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5 Government Programs That Backfired Horrifically
Kittens Rescued By US Marines. (Yes, this is just as adorable as it sounds.)
Never Make Friends With People Who Have More Problems Than You, on disability, YA literature, and subtextual messages. If nothing else, read the summaries of the books in question. My favorite is: "A girl tries to help and understand her mom, a Holocaust survivor. But while the daughter is off losing your virginity, the mom has a psychotic flashback, murders the neighbor's child, and is shot by the cops." Suddenly Twilight... is still more terrible.
7 Terrifying Prehistoric Creatures (That Are Still Around Today). My favorite is the Goblin Shark. Yeah, you read that right.
Kittens Rescued By US Marines. (Yes, this is just as adorable as it sounds.)
Never Make Friends With People Who Have More Problems Than You, on disability, YA literature, and subtextual messages. If nothing else, read the summaries of the books in question. My favorite is: "A girl tries to help and understand her mom, a Holocaust survivor. But while the daughter is off losing your virginity, the mom has a psychotic flashback, murders the neighbor's child, and is shot by the cops." Suddenly Twilight... is still more terrible.
7 Terrifying Prehistoric Creatures (That Are Still Around Today). My favorite is the Goblin Shark. Yeah, you read that right.
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7 Terrifying Prehistoric Creatures makes me go all Zoology-fangirl. I love stuff like that.
Never Make Friends With People Who Have More Problems Than You
On the surface, this one really pisses me off. I never really thought about it like that before, and the idea that disability or mental problems somehow render someone broken or that it will end poorly to befriend them is just...absolute fail and completely unfair to people who live with those things every day.
But the other way to look at this is that these stories raise attention for issues that kids may not have thought about before they started reading YA fiction. It's all very tragic, but at the same time I think many of the stories fitting into this category have an underlying message of friendships that arise in spite of these problems or differences.
I think the fact that it ends in tragedy is more a way to initiate teens into the idea that, no, life isn't always "happily ever after". That's still not right, since it programs people to think that serious situations will end in blood and guts. But let's face it- literature has a long history of only dealing with serious issues through the metaphor of character death, which provides an alternate explanation for why so many of these end horribly.
These stories seem to represent more the "death of innocence" with foundations in reaching beyond what your world view may be. I can see where the meta-er is coming from, but I'm tempted to think that the moral of these stories is less along the lines of "do not befriend people with problems" and instead is "people have problems". At least that's what I've always taken away from books like that.
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As for "death of innocence" stories... I have a problem with that genre as well, because 99% of the time the author seems to be telling the reader that to be a "true adult" you must give up such-and-such things you loved, which I never (as a child or as an adult) agreed with.
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Right, and the first thing you learn in English college classes (I don't know why they wait so late) is that analysis of literature sometimes involves taking it to levels the author did not originally intend. However, I did take away different things from stories like that. The meta does leave me curious as to how others would interpret those same stories and the effect it's had on them.
As for "death of innocence" stories... I have a problem with that genre as well, because 99% of the time the author seems to be telling the reader that to be a "true adult" you must give up such-and-such things you loved, which I never (as a child or as an adult) agreed with.
Ah. I actually never looked at it that way. I always thought of it more from a symbolic than a practical way. But I can see where you're coming from and the idea that you need to "leave behind childish things" has always grated against me.
However, that does provide a good explanation as to why I always groan when I find out we're reading another one in my English classes (because our reading curriculum, other than some genuinely awesome classics has pretty much just been about little boys losing their innocence). A Separate Peace. Catcher in the Rye. Etc.
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Do you have specific stories in mind?
I always thought of it more from a symbolic than a practical way. But I can see where you're coming from and the idea that you need to "leave behind childish things" has always grated against me.
Even when looked at from a symbolic way, it drives me crazy. Especially since it was usually symbolic or noncorporeal things that they were being asked to give up.
(because our reading curriculum, other than some genuinely awesome classics has pretty much just been about little boys losing their innocence
Yep, yep. I will admit, Catcher In The Rye is one my to-do list, though.
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Seriously, I've spent the last hour there, and I've opened ten new tabs. *flails* I only just now remembered that I got up to eat breakfast. That site is dangerous for ADHD people.
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Have this: http://www.cracked.com/blog/5-lovable-animals-you-didnt-know-are-secretly-terrifying/
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"One more article, then I'll eat breakfast." Half an hour and five articles later- "One more article, then I'll medicate."
It was worth it, though. (http://www.cracked.com/article_18568_the-5-greatest-books-with-psychotic-fanbases.html) xD
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That site is like crack!
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OMFG thanks so much for sharing that LJ discussion. Glad to know there are others that suffered at the hands of WTF NEVER HELP ANYONE EVER books.
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I've read plenty of horrific YA with questionable messages, but I seem to have escaped that particular genre. Those book descriptions are... special.
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I've read plenty of horrific YA with questionable messages, but I seem to have escaped that particular genre. Those book descriptions are... special.
Aren't they just?
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Like I needed a new tvtropes.
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You know what this made me think of? Sweet Valley High. Those nauseating, perfect size-six, California-blond Wakefield twins. I remember one of Elizabeth's friends was in a plane crash, and confined to a wheelchair. All the doctors said the chick could walk, but was...I don't know...repressed. So Elizabeth faked a child drowning in a backyard pool, and the friend suddenly walked again. Gag me.
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