MIND MELD: Is Young Adult SF/F Too Explicit?
A recent post by Nancy Kress concerning the mature themes of current young adult science fiction struck a chord with my own observations over the last few years. Namely, that the fiction being marketed to today’s young adults deals with adult themes more than the young adult fiction from yesteryear. This seemed like a good topic to throw at some of the people in the field:
[UPDATE: See also, a belated answer from Orson Scott Card.]
Short Answer: No.
Long Answer:
I have a dear friend, a hospital pediatrician, who told me her father had explained that “sex is wet and messy.” This kept her from experimenting with same for nearly two years longer than she would have otherwise. This, in of itself, would justify more explicitness. My book (it’s all about me, Me, ME!), Jumper, was on the American Library Association’s 100 Most Banned Books List (1990-1999) because it essentially said, “If one of your parent’s is an active alcoholic bad things may result” (page 2) and “If you run away from home you may become the target of sexual predation” (page 9).
Now let’s try a thought experiment. You have a child. You want them to find out that they could be targeted for rape as a homeless teen by (a) Reading about it in fiction or (b) experiencing it.
Anybody choose B?
The job of writers is, foremost, to entertain, but we have other functions too. We give people experiences about choices and consequences from which they can draw conclusions for their own lives, and they didn’t have to go through that sexual assault or become a drug addict or live in a war ravaged city or kill somebody themselves. But, we also have to sell it–to make it real, to make it believable and sometimes that calls for explicit detail.
Looking back two hundred years, we can see a significant shift in what is explicit and what isn’t. We aren’t tying skirts around the legs of our tables lest the exposed nature of the “limbs” unduly excite the young (but the Victorians did.) Bare midriff’s would give them a heart attack.
And what is too explicit shifts widely between cultures and even between families. It shifts too much to expect school and public libraries to be able to decide (other than on a broad basis) what is and isn’t appropriate for your kids.
That’s your job.
When I was growing up, there was no such animal as young adult fiction. There was fiction for children and there was adult fiction. I moved from Nancy Drew to adult fiction as soon as I knew it existed and was reading Hubert Selby Jr.’s Last Exit to Brooklyn, John Fowles’ The Magus, and Hesse’s Steppenwolf by the time I was 15. So to me the whole issue is asinine. Let teenagers read what ever they want–they’ll either get it or they’ll be bored with it and won’t continue. Which may seem funny coming from me as I’ve been co-editing young adult anthologies for the past six years. But hey, they sell, so who am I to argue with the market?
I think this is an interesting question that reflects on how our whole society is changing. When I look back at what was on television when I was young (before cable TV grew up) it was a totally different world. Any questionable phrase would be “bleeped out,” there was no nudity, no drugs, blood and gore. Kids and teens now have been raised in a world where they can press a button on the family computer when mom walks out of the room and see anything they could imagine.
I really think that what is going on in the YA book world reflects this, somewhat. But at the same time, do we have a responsibility not to add to the mayhem? Should YA writers try to provide a wholesome counterpart to the other media, or is it okay to jump on the bandwagon and go for the ratings/sales in any way possible? How lucrative is it to have a conscience?
When I browse the aisles of teen fiction (not to name authors, of course) it amazes me what is being marketed to girls. Some of it is wonderful, with strong characters, interesting settings. Some is stereotypical, pandering sex, coolness, drugs, and sex and drugs for coolness, etc.
This is one of the reasons why I am so glad to be writing fantasy. When I create my own world, I can put my characters in touchy emotional situations, grave danger, romantic moments, massive highs and give them tough decisions to make without one mention of sex, pregnancy, swearing, smoking, or guzzling vodka. So maybe I have it easy. I think it would be tough to find a realistic fiction book that would stimulate today’s teens that didn’t deal with some of these issues. I suppose it’s how the issues are dealt with that makes the difference.
