Thursday, October 28, 2010

Will Grayson, Will Grayson by John Green and David Levithan

This is me, at the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books, after
John Green and David Levithan signed my copy. Needless to
say, I was ecstatic. It shows on my crazy face. YAAAAAAAAY.

Gotta start out with one for my Nerdfighter homies.

Will Grayson, Will Grayson in the tradition of books like Good Omens, proves that co-authoring can be a beautiful, beautiful thing. Especially because the viewpoint switches allowed both authors to write in their distinctive styles without interrupting the flow of the story.

'Will Grayson, Will Grayson, for those of you who don't know, is about two high-school aged boys, each named Will Grayson, their lives, and the events that eventually bring them together.

It's heartwarming, hysterically funny, and touches upon topics some YA literature wouldn't dare go near, like homosexuality, depression, and relationships that aren't fixed by the end of the story. To me, Will Grayson, Will Grayson is about acceptance, dealing with imperfection, and battling the paralysis some people feel in High School.

If you enjoy gigantic people who are gay and gay people who are gigantic, musical numbers, snooty goths, mathletes, porn stores, and maybe tearing up just a little bit, I would definitely recommend this book, and everything else by John Green and David Levithan, who work fabulously together. I hope to see them writing together again.


Wednesday, October 27, 2010

Dear Texas/Fort Worth International Airport: WHY?

I know I'm supposed to be reviewing YA lit, but first, a rant.

So there I was, at a bookstore in Texas.

I wasn't expecting much from it. After all, it was attached to a Starbucks, just about rivaled the coffee shop in size, and is in, well, Texas. Bookstores the world over are pretty much filled to bursting with crap, but this crap was supplemented with Glen Beck and Bill O'Reilly shrines, and an entire shelf of L. Ron Hubbard. My mother asked (naively, but she's always trusted the world far too much ) if they carried Ariana Huffington's new book 'Third World America'. The cashier lookout her like she was crazy. But I carried on, like the good little literary warrior I am, hoping to that I might find some hope in this place. I was denied that wish.

I headed instantly to the Young Adult section, because that is where I spend most of my time. As someone in the process of writing (albeit slowly) a YA novel, I like to see whats up. I correspond with some notable YA writers, and like to see them featured. So when I enter a bookstore, I head right over to Young Adult fiction, to check out the scene.

Lowered expectations in tow, I arrived at the shelves. And of course, as it does most times I enter a bookstore these days, my heart sank. I began to count.

Ninety different books. Thirty-one of which were paranormal romance.

If you can't do math, that means over one third of the total YA books featured in that tiny little book store at the Dallas/Fort Worth Airport were paranormal romance. Over thirty percent. The people at that store decided that ONE in every THREE YA BOOKS WORTH PUTTING ON THE SHELVES had to be about vampires and werewolves and fallen angels and demons and all manner of other beasties falling in passionate love.

And let me tell you, the other 59 books were not particularly the cream of the literary crop. Things like 'The Clique' and 'Pretty Little Liars' dominate the rest of the shelf-space. High school books about rumors and clothes and boys, which I guess if better, but not by much. Books marketed to teens (young adults) should have meaning by this point. This is proved by the wildly popular Harry Potter, whose message is deeper than just 'Boy Wizard defeats evil snake-face." We are completely capable of understanding thoughtful novels, deeper meaning, metaphor and symbolism. Do not write off the youth as unable to process anything other than High School drama and fanged hunks. But yet this is what is marketed to us. It irritates me. What's worse, is the fact that it's selling.

I have written about my hatred of paranormal romance marketed at the YA market, so I won't go back into it. Safe to say, I truly dislike the genre (paranormal romance is fine as long as it's the guilty pleasure harlequin kind that's been out for years. No one believes those are any kind of great literature). Take Twilight for instance, the mac-daddy, of the genre and mother of the trend. I don't hate people who like Twilight. If you can admit you like Twilight, but also admit it is a guilty pleasure but nothing more, then we're most likely good. I hate people who argue that Twilight is a work of great and timeless literature, comparable to modern day masterpieces (or worse, literary classics). If this is your belief, I have some bad news: you might be stupid.

But the DOMINATION of the YA field by this genre is really distressing. Because books with valid messages exist. Fantasy books that have meaning beyond the torrid affair between a creature of the night and the quirky-gorgeous human he is in love with. There are books about the High School years that have more to say than "YOU ARE USELESS WITHOUT A BOYFRIEND" or "CLOTHES ARE THE MOST IMPORTANT THING EVER."

And then there's the worst: the destruction of books like Pride and Prejudice or Wuthering Heights, due the lack of copyright. Not content to write their own crappy books, authors have decided to take these classics and Twilight them up, by injecting a fatal dose of Vampires, werewolves, and the like. What you end up with is a magnificent book pretty much raped by pop culture. Sorry Darcy. You were asking for it, with your brooding sexiness. CLEARLY YOU WERE A VAMPIRE. HOW DID JANE AUSTEN NOT SEE THAT?

I drew you a comic illustrating the preposterousness of this idea.






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