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Christopher

Christopher

Portland, OR
November 2002

FEB 22, 2005 11:13 PM

Teenage literature used to use the idiom “coming of age” as its mantra. Now, it’s a world more suited to a gritty Welsh novel, as author Francesca Lia Block receives the Margaret A. Edwards Award for lifetime achievement from the Young Adult Library Services Association of the American Library Association for her work. Her characters are less like The Boxcar Children and more like the kids from Traffic.

Weetzie Bat [Block’s main character] wears vintage clothes decorated with sparkles. She has a boyfriend she calls "My Secret Agent Lover Man." They live with Dirk, Weetzie's gay best friend, his lover, Duck, and Weetzie's daughter, Cherokee, possibly conceived during group sex with Dirk and Duck. There is also Witch Baby, Lover Man's child with a witch. The family works in the movie business. And they become involved with seamier elements of Los Angeles: rough sex, pimps and drugs.[…]

"Hers is a voice so unique that nobody will ever be able to imitate it," said Cindy Dobrez, a public school librarian and chairwoman of the award committee.

Not everyone has been happy with Ms. Block's explicit subject matter, however. In 2003, for instance, Parents Against Bad Books in Schools, a group in Fairfax County, Va., tried to have several of Ms. Block's books removed from school libraries, because of what it called "profanity and descriptions of drug-abuse, sexually explicit conduct and torture."


It’s interesting to note, as adult fiction sales have plateaued, young adult fiction is increasing in no small part to authors like Block. It’s refreshing to consider that young adults are reading about people and situations that many of them come into contact with daily. In addition, the definition of “young adult fiction” has been expanded from 18 years old to 25.

What does “coming of age” in literature mean in this day and age?

Roethke

Roethke

SUICIDEGIRL

California, USA

FEB 23, 2005 08:03 AM

Young adults are constantly comnig upon situations of group sex and really reeally stupid nicknames

EcoAnarchy

EcoAnarchy

Sacramento, CA
October 2004

FEB 23, 2005 08:11 AM

Well, maybe all the early drug and sex exposure will keep turning on kids to the American Dream of Hunter S. Thompson set forth by him so long ago (R.I.P.). You'll have to excuse me, about I was gone when he died, and I didn't get to say my words here...

sixsixty

sixsixty

Oakland, CA
OLD SKOOL

FEB 23, 2005 08:11 AM

i love francesca lia block. one of my all time fav authors.

Space_Travel

Space_Travel

Olympia, WA
February 2005

FEB 23, 2005 08:20 AM

God forbid "young adult" books should have something to do with reality somehow.

[Edited on Feb 23, 2005 8:21AM]

JusticeClown

JusticeClown

San Francisco, CA
July 2004

FEB 23, 2005 08:23 AM

Whod've thought that a group trying to ban books would come out of the American south... I might have to stay in today for the shock.

masseffection

masseffection

Sioux Falls, SD
October 2002

FEB 23, 2005 08:31 AM

Hehe, I've loved those books since seventh or eighth grade. :B (I think, maybe I was younger though.) Also, for the record, I've never done drugs or participated in group sex. tongue

[Edited for typos and grammar because I stayed up too late and it's too early, weee!]

[Edited on Feb 23, 2005 10:32AM]

Shad

Shad

West Chicago, IL
February 2004

FEB 23, 2005 08:40 AM

I like the idea that YA has been expanded to include 18-25. I'm not sure if this means YA is getting more sophisticated, or if our 18-25 year olds are getting less so. I mean, at 18 I was reading faulkner and campbell. Maybe I was expecting too much of myself....

Don't think I'm harshing on Block. YA has been utter shit for so many years, I'm glad that there's some substance being introduced.

Rin

Rin

SUICIDEGIRL

British Columbia, Canada

FEB 23, 2005 08:49 AM

block's books aren't meant to be completely realistic--they're all kind of like fairy tales set in los angeles. we even have a limbo girl named Weetzie. block's books deal with (generally) real life situations in a fairy-tale way, like when a girl's father dies and she believes she meet an angel, or a girl copes with childhood molestation by confiding in a fairy.

block's writing is fantastic, and i'm really glad she's getting an award for it. and for the record, i HAVE done drugs and participated in group sex.

Sargent

Sargent

I'm lost
January 2005

FEB 23, 2005 08:54 AM

I love those books! My lit teacher in high school gave them to me to read. I say who cares what the kids are reading as long as they are reading something!

dem_z

dem_z

United Kingdom
June 2004

FEB 23, 2005 09:13 AM

Shad said:
I like the idea that YA has been expanded to include 18-25.


