5 ms·
I tend to see a disdain for YA books in the SFF community. Which is sad, since many in the community still remember the (not-so-distant) past, when all of SFF w
by untothebreach 11y ago
I tend to see a disdain for YA books in the SFF community. Which is sad, since many in the community still remember the (not-so-distant) past, when all of SFF was looked down upon by those who only read "real" literature. Romance, too, seems to get this attitude.
- OldSchoolJohnny 11y agoPersonally my disdain for them is that currently they are mostly telling the same basic story with different window dressing.
- swombat 11y agoWorth checking out Cory Doctorow's YA novels... they tend to be more varied than the typical fare - a good example of what you can do with the genre. Yes, there's a "coming of age", "figuring out what you want to do with your life" common element to them - but then one might argue that many alleged adults in today's world have not actually come of age yet. Maybe we need more of this stuff in our literature.
- kleer001 11y agoYes, if you can stand Doctorow's breast beating over EFF type themes of autonomy, government, security, etc... Which might be just your thing ;)
- swombat 11y agoHe's not breast-beating, just making a clear, compelling, well argued and well illustrated case... Or, you're right, it might well be my thing :-P
- kleer001 11y agoFair enough, lol. The only reason I call it breast beating is because it's such a clear departure from his very early work.
- JoshTriplett 11y agoThere are bad YA novels, and bad non-YA novels, in all genres, including fantasy. I've seen plenty of cookie-cutter fantasy stories in the standard fantasy section as well. And on the flip side, there are a lot of excellent fantasy novels squirreled away in the YA section where many people will overlook them.
- civilian 11y agoWhat's the basic story? (bonus point if you link to tvtropes.)
- onewaystreet 11y agoPeople have been saying this about the fantasy and sci-fi genres for decades.
- civilian 11y agoYeah, that attitude is odd. My strategy is to be intentionally clueless as to why anyone would have a problem with 28-year-old-me reading The Hunger Games.