Thanks for the WSJ link. I have read the article. As a fledgling YA author and former teacher, these thoughts ...
1. Meghan Gudron is Not From Planet Earth. Her article constitutes the reminiscences of an adolescence circa 1958. That she would use Hinton's seminal The Outsiders as a benchmark is telling. Was the novel important? Yes. Did it launch YA fiction? The industry perhaps, but she seems to neglect such important writers as Louisa May Alcott, Oscar Wilde, Ian Fleming (all of whom wrote for young adults long before Hinton) - to say nothing of Robert Louis Stevenson whose Treasure Island addressed some pretty raunchy themes (murder, robbery, alcoholism, kidnapping, mutiny) for his time or ours.
2. Meghan Gudron probably IS From Money. I suspect Meghan adolescence likely consisted of an endless round of tennis matches and Cotillions. Where else could she have avoided the seamy reality of life as it has existed for youngsters since forever but particularly since the 1950s in Western culture? (I offer Harlan's Web of the City by way of illustration.) Don't get me wrong. I'm glad her youth was neat-o keen. But she needs to realize that not everyone else's was the same. And if we get into the even touchier non-PC subject of adolescence in the Third World (particularly as I experienced it working with Central American refugees in the 1980s), well we're going to spin off into a whole other tangent of righteous indignation and her article contains enough of that for all of us, thank you very fucking much.
3. Meghan Gudron Is Terminally Clueless. Where does she live? I mean really? How long has it been since she road a bus or spoke to an actual real live teen (or one of those nice colored ladies who probably dust her parlor). Has she even been inside a real public high-school since her graduation back when Ike was President? (- the idyllic, Harrison Bergeron-esque world for which she so obviously pines.) The one I taught in in South-Central Tucson was a fucking prison. Only reason I survived there was my wits, my hard head, 30+ years of martial arts training and a willingness to pack a crowbar in my briefcase. Code Blue lock-downs and gang wars were more frequent than I care to relate.
Look, I don't mean to rant (although I probably have). But Caitlin, your blog is probably the one place I could offer these thoughts in a forum where I won't be dismissed as a dick, self-promoter or crack-pot. I know you're (1) a big girl who (2) has seen some shit and who (3) won't hesitate to knock my dick in the dirt if I get out of line in your house. (So if I have, apologies.) But the lily-white world Meghan Gudron lives in has no right to comment on where YA lit has gone (and must go) and it won't stand the light of day outside whatever exclusive literary circles in which she hovers. YA lit is something about which I am passionate and to which I am committed (- although I probably should be, too.)
I am glad that you - as a writer of "dark" fiction - are planning to publish some YA. Fuck yeah. Welcome to the monkey house. Break in through a ground floor window and help the rest of us tear some shit up. Please.
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Thanks for the WSJ link. I have read the article. As a fledgling YA author and former teacher, these thoughts ...
1.
Meghan Gudron is Not From Planet Earth. Her article constitutes the reminiscences of an adolescence circa 1958. That she would use Hinton's seminal The Outsiders as a benchmark is telling. Was the novel important? Yes. Did it launch YA fiction? The industry perhaps, but she seems to neglect such important writers as Louisa May Alcott, Oscar Wilde, Ian Fleming (all of whom wrote for young adults long before Hinton) - to say nothing of Robert Louis Stevenson whose Treasure Island addressed some pretty raunchy themes (murder, robbery, alcoholism, kidnapping, mutiny) for his time or ours.
2.
Meghan Gudron probably IS From Money. I suspect Meghan adolescence likely consisted of an endless round of tennis matches and Cotillions. Where else could she have avoided the seamy reality of life as it has existed for youngsters since forever but particularly since the 1950s in Western culture? (I offer Harlan's Web of the City by way of illustration.) Don't get me wrong. I'm glad her youth was neat-o keen. But she needs to realize that not everyone else's was the same. And if we get into the even touchier non-PC subject of adolescence in the Third World (particularly as I experienced it working with Central American refugees in the 1980s), well we're going to spin off into a whole other tangent of righteous indignation and her article contains enough of that for all of us, thank you very fucking much.
3.
Meghan Gudron Is Terminally Clueless. Where does she live? I mean really? How long has it been since she road a bus or spoke to an actual real live teen (or one of those nice colored ladies who probably dust her parlor). Has she even been inside a real public high-school since her graduation back when Ike was President? (- the idyllic, Harrison Bergeron-esque world for which she so obviously pines.) The one I taught in in South-Central Tucson was a fucking prison. Only reason I survived there was my wits, my hard head, 30+ years of martial arts training and a willingness to pack a crowbar in my briefcase. Code Blue lock-downs and gang wars were more frequent than I care to relate.
Look, I don't mean to rant (although I probably have). But Caitlin, your blog is probably the one place I could offer these thoughts in a forum where I won't be dismissed as a dick, self-promoter or crack-pot. I know you're (1) a big girl who (2) has seen some shit and who (3) won't hesitate to knock my dick in the dirt if I get out of line in your house. (So if I have, apologies.) But the lily-white world Meghan Gudron lives in has no right to comment on where YA lit has gone (and must go) and it won't stand the light of day outside whatever exclusive literary circles in which she hovers. YA lit is something about which I am passionate and to which I am committed (- although I probably should be, too.)
I am glad that you - as a writer of "dark" fiction - are planning to publish some YA. Fuck yeah. Welcome to the monkey house. Break in through a ground floor window and help the rest of us tear some shit up. Please.
Thanks for listening.