A DEFENSE OF FANTASY: CLASSICAL LITERATURE V. MODERN YA – Fantasy and happy endings have been under attack lately, I swear. Young adult fantasy author Erin Bow goes to bat for kids’ pleasure reading.
Famous-ish author for grown-ups Joanna Trollope told London’s Sunday Times that teens should stop reading things like The Hunger Games, Harry Potter, and Twilight, and start reading classical literature of the 19th century. This presumably came up because Trollope is about to publish a reworking of Jane Austen.
Should I point out that the country estates of the landed gentry circa 1800 are at least as foreign to young readers as Hogwarts or District 12? Shall I take issue with the assumption that the function of books is to be wholesome and improving, like kale? Shall I defend the idea of “escape” and let loose my rant about what patronizing horse hooey the phrase “guilty pleasure” is? (Cocaine is a guilty pleasure. Books are simply a pleasure.) Shall I recount my own high school reading (a bizarre mix of physics texts by Richard Feynman, poetry by T.S. Eliot, and hundreds of Star Trek novels) and end with an assertion that it taught me to love reading, which in itself has defined my life?
Christyna Hunter: Define Me . . . If You Dare! – This article dovetails just about perfectly with Sunday’s opinion piece, doesn’t it? Author and librarian Chrystina Hunter points out that the challenges of living in a disabled body are just one part of who she is, and no two people handle their lives the same.
A Poet With Words Trapped Inside – Poet and playwright Ntozake Shange speaks about the challenges of writing after stroke and a neurological disorder have disabled her body. This quote below about “inconvenience” is exactly how I feel about my own hands.
“I thought I was being punished because I hadn’t kept doing the writing I wanted to do,” she said of her illness. “Then I decided that it was just fate, and my aunt had Parkinson’s, so even though one side of the family was having heart attacks, the other side of the family was having nerve disease, so I got the worst of both sides, I guess.
Dig Deep: Beyond Lean In – bell hooks takes on Sheryl Sandberg’s “faux-feminism,” and it’s a great read.
I have absolutely no problem with books like Lean In, and I might even read it some day, but they are self-help books for a small and privileged group of women, not feminist manifestos.
Sure, I’d like teens to read Austen when they’re ready, but I don’t see how a reworking of a classic (such as Trollope’s book) is better than an original work of fiction (such as Harry Potter).