That post rubs me a little the wrong way, as well. Every writer is responsible for what they write. There are a lot of complaints I don't consider valid, and it sounds like she's referencing those kinds of comments at the very beginning - much like refusing to educate your child on their own body and its sexual components, attempting to blinder your child to the things going on around them and maybe within them is toxic at best - but the dismissive tone of her post makes me uncomfortable.
If you're writing, you're making a choice. You're making that choice again and again and again and again. Her attempts to 'humorously' shirk the label weird me out - whether or not you're thinking 'I'm writing for a teenage audience!' that's who you're selling it to, and making money off of, and I believe that's largely who she's writing about. It's a subculture of people that she is creating a dialogue with through her material, one way or another. The effort to divorce herself from it simply, as far as I can tell, to brush off criticism (don't accuse me of trying to corrupt your kids! I'm not writing for your kids, though I'm living off of them!) feels inappropriate to me.
I really, really agree with a.5. You are talking to these people. You are emotionally touching them, or if you're not you're trying your damnedest to emotionally touch them, to affect them, to draw them in and attach them to you. And you're getting paid for it! Respect them, don't give me this hipster sidestepping about how you're writing for the past and the future and yourself, you're too cool to be writing for kids. Because that doesn't even make any sense.
Not to mention the fact that even if you do write a book of your own, divert your time and resources, and manage to get it published, and it addresses the issues raised in a way the author believes to be superior - it doesn't erase the existence of a book that might be hurtful or appropriative or offensive in a way other than 'too heavy' or perceived as 'leading astray.' That's often a good thing. But my hackles rise on automatic at the dismissiveness of 'write your own book' because often even if you are putting books out there, there are books that need to be spoken out against directly especially in YA, because teenagers are too easily silenced without other voices. I realize that's not really the issue she's addressing right here, but it's too close for me to properly pry apart.
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Date: 2012-08-20 04:55 am (UTC)If you're writing, you're making a choice. You're making that choice again and again and again and again. Her attempts to 'humorously' shirk the label weird me out - whether or not you're thinking 'I'm writing for a teenage audience!' that's who you're selling it to, and making money off of, and I believe that's largely who she's writing about. It's a subculture of people that she is creating a dialogue with through her material, one way or another. The effort to divorce herself from it simply, as far as I can tell, to brush off criticism (don't accuse me of trying to corrupt your kids! I'm not writing for your kids, though I'm living off of them!) feels inappropriate to me.
I really, really agree with a.5. You are talking to these people. You are emotionally touching them, or if you're not you're trying your damnedest to emotionally touch them, to affect them, to draw them in and attach them to you. And you're getting paid for it! Respect them, don't give me this hipster sidestepping about how you're writing for the past and the future and yourself, you're too cool to be writing for kids. Because that doesn't even make any sense.
Not to mention the fact that even if you do write a book of your own, divert your time and resources, and manage to get it published, and it addresses the issues raised in a way the author believes to be superior - it doesn't erase the existence of a book that might be hurtful or appropriative or offensive in a way other than 'too heavy' or perceived as 'leading astray.' That's often a good thing. But my hackles rise on automatic at the dismissiveness of 'write your own book' because often even if you are putting books out there, there are books that need to be spoken out against directly especially in YA, because teenagers are too easily silenced without other voices. I realize that's not really the issue she's addressing right here, but it's too close for me to properly pry apart.