the_matt79

Young adult literature vs. Literature deemed adult

That's kind of cryptic isn't it, well let me try to straighten out what I had in mind there. I recently read The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman an award winning book that is fantastic and really made me forget that it was Young Adult rather than just plain old lit. It made me wonder if the distinction needs to be made, and if it wasn't would that make us look down on something that might be a little shorter or have bigger print because we were expecting it to be something else altogether? Hmm that might not be clear either.

Okay side note... a few years back I was watching an interview with Clive Barker (one of my all time favorite writers) and he talked about how American's idea of genre was hurtful to literature and other media and I agree with him, and am paraphrasing as well. I see that as saying that as soon as we try to decide that there are all these different groups to put books into we start to look down on them as well. Who amongst the literati not look down on Mystery, Romance, Sci Fi and Fantasy a little just because they are in the outside bookshelves rather than in the Literature section. Now I know the division of things makes it easier to find what we are looking for or in the mood for at the time, but it also seregates in a way that can put esteem on one thing and take it from another.

Now yes I do think that some of these books division is justifiable, and I think a lot of that is because of the rate that they get churned out. At the same time I do not think that this takes away from the work that the author does, because some of these series of books have great writers working for them and because of that I respect them and turn to them from time to time, but I also go into it knowing that they probably aren't going to be as thought provoking as something else might be.

Is this fair of me?

The Graveyard Book was written by Neil Gaiman (another favorite) and was most deserving of the award it won. I think this because it wasn't written down to it's target audience, it was written well and let's the reader aspire to it, and that is what I love about a lot of literature. To often something that is deemed adult, or of a higher level is some kind of drivel that makes you wonder why or how it could get into that grouping, and it is at times like this that I respect the segregation of libraries and bookstores. There are still books from my childhood that I re-visit such as the Chronicles of Narnia, and these books are classic for a reason, they teach as they help the reader escape, but what they teach is not blatant or thrust in the readers face. At the same time there are books that are written for a younger audience that I am drawn to and impressed by, and these are books like the Harry Potter series. It is books like these that make me wonder if there should be that distinction between young adult fiction and adult fiction, and yes I suppose there should be, mainly because of maturity levels of the reader, and for that reason I will back away from it, but what do you think?

It's funny though that for some odd reason I forgot that The Graveyard Book was for the youner audience and wished that the main character's relationship with one of the ghosts would have been looked at more thoroughly, but that wouldn't have been appropriate and that is why Gaiman wrote it as he did, and I am glad he did. I think that desire from me was more akin to wanting to read smething along that line, more than it was reading about a boy and a ghost getting it on or something like that, at least I hope that is what it was.

I apologize if this was rambly and hard to follow, my mind wandered a bit, but I think I kept it pretty coherent, if not, I'm sorry, and thanks for fighting through.