And now it’s time to discuss the hot-and-hyped Young Adult genre…<\/p>\n
There’s no need for it. Real life is interesting and fascinating enough without these desperate constructs. It will always be easier to prefer Dickens, Hemingway, Mailer, Updike, Roth, Bellow and even Eugenides over ’tween-panderers such as S. Collins & S. Meyer. Judy Blume is superior to this current adolescent-angst nonsense. Leave the Katniss for the felines; it’s not fit for human consumption. Save that gothic archery-and-vampire stuff for the Star Trek conventions. <\/p>\n
It’s like that old skit on the Saturday Night Live<\/em> where Wm. Shatner, as Shatner himself and not as Capt. Kirk, is at the Star Trek convention, and he starts insulting all the attendees: “Hey, you over there” he points at one particularly lispy and glandular middle-aged specimen decked out in an ill-fitting Command Shirt. “Have you even kissed a girl?” The guy has no answer; he starts drooling on himself.<\/p>\n Same goes with this current Young Adult folderol. If we don’t act now, all these fanboys and fangirls are going to become like that sad-sack guy at the Star Trek convention. It’s not a winning strategy. Keep your kids off the Young Adult stuff. If you care about them, forbid them to come into contact with it. Have them read books where consumption of alcohol and the smoking of tobacco is a normal part of the exposition. Make sure the action takes place on earth and the struggles and plots concern the ordinary, the everyday. These kinds of books and stories offer a better manual for living than do the fabulous tales of bows-and-arrows and wolves. If you want what’s best for your kids, you’ll steer them well clear of the Young Adult business. Otherwise, your kids could end up dressed in furry animal costumes even after they’ve moved back into your basement as…Older Adults.<\/p>\n Cheers!<\/p>\n