Authors react with anger after a columnist argues that these books are promoting 'hideously distorted portrayals of what life is.'
From a story in the Guardian...
Writing in the Wall Street Journal, columnist Meghan Cox Gurdon argued that contemporary fiction for teens is now "so dark that kidnapping and pederasty and incest and brutal beatings are now just part of the run of things in novels directed, broadly speaking, at children from the ages of 12 to 18".
"Pathologies that went undescribed in print 40 years ago, that were still only sparingly outlined a generation ago, are now spelled out in stomach-clenching detail. Profanity that would get a song or movie branded with a parental warning is, in young adult novels, so commonplace that most reviewers do not even remark upon it," wrote Gurdon. Pointing to novels that deal with self-harming teenagers, including Cheryl Rainfield's Scars and Jackie Morse Kessler's Rage, Gurdon said that teen fiction is "constantly reflecting back hideously distorted portrayals of what life is", and that its focus on the darker side of life, covering subjects like self-harm, can actually "normalise" it rather than – as its defenders claim – giving a voice to the voiceless.
"The book business exists to sell books; parents exist to rear children, and oughtn't be daunted by cries of censorship," urged Gurdon. "No family is obliged to acquiesce when publishers use the vehicle of fundamental free-expression principles to try to bulldoze coarseness or misery into their children's lives."
Young adult fiction writers were quick to respond to Gurdon's attack, with the hashtag #YASaves rapidly trending on Twitter as teens and writers all moved to defend the genre.
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