenagers are fun, but adults are funnier) they are seemingly bound to by genre conventions, I don't see myself reading them and enjoying it, even if they have abundant sex.
ReplyDeleteFirst, thanks so much for your detailed comment, well-read anonymous friend. While I do think that you should give YA a chance, I definitely understand your reasoning as to why you tend to avoid it. I also understand the background of well-established classic fiction (my book report project in sixth grade was about Jules Verne's Journey to the Center of the Earth) and I can't argue with you about Huxley and Orwell, whom I adore. I feel your polite disdain for YA stems from the overwhelming popularity of mass-marketed fiction that sells well but isn't particularly well written. While I must politely agree to disagree with you about John Green, I feel similarly about the Hunger Games (which had a plot I found fascinating but upon further study realized was actually very poorly written). One of my biggest pet peeves is hearing a novelist who writes both adult and young adult fiction describe YA as a dumbed-down version of adult fiction. Unfortunately, many of those poorly-written novels sell quite well these days. (At least people are reading...right?) What I find issue with concerning New Adult fiction is that it seems to cater itself to the poorly-written masses, which does nothing to enhance either genre. And if the sex scenes are as poorly written as some the YA books you've encountered and disliked, I don't blame you in the slightest for wanting to avoid them. I would recommend that you give YA a try once in a while, however; you may have to dig through reviews after reviews to find the really good stuff, particularly stuff that would intrigue your particular tastes. The Chocolate War, by Robert Cormier, is as classic as you get with YA fiction, and it's better than many Adult Fiction novels I've read. Not all YA is as bad as the more popular books out there.
DeleteHey Julia! This blog post was a pleasant read!
ReplyDeleteI've also mused over the reoccurring theme of sex in YA novels, and really feel the same way as you: the two should not be inextricably linked. I have read plenty of novels (The Chocolate War; Adios, Nirvana) where masturbation and lusty thoughts were present, but definitely weren't overused. I appreciated these instances because they offered realistic insight into the minds of realistic young guys and girls. So, to a degree, presenting a moderate amount of sexuality really bolsters a YA novel's genuineness.
Glad we share a common interest. I'm looking forward to your next post!
Can you believe I commented on your blog post (via Facebook, actually) tonight, before I saw that you'd commented over here?
DeleteThanks for the nice review, as well! I definitely enjoy reading your posts as well (and I'm definitely going to have to check out Adios, Nirvana after reading your review. The Chocolate War, on the other hand, I've read a few times. Definitely one of my favorite novels; I can't think of another novel that made me feel so uncomfortable and yet was so excellent the very first time that I read it.)
I completely agree about the idea that sexuality linked in YA, when written well, can add to the authenticity of the novel's voice. I look forward to your next post as well! And in the meantime, I'm putting Adios, Nirvana on my To Be Read pile.