No, I don’t personally think authors and artists have a mandate to be moralistic, or show kids and teens the world as a perfect, pure place. But I personally hope that others, like me, want to create a world for kids (and adults!) to enter that is a safe respite to escape from some of the garbage that is bombarding us all the time, and hopefully not be adding to it.
My field of view in this is, by necessity, narrower than it might be. I have two boys, one 9, the other not quite 12, and so much of the YA material I read is fiction that I already have some idea that they can handle. And while I do like to broaden my reading horizons beyond scoping out what the boys like to read, time is pretty limited in this household, what with non-fiction for research and the odd work of fiction I want to read for pleasure. However, I often find the books even before the boys have any idea that they’re out there, and then pass them on in hope that they’ll enjoy them.
Does this mean I have no faith in the boys’ ability to monitor themselves? Not at all. They’ve both surprised me quite a bit in their discernment and ability to test things out on their own, and as they grow, both in age and in taste, their horizons will broaden at their own pace. That pace may be faster than I hope, but with aid from their mother the librarian and their father the author, hopefully their critical thinking faculties will also follow that pace.
And of course, critical thinking probably ends up being the issue, doesn’t it? I’m probably preaching to the choir right now, but I believe that many (most?) people who are well-read, critical thinkers, tend to raise the same. And in a world where sex and violence and language alerts are sometimes needed not just for the programming on TV but for the commercials that accompany those shows, these skills are needed. In the long run, I trust my boys to be able to handle what they read, or to ask my input if they run into something that bothers them. And I trust the (good) authors to tell the stories that need to be told, and to do so in the tone and style that they feel is appropriate to that story.
All that said, I also understand that there are parents who don’t necessarily prepare their kids for all this, or are not aware that they might have to. I’ve sold one YA story so far, and hope to write more. The story, “The Day Michael Visited Happy Lake,” was an homage to childhood fave Thornton W. Burgess, and appeared in Julie Czerneda’s anthology Fantastic Companions. But when I sold the story I realized that, if I were an ordinary reader, I wouldn’t want my own kids reading something by this Derryl Murphy guy and then seeking his collection, which contains material I definitely do not believe is appropriate for them. And so I created a pseudonym, Matt Walker. It’s not a perfect solution, since my name still shows up on the copyright page, but kid, if you’re going to be that persistent, fill your boots.
So, in the end, I guess I take a somewhat libertarian view of things. If authors write stories for a YA audience that happens to shock some adults, so be it. Hopefully the more sensible adults will be heard, but if hysteria rules, in most cases that probably just results in higher sales. Good news for the author, and a sign to publishers that more of this is wanted. There is no line until someone draws one and someone else jumps across it.
I have no idea what you mean by mature theme. If you mean sex, only Melvin Burgess has had the courage to say “sex is fun, and you should do it for fun, and not insist that this must be lurve”. For the rest, YA sf is a sex free zone but has been heavily contaminated by a form of romance which is embarrassing in its “this is forever” immaturity.
Similarly, if you mean violence, I also have no idea what you mean. Of the books I’ve been reading recently, only Kathrine Duey (Skin Hunger) and Cory Doctorow (Little Brother) have real violence with real pain — and very fine books they are too. The rest are mere cartoons and that’s as traditional as Tom and Jerry.
The one area where YA and children’s sf can be really mature is in getting kids to think through ethical issues: Pratchett, Reeve, McNaughton, Halam, Baxter, Doctorow and Applegate, to name just a few, are outstanding at this and it is never to young to learn about ethics.
In principle, young adult sf/f can never be too explicit because if it is then, by definition, it ceases to be young adult. But then the question specifies ‘fiction marketed as “Young Adult”‘, which is a different matter. We’re talking about the stuff that, rightly or wrong, ends up on the teen shelves in the bookshops.
Consider: would Heinlein’s juvenile SF novels have benefited in the slightest if he had added what we would consider ‘normal’ young adult feelings to his young adult characters? Alternatively, would Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials trilogy have benefited if he had written it all as a thrilling adventure for Will and Lyra but minus the sexuality? In both cases, let’s go for ‘no’.
