Because really, let’s face it.
That article was click bait.
Pure, unadulterated, shameless, manipulative click bait. (Which, by the way, is why I’m not linking to it).
Sure, Ruth Graham just decided to write a stunningly dismissive post about adults needing to be ashamed of reading YA–which has a very obvious framework around ‘The Fault In Our Stars’–the same week the movie for said novel launches to great fanfare. That’s all just a coincidence.
Right.
What Ruth Graham wanted is what the internet gave her. Lots and lots of attention and clicks. Endless comments and a whole lot of debate. Outraged Twitter and all the best vitriol the internet has to offer. She must be over the moon. Before this, no one knew who the hell she was. Now, she’s the writer that went all postal on YA.
As far as I’m concerned, she’s just a writer looking to up her site’s ad revenue and get her name in peoples’ mouths. I say this because her entire argument falls completely flat if you consider one of the most important tenets of writing. To be a good writer in a genre, you have to read widely in that genre–and outside it as well, ideally. If adults should not be reading YA, who does Graham expect will write YA? Teenagers? Kids?
Who will make the movies and write the screenplays for these works of claptrap we should be averting our eyes from?
Because the YA movies and books that are popular now are a significant part of this generation’s entertainment and the global economy. And they can’t exist without adults writing them, filming them and valuing them enough to spend their hard-earned money on them.
Most of all, if no adults write the YA books and childrens’ books because they are supposed to be ashamed to be reading and writing such drivel, who will seduce future generations with the joys of storytelling? Or do you, Ms. Graham, not care that no YA adult readers means no future readers for the crap people like you write for shock value?
You should be thanking your lucky stars there are still people who can connect with their past so acutely they can move the generation after them with the amazing stories and storytelling ability you so clearly lack.
*Drops the mic*
And in other news…
I have a Boosting the Signal feature post up on Angela Highland (Angela Korra’ti) blog. She also has a great post on the nonsense Slate allowed to be published on its site. You should go read both. They will move you more than a thousand sparkly vampires who die young of cancer.
Just saying.
Stay thirsty, my friends!
R.S.A. Garcia 