Book Shaming

I ran across this article in The Slate while doing research for the summer reading lists. (At the time, I was trying to find this) The article entitled "Against YA" is a sort of invective against the trend of adults openly reading YA books. The author, Ruth Graham, goes so far as to say that it is shameful for adults to admit that they read books intended for teens. It's a pretty strong stance.

Personally, I think Ms. Graham is being judgemental and close minded. In a country where about 30% of the population reports not even touching a book in a year, it would seem to me that we should be more worried that people read at all before we start criticizing what they read.

Additionally, she contends that YA is less sophisticated and tends towards concrete resolution than Adult literature is. I think she's painting her picture with pretty broad strokes. Certainly, there are plenty YA and teen novels that are unsophisticated and rely on predictable worn out plot lines, but that can be said of many adult novels as well. What Graham is really talking about is Literary Fiction, some of which is transcendent and some of which is abstract to the point of absurdity. However, the vast majority of published literature aimed at adults is genre fiction which doesn't, I think, meet Ms. Graham's lofty ideals.

Furthermore, there are plenty of YA novels that deal in ambiguity and subtlety. A case could be made that these novels may not truly be YA, but even Ms. Graham acknowledges that the term YA is extremely fuzzy in definition to begin with. I don't much enjoy splitting intellectual hairs. The point is that not everyone wants to read books that deal in ambiguity and lofty ideals. There's nothing wrong with that and there is certainly nothing wrong with enjoying literature written for children. It's much like saying that adults should only watch independent arthouse films and be ashamed for watching anything more plebian because it isn't as intellectually stimulating. Aside from being blatantly false, it over generalizes the situation and treats neither end of the spectrum fairly.

Leave people's reading habits alone, and let them find stimulation, enlightenment, and entertainment where they can. Life's too short to start treating literature like cultural medication.