Yet both take as their starting point the very positive characteristics of young people that make them such a pleasure to know here in the real world – their drive, their optimism, their sense of right and wrong. That is the core of any young adult fiction. From that starting point, Heinlein and Pullman branch out in the different directions that their stories require.
And that is the key question – what does a story need? Stories need, most of all, to be convincing to the reader for the milieu in which they occur. If in the real world a sexual situation would occur then so should it in a story; if not, then not. By ‘situation’ I don’t necessarily mean having sex – even just a boy musing on the benefits of a well fit girl, or vice versa, would come under that heading.
Teenagers know about sex and they know about sexual feelings, even if they haven’t had sex themselves (which is still the case for the majority). Ignoring that fact in a book is just being dishonest. If the needs of a story do get it all the way to a sex scene then teenagers will probably want to Know What It’s Like and will justly feel cheated if a veil is drawn over the whole thing. However, it’s quite possible to get that across couched in terms of what they already know from experience. Linda Newbery’s The Shell House – young adult, though not sf – comes immediately to mind as an excellent example.
The question goes on to ask: ‘is young adult sf/f too explicit?’ The only reason any fiction gets explicit is to turn on the readers; it’s rarely for information purposes. Teenagers don’t need turning on: drop a few hints if you must, and imagination will do the rest. My extensive market research here involved browsing through 20 pages of titles labelled by Amazon as young adult science fiction & fantasy. Of those that I’ve read – about 50% – I would say there is plenty that fulfils the above criteria of basic honesty, to different levels depending on the nature of the story, but none that goes into explicit levels of turn-on detail that would be better suited to a more adult book
I don’t believe there is a line. For one thing, a large portion of the YA audience is already reading adult books — they’re mature enough to decide what they’re ready to read. Things that don’t speak to individual teen readers will usually be avoided, explicit or not.
The whole notion of something being “too explicit” or “too adult” stems from what I firmly believe are notions about child and young adult-hood that gloss over what that time is actually like. It’s easy for adults to put a glossy sheen on the nature of children, the way they interact with the world, the strength and sometimes even ugliness of their emotions. In other words, I haven’t read anything in YA — SF/F or not — that strikes me as something that teens don’t experience or simply can’t understand. These types of concerns usually come up in regard to sex, and to some extent graphic violence and drugs. (I never hear people complaining that much about fantasy fight scenes though…wonder why?) These are all things that a large number of teenagers either experience or spend a significant amount of time thinking about on a daily basis (especially the sex). To censor this type of content from stories because of an underlying assumption about what is adult and what isn’t is misguided. I don’t see writers putting elements in their stories to be provocative. I see them putting these elements there because they’re necessary to tell the stories in question. That teenagers often respond so strongly to them just proves the point that they’re relevant and needed.
Related posts:
- Do You Read Young Adult Fiction?
- POLL RESULTS: Young Adult SF
- Harry Potter 6 and Young Adult Fiction
- Young Adult Fiction
- POLL RESULTS: Reading Young Adult Fiction
Filed under: Mind Meld
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(Better late to the party than never arrived, my $.02, inflation adjusted)
Initially a note regarding John Wright and his posts here.
I cannot be certain, but perhaps he felt there was not enough in the way of opposing viewpoints in those consulted, or not enough opposition.
However, the pot is leaving a message for the kettle, regarding color. Having read nearly ever novel Mr. Wright has published, I would like to note that he has little standing to criticize the use of sex for titillation.
My girlfriend and I were discussing the role of female characters, especially protagonists, in our preferred genres the other night with especial consideration to appropriate use of sexuality as compared to gratuitous involvement. Mr. Wright’s “Chaos” series was an example I used, where use of gratuitous sexual fantasies on the author’s part actually detracted from the story, plot, and my appreciation of the writer’s work. In the opinion the conversation reached, after careful review of the specific scenes, was this: Someone had schoolgirl sex-fantasies and perhaps there was therapeutic value to writing them out, but it was an unworthy addedum to an otherwise excellent series.
