[ SECRET POST #2238 ]

[case]

⌈ Secret Post #2238 ⌋

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

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Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 04 pages, 097 secrets from Secret Submission Post #320.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 0 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 0 - too big ], [ 0 - repeat ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.

Comments

[(Anonymous)]

The fact that teenagers can read and appreciate a thing doesn't make it YA. Neither does the fact that a thing is about teenagers.

Catcher in the Rye, in particular, is not YA by any sense of the imagination; it's literature as much as anything is (whether or not you think it's good is another question; it's not my favorite book personally). I mean, when it was written, it had an immense readership, and a mostly adult readership; it was reviewed as an adult book (and reviewed extremely well), marketed as an adult book, and bought as an adult book. It's a work of literature that's accessible to teenagers. It's assigned in classes because it's easy to teach, because it's accessible, but also because it's got a really high stature as a work of literature. I think the same is mostly true of Mark Twain, who's a titan of American. Not as familiar with the other works so I can't say. But yeah - the fact that something can be enjoyed by teenagers doesn't make it YA, and when you have a book that was published as an adult book and immensely popular with adults, it's really hard for me to see why it should be called YA.

(Also, there's a phenomenon that seems to be very common these days whereby it seems to be very difficult for teenagers to relate to Catcher in the Rye, nowadays. A lot of people who read it now seem to think of Holden as whiny and entitled and annoying. Very odd phenomenon)

[(Anonymous)]

The technical definition of YA, which is basically 'marketed to teenagers', doesn't apply to older books because publishers didn't really start to do that until the 1950s or so. However, many older books have been retroactively considered proto-YA, and Huckleberry Finn and Tom Sawyer are definitely among those (along with things like Alice in Wonderland and Treasure Island).

Catcher in the Rye was definitely written for adults, though, yes.

[(Anonymous)]

Regarding your last paragraph - that is interesting. The impression I always got was that teens tend to love the character when they're in their own whiny/entitled/self-centered phase, and given the popularity of bemoaning that today's kids are becoming ever more isolated and self-centered, I'd expect the reverse. Any links?

Also, what's the recent trend of opinion on Gatsby? Because pretty much everyone in that book annoyed the fuck out of me.

[nyxelestia]

NAYRT

As someone still very into YA and in touch with a lot of that market demographic, I'd say teenagers don't really seem to care too much about the whiny/entitled/self-centeredness of the main characters. Those traits just come up a lot because that's how the adult authors of these books tend to think of teenagers. (And to be honest, those traits also seem to be more of a vicious cycle rather than anything else - adults think that's what teens are like, books and movies and TV shows are made to depict teens like that, kids see and hear all this and think that's what teens are supposed to be like and so they start acting like that, reinforcing adults' beliefs which in turn influences the media kids are consuming...)

Though for Holden, yeah, I found him incredibly whiny, as did most of my friends and classmates. However, it was most in a "what an idiot/so stupidly naive" kind of way ("Yes, Holden, the world is phony, are you just figuring it out now?" "Oh, you want to protect children from the world? As if they aren't already a part of it?" "Love that mellow messiah complex you've got going there...")

And I don't know what the overall trend on Gatsby is, but most us in English class at the time I read it saw it as largely a "bubble-bursting" book about how following idealistic dreams and/or shallow pursuits makes you ignore the real world and kills your common sense, and will mostly hurt you in the end. *insert "gee, why does that sound so familiar?" jokes here*

[(Anonymous)]

" A lot of people who read it now seem to think of Holden as whiny and entitled and annoying. "

I thought that when I read it 20+ years ago.