fandomsecrets | [ SECRET POST #2888 ]

[ SECRET POST #2888 ]

⌈ Secret Post #2888 ⌋

Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.

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Notes:

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Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

there's still objective values you can use to measure a story though

i think ignoring all of that and saying ~it's all subjective~ does a discredit to those who practice the craft

so define "better" then. be specific.

a combination of characterization, pacing, dialog, word use, etc. that shows more mastery than another example

Even that's going to be hugely subjective. Plus, there are lots of great writers that HATE the work of other great writers and think it's terrible. If there really were objective standards then I feel like this wouldn't be possible.

You're assuming that the writers in question judge the works of those other writers using objective standards, which is usually not the case at all.

Or have the knowledge to judge objectively.

I think there are objective standards to a certain extent.
Either way, there are some books that I think are absolute garbage (say, Divergent) in terms of basically every aspect, and others which I think are quite good (but not necessarily everybody's cup of tea), say Harry Potter.

That's true. I was talking more between genres. "ya is my cup of tea" "classics are my cup of tea" "mysteries are my cup of tea".

Like why people are comparing apples and oranges.

YA isn't a genre though...

nayrt

YA's totally a genre

certainly in the most coherent sense of the term genre (a marketing category used by booksellers), but even in the sense of a body of works which tend to be unified in influences, themes, style, approach, and concerns, I think it's possible to discern a YA genre.

Of course, that doesn't mean that it has to be narrow, or that everything sold as YA fits into it. It's a broad sorting mechanism, not an iron law of exclusion.

So if a book is a YA book should it be separated from other mysteries, if it's a mystery, or other SFF if it's SFF, etc.?

Well, I suppose that's up to the judgment of the individual person shelving them whether it should go with SF or YA (if it's a book that's both SF and YA) or what have you, and I'm sure there's all kinds of considerations that are going to go into that - for instance, I doubt Heinlein's juveniles are ever going to go into YA, even though they certainly belong in the genre.

But at a basic level... yeah, pretty much. And I'm not sure that's even controversial - it doesn't seem that different from taking a book that's both a mystery novel and a science fiction novel, for instance, and deciding whether to shelve it in one section or the other. That's just what we do with genres. It's not a judgment on the book, and again, it's not like you need to make sure all the books are perfectly sorted. It's not like keeping kosher, it's more a term of convenience. But having a YA bookshelf makes sense to me, and also seems to match with the practice of bookstores and libraries as they exist right now.

ok, shelving makes sense because some people look for books that have the YA tag on them.

But it's weird to me to say "YA isn't my cup of tea" when it's not really unified in content, just in whether they have a certain publishing label.

That's a completely fair point, with the qualification that I think you could make more or less the same point about most of the genres that are out there - certainly about SF&F and mystery.

So I would stand by the idea that YA is a genre - but you're right in that it's probably a good idea to be pretty relaxed about what that means, and to understand it pretty loosely.

I don't think YA is as unified as a category than SFF, mystery, nonfiction, etc. but at that point it's all relative, I guess.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[ SECRET POST #2888 ]

Re: Is there any instance where YA fiction is better than critically acclaimed classics?

Re: Is there any instance where YA fiction is better than critically acclaimed classics?

Re: Is there any instance where YA fiction is better than critically acclaimed classics?

Re: Is there any instance where YA fiction is better than critically acclaimed classics?

Re: Is there any instance where YA fiction is better than critically acclaimed classics?

Re: Is there any instance where YA fiction is better than critically acclaimed classics?

Re: Is there any instance where YA fiction is better than critically acclaimed classics?

Re: Is there any instance where YA fiction is better than critically acclaimed classics?

Re: Is there any instance where YA fiction is better than critically acclaimed classics?

Re: Is there any instance where YA fiction is better than critically acclaimed classics?

Re: Is there any instance where YA fiction is better than critically acclaimed classics?

Re: Is there any instance where YA fiction is better than critically acclaimed classics?

Re: Is there any instance where YA fiction is better than critically acclaimed classics?

Re: Is there any instance where YA fiction is better than critically acclaimed classics?

Re: Is there any instance where YA fiction is better than critically acclaimed classics?