In regard to the care and feeding of the young adult reading habit:
I was, as many who have posted here, a precocious and voracious reader. Not only of science fiction and fantasy, but mystery and horror. Given that my reading was done under the light supervision of liberal parents during the mid to late eighties, I was exposed to a massive variety of subject matter. I remember the Cornelius Chronicles and the sexuality depicted in them very well. But I was more disturbed by Roald Dahl’s “Skin”. My parents went so far as to petition the public library to break their age standard for me to receive an adult library card at nine years old. Largely, no doubt, that I might pay my own fines. A dozen or more books a week were the norm. I read Heinlein’s works as a body, rather than separated by “juvenile” and “adult”. Certain themes certainly were disturbing, or evocative of reactions both hormonal and intellectual. But they also gave me a far more realistic viewpoint when these situations became a part of my own life. This means I am outside of the general ‘spectrum’ of whom you refer to as the target audience of Young Adult works, as being able to formulate my own thoughts after exposure to concepts rather than relying solely upon the input information.
I believe we all do “children” a disservice in the assumption that they are incapable of evolution of thought or the separation of written or broadcast works from reality if they are taught analytical and critical thinking. People mention morality, though it is carefully re-worded in many places in this thread to avoid religious connotations. I could here refer to Ender’s Game – the fact that, children are not children until you are an adult. That we fail as a society to instill in ourselves until far later (if at all) the ability to differentiate between a work of fiction or entertainment and the reality of life, who is to blame?
That all aside, on to my personal take:
The parents are responsible for censorship if they feel their children should not be exposed to certain situations, realistic or not. A child accompanied by a parent or guardian and allowed permission may enter a rated PG-13 or R movie at any age. Said child can partake of liquor under the supervision of said adult. Said child can consent to sex in many states, with or without parental permission, and may enter long term relationships involving sex or even marriage either inside or outside of the parental relationship. Where I was raised, most teenaged males were the ‘owner’ of rifles and trucks. These things all present far greater hazard to the soul and life of both that ‘child’ and others than the idea that sex, drug abuse, sexual assault, or ‘perversion’ occurs. These teenagers were not 17 or 18, these teenagers were 13 or 14.
Children beneath the ‘teenage’ years, 12 and lower, are a different situation. However, face the facts: Harry Potter was a problem not because of ‘adult content’ but because of ‘magic’. Phillip Pullman’s books had little criticism for sex, but drew great ire over their atheistic bent.
Parenting should involve an actual understanding of the emotional and intellectual age of the children. While the complexities of modern life may create serious difficulties, these are not irreducible. I have found it is more often an adult’s discomfort with tackling these issues and concepts that is the barrier than the lack of understanding or ability to comprehend, even if not fully, on the part of the children.
The author’s responsibility is to present a story. “Offstaging” certain things may well be in the best interest of an author wishing to write for the younger end of the Young Adults spectrum, defined personally as below 14 years of age. An author, as well as his or her editors, agents, and publishers, can determine what age group might be interested in a work. Or, an author might agree to write works for a specific age group. T
he addition of a sex scene, relationship, or violent incident should be determined by the story and perhaps the thoughts behind the story. Could you accurately write a faerie story involving a young man in current day Iraq without speaking of violence, death, torture, rape, and other abuse? Would it be fair to do so? Was it right of the Brothers Grimm to remove so much of the darkness from their stories, to make them palatable to the adults? Was the recent movie, Pan’s Labyrinth, solely suitable for audiences over 18?
