My Message: I Don't Have One.

I've seen a lot of authors recently saying that they don't read reviews of their work.  I kind of think they're lying, but in any case, I will say that's certainly not true of me.  I read everything people write about my work. 

Why?  I guess probably some combination of narcissism and masochism. (I'm guessing the percentages are, like, 90-10 there.)  But also, I do think that part of my job is to communicate, and I know what I'm trying to get across, and I should check in and see if that's what I'm actually communicating. 

So now I'm going to break one of my own rules and respond to some criticism. Or rather, observations. I have noticed, in both positive and negative reviews of my work, people talking about the messages I'm trying to convey.

Here's the thing, though: I'm not every really trying to convey a message.  That's not why I write. I write because I like to tell stories to amuse myself, and hopefully other people as well.  Of course, I have values and ideas and preoccupations that are going to color what I write.  And I often like to have things work out in my fiction in a way that they don't always work out in life. I guess what I mean is that whatever messages come out in my work are messages I'm sending myself, little ways that I'm working out whatever issues are roiling under the surface while I write. 

Now, obviously I have to do some soul-searching here.  If I'm not trying to send a message, but I appear to be trying to send a message, I'm doing something wrong.  So I'm gonna look at that.

But I think some of this comes from the belief, which I ranted about a couple of weeks ago, that fiction written for young people should be instructive. If you believe that YA fiction is about sending messages, then you're going to look for the message. But depicting something is not always the same thing as endorsing it.

I dislike this utilitarian view of art, as I wrote during the #yasaves thing.  I have philosophical objections,  but my biggest objection is pragmatic:  nobody likes stuff that's supposed to be good for them.

Nobody assumes that video games have messages, and yet young people spend tons of money and time on them.  The chains stock several more shelves of paranormal romances than any other kind of YA fiction because they sell.  Young people buy these books on their own. Because they're not assumed to be "good for you"--they're just assumed to be entertaining.

The disapproval of my middle school English teachers kept me hooked on Stephen King, Peter Straub, and Ian Fleming novels.  I felt like I was getting away with something by reading them, not dutifully doing what my elders told me.  

I really think that realistic YA fiction in particular needs to shake off this stigma of being instructive. We shouldn't be fiber; we should be that lukewarm beer illicitly consumed in your friend's basement.  We shouldn't be vitamins; we should be heavy petting in the back seat.  I want people to read our work not because they think they should, but because they think it's going to be fun.