'The only people who read "Young adult" fiction are precocious nine year olds or nostalgic 22 year olds.' - I can't find the link where someone said that, I'll kep lookingfor it.

dem_z

dem_z

United Kingdom
June 2004

FEB 23, 2005 09:22 AM

Why is homosexuality almost always portayed as some part freakish alternative lifestyle? It'd be nice to have alternative characters that were functional.

apesamongus

apesamongus

Atlanta, GA
July 2002

FEB 23, 2005 09:27 AM

Space_Travel said:
God forbid "young adult" books should have something to do with reality somehow.



I haven't read the books, but if that above description sounds like reality to you, you have my sympathies.

wolfwood

wolfwood

Madison, WI
March 2003

FEB 23, 2005 09:29 AM

I don't know if you've ever read Francesca Lia Block's books, but I've read most of them myself, and there's hardly any drug use, and I've never read anything about pimps or rough sex, and when there is drug use or other harsh stuff, it's always portrayed as bad. In fact, I'd say her books are a lot more optimistic and sunny than real life. They are very much like fairy tales. Maybe everyone should actually try reading the books instead of just going along with a very out of context news blurb.

[Edited on Feb 23, 2005 11:33AM]

Huck

Huck

United Kingdom
July 2004

FEB 23, 2005 09:30 AM

Parents Against Bad Books in Schools - man, i bet they're a wild bunch!

is it me, or is repressing literature a little sinister, not to mention reminiscent of a certain mean-spirited regime of the mid-1900s?

[edited to say:] P.S. i wonder if there's a Parents Against Jazz/I]...

[Edited on Feb 23, 2005 9:32AM]

anger_frog

anger_frog

I'm lost
January 2004

FEB 23, 2005 09:31 AM

Ah, pimping your first ho....oh, to be young and coming of age again. smile

TheG

TheG

Somerville, MA
February 2004

FEB 23, 2005 09:53 AM

JusticeClown said:
Whod've thought that a group trying to ban books would come out of the American south... I might have to stay in today for the shock.



Yeah, it's a good thing I was sitting down when I read that! tongue

SilverRevolver

SilverRevolver

United Kingdom
May 2004

FEB 23, 2005 09:58 AM

Sargent said:
I love those books! My lit teacher in high school gave them to me to read. I say who cares what the kids are reading as long as they are reading something!



And I say reading shitty books is as bad as watching too much television.

marquisdivin

marquisdivin

Berkeley, CA
December 2004

FEB 23, 2005 10:25 AM

Eh, this is nothing new. Robert Cormier was writing about jacking off in toilet stalls and sibling incest before Block was ever published.

daversion

daversion

I'm lost
July 2004

FEB 23, 2005 10:26 AM

i think i might still have some boxcar children books... *nostalgic* shocked

wait, what were we talking about?

malkav11

malkav11

Saint Paul, MN
July 2003

FEB 23, 2005 12:10 PM

Seems to me like the only books that deserve being labelled with an age group are the sorts of things you can only read when you're young and undiscerning. Like Goosebumps, for example.

Otherwise...yeah, some of the stuff that gets stuck in "juvenile" or "young adult" are more youth-accessible than, say, Frank Herbert (I could never get into the Dune books as a kid, but when I got older..)......but I think authors like Philip Pullman and Dianna Wynne Jones get too easily overlooked by adult readers who'd be just as likely to appreciate them under the theory that books in the kids section must be "kiddy".

Merry

Merry

Saint John, NB
December 2002

FEB 23, 2005 12:15 PM

MeKabRe said:
A bunch of stuff


Golly, you're awful hostile for some reason. Why do stories need a message? Can't some be just for fun? That's not to say that Block's books don't contain important messages for the kids who read them, they obviously do. One of them is that it's okay if you don't fit in with the jerks at your high school for whatever reason, whether because you're the artistic type rather than an athlete, or because you're gay. "You're okay as you are" is the most important thing you can say to a lot of teenagers.

[Edited on Feb 23, 2005 by Merry]

dingoes8

dingoes8

Milwaukee, WI
March 2004

FEB 23, 2005 12:19 PM

Torture? She writes about torture in a teen novel? That's awesome.

Al

Al

SUICIDEGIRL

Christmas Island

FEB 23, 2005 12:20 PM

demetrius_z said:

Shad said:
I like the idea that YA has been expanded to include 18-25.


'The only people who read "Young adult" fiction are precocious nine year olds or nostalgic 22 year olds.' - I can't find the link where someone said that, I'll kep lookingfor it.



Haha, you know, I was just going to post that I read the boxcar children when I was like, 9, and certainly my mom wouldn't have wanted me reading about drug abuse and group sex from the YA section. Oh well. I suppose we all discover it one way or another.

And I must say, I enjoy both drug abuse and group sex, preferably at the same time, but it's not something I would want my young adult reading about.

erikawithak

erikawithak

Los Angeles, CA
April 2004

FEB 23, 2005 12:27 PM

i love those books

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