I think that the ‘right and wrong’ of explicit depiction is a moot point. Ask instead if something truly harmful and degrading is being glorified. Should young adults be shown ‘compensated dating’ as a wonderful alternative path? Should young men be painted glowing pictures of the life of a high-school dropout turned into a meth dealer and pimp, with all the pain and darkness whitewashed away?
Just realized that the above post looks as if I were disagreeing with your assessment of the Orphans of Chaos series. That was not my intent. You are entirely right about it. I definitely agree!
In John’s defense, sort of, he wrote that series before he developed his current view. He was really embarrassed when he found out young teens were reading them. I think that did a lot to reinforced his views on the subject.
As to the rest of your post, I am mainly in agreement, too — especially since you mention “Over 14″. I think that by fifteen kids are pretty well able to fend for themselves. It’s the 11 to 14 year olds that I am worried about. If another age division of the shelves would make it easier for librarians to help parents guide their children of this age, I’m all for it. (Nothing to stop parents from allowing precocious 12 year olds to range through the older shelves if they feel they are ready.)
My posting fu is weak:
The ‘previous post’ to which I referred but somehow lost read: Orphans of Chaos is not a YA book, nor was it published as YA.
As both a teenager and a writer, I’ll have to say that no, YA novels–although I rarely read them–aren’t explicit.
What I should ask is if they SHOULD be explicit.
Teenagers are, as I’ve seen, the most stupid generation of our society. We want to believe that we’re raising the future leaders of our country, but how are we raising future leaders when we are neglecting the fact that teenagers NO NOTHING.
Do teenagers know about sex?
Do teenagers know about rape?
Do teenagers know about child abuse?
DO they? Do they REALLY know about it?
No, and you know why they don’t know about it? It’s because the adult society has an idiotic view that thinks they have to shield their children from every little thing they think is bad.
How do you know your child isn’t out having sex? How do you know if your child is using protection during that sex or not? Do your children know that you can contract HIV AIDs through sex, much less kissing?
Do they?
I seriously doubt it. Children these days don’t know ANYTHING because they are TOO SHELTERED. Back in the older days, children knew about sex when they were in diapers because they saw animals having sex in their backyard. Their parents didn’t say, ‘Oh, he just likes her,’ or something along that line.
The above is just one fine example.
Should YA books be censored?
No.
Is life censored?
No.
I don’t understand why people think a book should be censored when you let your children listen to rap music, let them hang out with others who are a bad influence and who let them run around with their pants around their ankles.
~ Kody Boye
http://www.freewebs.com/kodyboye
Let me first say that I very much appreciate and agree with the points raised by the other two teenagers above (and forgive me if there were more whom I missed!).
I am seventeen years old. I write.
My background is likely different from most of yours. You see, my parents are both immigrants. They don’t read novels written in English. What little control they had over my reading material quickly disappeared as I learned the route to the local library (within walking distance). I think I turned out decently.
When I was very small, my father, who is proficient enough in English to read synopses and Newbery lists, bought me books. My mother would bring me to the library and ask the children’s librarian to recommend books; she would also let me wander the shelves, and pick out what I wanted. She decided whether to let me check it out based on the illustration on the cover (it was usually a yes). My father would sometimes read the back cover when he got home. That was all the monitoring I got. That was elementary school.
I read books such as Maya Angelou’s I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, Sandra Cisneros’s The House on Mango Street, and Richard Wright’s Black Boy as early as the fifth grade. I found them interesting; they gave me things to think about. I was aware that the things I encountered was somehow “adult.” I did not need to have the concept of sex explained to me – besides, I was not quite sure how to translate it.
Were my parents aware that I was reading about “adult” themes? Certainly. (They gave me an omnibus The Art of War and 36 Stratagems when I was eleven. One of the Stratagems amounted to “have your daughter sleep with the opposing general/king to manipulate him.”) Did they particularly mind? Evidently not. These are the same parents who don’t want me to have a boyfriend until I turn eighteen. These are the parents who raised me to believe in abstinence until marriage. Yet they let me read about sex and drugs and violence, at my own discretion, at age eleven. They knew that raising me well meant raising me to have good judgment (see abstinence, above) rather than sheltering me from reality. Et vous?
