I don't want to bore you with a lot of words, but I do wanna get this off my chest.
There is a whole new culture out there being formed AS WE SPEAK. It's full of things like street art and dubstep and french electro pop and raves and just messing around in abandoned lots and cigarettes and booze. It's the party life, but more than that, it's the young life.
And it's being obscured in our literature. Or, there isn't nearly enough of it out there to begin with.
I want to read more real things. I want to read about messed up kids and their messed up lives and how in the end things are still messed up but at least they've changed. I don't know when YA became about MC teens who belittle their peers for living different lifestyles. It sucks.
Young people should write more, or old people should write more authentic young people stuff. There's just gotta be more honesty in YA, period. But that's just me having an opinion!
And now I leave you with the song that embodies everything young and everything awesome.
Funny thing is, when I was a teen, I didn't even read YA. They didn't have YA. I read adult books. Do kids do that today? I believe some do. Also, book written by teens for teens would be great, but an adult gives the prospective of a known outcome that sometimes just living a bit longer gains the story by multitudes.
ReplyDeleteLM - Thanks. I do believe being older gives perspective, but writing itself defies perspective. Hundreds of thousands of kids today are inspired by the mainstream YA like HP, and it's crafting a new generation of writers.
ReplyDeleteIt's not simply black and white, teen and adult. Some adults have the talent to write like a teen, and some teens have the talent to write like adults. It's very subjective.
Thanks again for your comment. :)
I agree! I haven't read YA in quite a while, but most of it used to bore me because I could tell it was written by old people who had forgotten what it was really like to be a kid - or at least, had no idea what it was like being a kid today. ;)
ReplyDeleteAlso, I find your description of this youth culture hilariously apt. My friend and I listened to Ratatat in the car the other day on the way to class. My boyfriend is obsessed with dubstep and does street art with his friends for fun. Do we know each other? Haha.
ReplyDeleteRight, so I've been missing out for a while. Like a year. But life (and shitty programming classes and internships and excuses) happens that way, I suppose. So I just read through your lovely years worth of blogs... and I wanted to comment so darnit I will.
ReplyDeleteI apologize if this is too... informal? It appears perhaps that this blog is going formal (hopefully because you're about to have something published and you need to impress someone and/or you just don't want your random thoughts frolicking about the internet any more where people--creepers, like me, I suppose-- can read it). Anyway, I only know this because there is nothing posted here about the new Pokemon game. Also, I understand if you are forced to delete this post for the mere mention of something as unauthory as Pokemon.
Yay comments. Sooo... first, loved video about shiny Pokemon. Woot.
"I don't know many things, but I do know I'm never giving up. Ever."
Thank you. Seriously.
"Which is why I can't finish Buffy. I got to the point where Angel comes back from the demon world, and seriously, I'm done. I just stared at the screen and went; "I'M DONE NOW.""
I totally agree- I was like WHYYYY JOSS? It was SOOO PERFECT- but lacked the willpower to just stop watching. You made a valid life decision. Joss is amazing and brilliant but sometimes his ridiculously awesome ideas have 0 follow up... like the idea was the best part, when really the characters have to make it so.
Anyway, good luck with life. If you have a more private blog and are willing to include a wacko like me, do whatever mojo you do and shoot me an e-mail at Elppa213@gmail.com. Otherwise, like I said, good luck with life.
Hopefully, this review won't deter any publishing peeps from picking you.
You should know that while my opinion is equivalent in worthiness to that of a fruitfly crushed on the ceiling with one of those glow in the dark stars, I think you're an amazingly talented writer and a creative, funny (at least in blogs) person. No, that's not supposed to be an awkward love confession- just honesty.
"I could literally bullshit my way through writing a romance novel that would have you bawling your eyes out at the sheer BURNING DESTINY of it all."
Yes, and you have. I'm doing my annual reread of it...
Now that I'm sure I have thoroughly creeped you out... If possible, I'd like to know when you're published (and which book) so I can go screaming and running into the nearest Borders (before it closes down from bankruptcy) to buy whatever story you get published and then after reading and loving it demand all of my friends to go buy and read said story. Again, sorry if this is... see, I don't even know you ... Good luck!
Reader - Oh god, we probably do know each other. Or, if we don't, it just cements the fact that the definition of this new culture I just crapped out is actually a culture.
ReplyDeleteI also love dubstep. It's been the majority of my writing soundtrack since...September of last year. It's now IMPOSSIBLE for me to write without phat beats. RATATAT IS AWESOME. You are awesome!!
Elppa - I was wondering where you went!
I don't know what to say. I'm happy you found me. I'm happy I found you.
You're right - there's a lot I can't say here. It's not that I'm censoring, I just have nothing interesting to say anymore. I'm completely consumed by the desire to publish these silly stories of mine. Work, life, this journey to publish. It's just a landslide. I hardly ever play video games anymore - no time. I haven't even had time to buy the new pokemon game! Horrible.
I think this blog was a way to refine my writing, my feelings, my power. I think now it's less of a metal ore and more of a sword, you know? Now I gotta use it to cut my way through some dudes.
And I've changed. Really changed. I'm still that kid, but I'm not suffering quite so much anymore. Suffering breeds awesome. I'm just a happy person now. Happy breeds complacency, but trust me when I say I'm doing my best to not lose that edge, but concentrate it toward my writing.
Thank you. THANK YOU.
Expect an email. :)