Horror Aficionados discussion
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You know I rarely restricted my kids reading (assuming we are talking books not other materials). Even when I look back there isn't much I wouldn't them read but then again I rarely had any issue with my kid picking up say the joy of sex. I only ever relied on my own guidance to what they picked up to read. I never had any issue with banned book either. I would have been over joyed if and when they picked up a banned book. My thoughts were how can you grow up if you never test the waters and push the boundaries.
I think that at 13 (or so), one should be able to read whatever one wants to read, really. We had Stephen King books in our junior high school library. At around that time I also remember reading The Exorcist and Jaws, two fairly adult novels. I didn't understand everything in them, but they didn't harm me, either. I liked both. I remember friends and I snickering over the sexy bits in some fantasy novels; again, no harm, in fact I have fond memories of them, so I consider it a good thing.I've enjoyed a number of contemporary YA novels, but I've also read some that seem dumbed down and that bothers me. They're not like the ones I remember reading when I was a teen. Books should be there to help readers grow, and tailoring the books so that they are written down to the young readers seems backwards and even detrimental to me.
I wouldn't let my kids read my erotica or some of the hard core horror but everything else in my library is pretty much fair game. I'd be thrilled if I could get them to read anything at all.
I agree with you, Bark. As long as their reading. My son reads those Japanese graphic books. We probably have hundreds of Japanese graphic books in our house.
For me it's not just what might be an inappropriate subject in a YA novel, but how it's handled. I might sound like a square, but I wouldn't mind my son reading a YA book that deals with homosexuality or rape, as long as there's a lesson to be learned. Like how homophobia is not OK or how a rapist may be punished by society and how a person who is raped goes through the stages of healing. I would NOT want my young teen to read Cows or The Bighead or watch a movie like Header (can't remember if there's a book that deals with skull sex). But once Luke is 18, well, I guess there's not much I can do about it.
Scott, how are YA books these days dumbed down?
I remember reading Sybil when I was 12. I think at 13 I would have been upset to read anything like The Summer I Died or The Bighead. I was a very sensitive kid and remember getting sick to my stomach when I watched an Afterschool Special about a bully who bloodies a boy's nose. I still remember to this day how sick it made me to know that people did such violence against others.
I remember having an interview at what is now Waterstones in the UK, and at the end, when they ask you if you have any questions (most people who don't have a clue at interviews here ask "How much do I get paid?"), I asked them about laws to selling books to children, just out of interest. If I'm on the counter and a kid wants to buy, I dunno, something as extreme as Keene's Urban Gothic, or Ketchum's Weed Species, can I sell it to them knowing the content?
Turns out I can, but may wish to recommend something more suitable. There are no laws/ratings on books, and like a colleague who teaches English says to her students, there's stuff in books that will never appear on film. Ever. They wouldn't allow it. (Serbian makes me wonder though).
My gripe with YA is the language. Fifteen year olds don't go around saying 'darn it' and things like that, at least the teenagers I know don't (I'm a teacher too). But how can you get around that?
I was surprised by the level of gore and violence allowed in YA now a days. I thought back in the day that Point Horror could get pretty close to the bone, but these are tame in comparison to some of the latest YA horrors.
Would I let my kids (when they're older, my eldest is 7) read some of this stuff with the sex and the rape and the blood? Certainly. I grew up on Laymon and it never did me any harm (hehehe, perhaps. Some of my scenes beg to differ). The thing I would NOT allow my kids to read are the magazines that cater for the teenage market that have more sex in them than a bloody Mills and Boon. I would not want my 13 year old daughter to be reading about position of the week or any of that awfully trashy stuff, as I feel it encourages without consequence.
If she wanted to read my copy of Ed Lee's Brides of the Impaler, which is full of sex and hallucinogenic masturbation, it would still be a no. It's signed and therefore closely guarded. She could get her own and that's fine ><. Horror can have sex in it, often with nasty repercussions, but doesn't actively promote it. So it's fine with me.
And I too giggled over naughty scenes when I was younger, particularly with Koontz for some reason...
I agree, just the titles of the articles on those magazine covers embarrass me, especially when I see my kids glancing at them. Love scenes written by Koontz always make me giggle. His word choices and euphemisms are hilarious to me. This book featuring a "nubble", cracked me up in all the wrong places: http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/...
Tressa wrote: "Scott, how are YA books these days dumbed down?"Sometimes they seem overly simplified. I read Wake and I felt like I was reading a grade school reader (if it wasn't for the teen content). Short sentences (often just fragments), one-line paragraphs. I wondered who the author thought she was writing for. Bad book but it spawned two sequels (Everything has to be a trilogy nowadays. They should have put this one all in one book; it might have felt a little bit more substantial.)
I don't think anyone would advocate 13 year-olds reading extreme novels, but I don't think it's something anyone needs to worry too much about. They are pretty obscure, often expensive, and a young teen wouldn't normally have the means to acquire them.
Hey, I normally don't read much teen fiction but I read Wake, too. Didn't like it; gave it 2 stars. I thought it was simple, also--and boring.You're right about extreme novels being expensive and not readily available. But the ones I have at home I might have to put away until I think my son is old enough to handle them.
I have put down a few YA books. They are just not for me. Way simple and now real plot IMO. My one friend reads a lot (almost all) YA and is always hounding me to read it too. Gets on my nerves.
To back up the dumbed down idea, what of books that are written for an adult market but perform badly, so are repackaged as YA books? Apparently this is what happened with Twilight. It was originally an adult book, but couldn't get picked up, so it was pitched as a YA, achieving success with a teen audience. And let's face it, if something is popular with teenagers, a huuuuge chunk of adults tend to follow suit. Just look at Bieber.
Horror Aficionados
Books mentioned in this topic
Wake (other topics)Jaws (other topics)
The Exorcist (other topics)
I get so lost with all these threads. I don't have much time left either (I'm not dying or anything. I just have an early bedtime). At least I can come back here daily...if I can find it again.
As threads tend to digress and spin off...here's a thread where exactly that can happen! So...let's get things rolling.
Considering the current generation, what would you find inappropriate to be in a YA novel? As in, if I knew my 13 year old was reading this, we'd need a talk...