Of course, given that English is not their native tongue, they knew that if they tried too hard to stop me, I’m enough of a bibliophile to get around it anyhow. Believe me, all you parents out there, even if your English is flawless, so long as you have bookworm kids, they’ll get around it too.
Pax vobiscum,
Sarah
*I was aware that the things I encountered were somehow “adult.” (5th paragraph)
“Having read nearly ever novel Mr. Wright has published, I would like to note that he has little standing to criticize the use of sex for titillation.”
This is John Wright. Matthew is making two simple errors in logic here. The first is ad Hominem. The second is straw-man argument.
I used to tend bar. I did not serve hard liquor to children. I did not serve hard liquor to seventeen-and-a-half-year-olds, even those who might have been able to drink responsibly. What I did was this: I served grown-up drinks to grown-ups.
Now, back when I was a bartender, if I had heard one of my fellow bartenders saying “Should hard drinks be sold as soft drinks? The short answer is no!” or if I heard one of my fellow bartenders saying, “I used to get drunk every weekend when I was 14! Never did me a bit of harm!” I would have sharply disagreed.
It would not be an act of heroism, bold defiance of taboo, to label a bottle of Kentucky whiskey “soft drink”. That would be false advertising.
If a teetotaler stated that there was no difference between beer and root beer, we could bring into question his standing to make the statement. Likewise, if a bartender wanted to sell to kids because he craved the extra income, we could question his motives.
But when a bartender says, “Don’t serve beer to kids” it does not remove his “standing” to testify to point out that he serves beer to grown-ups.
So Matthew has it exactly backward.
Someone who has written kid-friendly material, whose nice and fluffy books contain nothing explicit nor shocking, might that someone disqualified from having an opinion about the issue under discussion. He writes root beer. His books could be mis-labeled without harm.
But someone who writes a book he would never put into the hands of a fourteen-year-old, he has a right to speak out, and an obligation.
ORPHANS OF CHAOS was not written for children. My work steps over the line. It is not fit for children to read. I know it. Matthew knows it.
Are my fellow authors who deem themselves heroes of literary liberation unwilling to know the when their work steps over the line? Do they know it?
“You want them to find out that they could be targeted for rape as a homeless teen by (a) Reading about it in fiction or (b) experiencing it.”
…or you can c) be the responsible parent/guardian you’re supposed to be to your kids and TALK to them about it.
Seriously? So the only way a kid/teen can learn the dangers of society is by reading about it in fiction or experiencing it for themselves?
Right. So parents can just throw the good ol’ one-on-one convos with their kids out the window. Who needs to communicate with their kids when you have YA fiction?
As if our society needed to get anymore disconnected.
(Oh, and forget warning your kids about the dangers of touching the hot stove–they can only either read about it in their books or get burned and learn from the experience!)
Small-minded, anybody?
I did a study in college on whether content of TV and films actually influenced teenagers as many groups claimed and actually found the influences from media are very significant. And I know books influence me so I’m going to stretch out and say I think books have impact too. I take very seriously my responsibility as an author for everything I write and how it might affect readers and I think every author should. Hiding behind freedom of speech is as silly as it is illogical. You have a responsibility for what you put out there in the world. The fact that you may not care is a different matter. At the same time, I think while parents used to be the gatekeepers, that is not the case anymore. So when Librarians or teachers play that role, they shouldn’t be lambasted for trying to be sure kids get nurtured and protected. Certainly far too many in the media/arts have shown no interest in doing that. I do think things go too far with language, sex and sometimes violence. I think it’s not essential to the story all too often but just an author’s desire to rebel against cultural mores or moral police. And I think using such things should be carefully thought through with consideration for the audience intended. I’m sure a lot of the authors above disagree with me but so be it.