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I'm still on side with Neil Gaiman here. I read some totally inane non-literature as a kid. Still do, on occasion. Now literature is a major component of my lif

I'm still on side with Neil Gaiman here. I read some totally inane non-literature as a kid. Still do, on occasion. Now literature is a major component of my life. Do I think Percy Jackson is crap? Yes. Would I a tell a 7 year old not to read it? No way.

logfromblammo 12y ago
Just as YA fiction can encourage a reader to move on to more complex literature, strong sales of their YA fiction can encourage a writer to keep writing until they can produce more complex literature. Compare JK Rowling's #1 versus #7. The first book is not very remarkable YA fiction. It is stocked with tropes from cover to cover. The last book actually seems handicapped by the need to maintain continuity with the first. The awesome thing that happened there is that the readers developed along with the author. We need YA fiction of dubious literary value in the same way that we need minor league baseball. Some players never make it to the major league, but by playing at their own level, some can improve to the point that they can tackle a greater challenge. Is watching Indianapolis Indians versus Nashville Sounds as gratifying as NY Yankees versus Boston Red Sox? No, not usually. But the minor teams allow the pool of available professional and semi-pro baseball players to be much larger, which makes the top talent better. In the same way, more readers support more authors, and more authors produce more bestselling authors, and more bestselling authors produce more literary masterpieces. To produce Shakespeare, you don't need infinite monkeys typing, but you do need an awful lot of them.
- npsimons 12y ago
  We need YA fiction of dubious literary value in the same way that we need minor league baseball. This really hit me, because while I believe that most of the YA fiction is crap that at least adults should try to move on from, I also firmly believe that this country (USA) could use more exercise and reading. Even if it's just pulpy YA fiction, or going for a walk, hey, at least that's better than vegging out on the couch to some reality TV. Thirty minutes of reading and thirty minutes of exercise every day would probably be a good idea for just about everyone.

logfromblammo 12y ago

Just as YA fiction can encourage a reader to move on to more complex literature, strong sales of their YA fiction can encourage a writer to keep writing until they can produce more complex literature. Compare JK Rowling's #1 versus #7. The first book is not very remarkable YA fiction. It is stocked with tropes from cover to cover. The last book actually seems handicapped by the need to maintain continuity with the first. The awesome thing that happened there is that the readers developed along with the author. We need YA fiction of dubious literary value in the same way that we need minor league baseball. Some players never make it to the major league, but by playing at their own level, some can improve to the point that they can tackle a greater challenge. Is watching Indianapolis Indians versus Nashville Sounds as gratifying as NY Yankees versus Boston Red Sox? No, not usually. But the minor teams allow the pool of available professional and semi-pro baseball players to be much larger, which makes the top talent better. In the same way, more readers support more authors, and more authors produce more bestselling authors, and more bestselling authors produce more literary masterpieces. To produce Shakespeare, you don't need infinite monkeys typing, but you do need an awful lot of them.

npsimons 12y ago
We need YA fiction of dubious literary value in the same way that we need minor league baseball. This really hit me, because while I believe that most of the YA fiction is crap that at least adults should try to move on from, I also firmly believe that this country (USA) could use more exercise and reading. Even if it's just pulpy YA fiction, or going for a walk, hey, at least that's better than vegging out on the couch to some reality TV. Thirty minutes of reading and thirty minutes of exercise every day would probably be a good idea for just about everyone.