One Bite at a Time

[alanajoli]

I was recently reminded of the old saying, "How do you eat an elephant?" (The answer, of course, is my subject line.) It made me think about how I could approach working on the novel, somehow dividing it into small deadlines rather than giving myself a final deadline that comes and goes without anyone noticing it. I'm still pondering this, but think it's probably a good idea, if I can figure it out.

On a completely different line of thought, I read an article in the New York Times Book Review in which some teen authors declared no adults would read teen novels. This, to me, seems silly and not terribly true, if only because I'm clearly someone who does. Most of the people I've told to read "Percy Jackson" are adults; almost all of the people I've discussed "Percy" with are adults. The Twilight series is extremely boundary crossing in that way, according to the magazine articles that have declared Edward to be the new Mr. Darcy. (I can't link to that one, as I can't remember where I read it.) I think the idea that adults aren't reading YA is becoming less and less true as the teens who grew up reading YA novels become adults. I'm cuspy on that--we had a great YA section at my public library growing up, but it was before the YA boom. But I remember where the good stuff is kept, so to speak, and regularly check out books from both the children's section and the YA room--moreso than I read adult novels and definitely more than I read non-fiction.

I'm wondering if the stigma against YA books is more prevalent outside of the SFF genres. It seems to me, particularly since a lot of the shared-world genre fiction is often considered YA in libraries, even if it really isn't, that maybe the genre readers understand the whole age category thing in a different way. Even if the YA genre is more important (and I've read some compelling arguments that YA is a genre to itself rather than an age category, although I don't think the label is always used appropriately), the fantasy genre feel might bridge gaps for fantasy-readers. I don't know if I think it's true, but I suspect it bears pondering, and I'd love to hear what others think on the topic.

Comments

[shanna-s.livejournal.com]

I do think sf/fantasy readers are more open to YA because teen (or younger) heroes are pretty common in some of the classics of the genre. There are things being reprinted now as YA that were initially published as plain old adult sf/f. We know Ender's Game is a great book, for example, so the fact that it's about a child and mostly through the viewpoint of a child isn't an issue. So many of the fantasy heroes and heroines are in their late teens because there's often a coming-of-age element to the journey. I've been reading a lot of YA fantasy lately because the adult fantasy went into epic, dark, gritty, and plain old gross for a while, and YA is where I find things that read more like the adult fantasy I read as a teen.

[dmoonfire.livejournal.com]

I kind of see YA, fantasy and sci-fi as three different sets of common elements. So, there is an intersection between YA and fantasy just as there is a (relatively smaller) set of YA and sci-fi or even YA and urban fiction. Taken apart, there are definitely some distinct things that make up a YA genre to me, namely how they deal with certain issues.

Beyond that, I don't think it is really a gap. Just the intersection of YA and fantasy is actually a rather large intersection compared to the interaction of "adult fiction" and YA fiction. There is more in common, so there are more readers who read both. :)

Set theory is fun.

[mdhenry.livejournal.com]

Or middle grade for that matter.

[emilymorgan.livejournal.com]

I think I agree with you on both points.

Also, I think younger adults are the right age to have contact with kids/teens who're the target audience for these books. I've always been a big YA fan myself, having grown up with it, but I also realize that I've read a lot of wonderful YA books because my (much-younger) sister has thrown them at me. (She knows that I'll pretty much read anything with words that you put in my hands.) This dynamic started with the first Harry Potter book when she was five or six and I was in high school. She's still doing it- she handed me Twilight a few weeks ago. A lot of the time, I read the description and go "Ehh, this sounds a little trite, but I'll read it for the sake of sisterly bonding," and then I end up loving it.

[basseykay.livejournal.com]

At the library we I work we are increasingly buying multiple copies of books and shelving some in the YA collection and some in the adult collection. More often than not this means putting "YA" books in the adult collection, but it happens the other way too.

[orryn-emrys.livejournal.com]

True to form, my fiance and I both spend a lot of time filling in the gaps between heavier adult fiction offerings, many of which are SF/F, with YA fantasy novels, which are universally easier to get into and quick to develop. I can easily remember a time when this wasn't the case... I started reading adult fantasy at a fairly young age, conquering LotR in the 4th grade, and my tendency, by high school, was to seek out increasingly more rich and complex stories. In retrospect, I don't think I considered YA a viable alternative until Harry Potter.

Read, read, read...

[vroberth.livejournal.com]

I think the classification in itself might deter adult readers who haven't grown up with a hefty variety of fiction (especially of the fantasy/science fiction genres). Readers who developed their interests through comic books, out-of-classroom adventures, and a love for literature no doubt recognize the importance of any fiction, regardless of its category. If you like it, read it.