My friend, Melissa J. Cunningham over at A Writer's Reality posted this blog.
I know I have lots of friends/followers out there who write YA books. What is your take on graphic sex scenes and foul language use in a Young Adult novel? Should it be allowed? Should the trend be halted now?
I may not like romance books due to the somewhat constant sex scenes and cookie cutter plots. That just isn't my thing. If I find a good romance book with a good plot, I can let the gratuitous sex slide. I am no prude, but there are just some things I don't want to read about. I will read a good romance, meaning it has to have a good story.
I like to read YA as well. Something tells me though, that this trend of graphic sex and language is due to the fact that more and more adults are reading YA, so the author is throwing stuff in for our sake.
All I can say to that is, PLEASE DON'T.
The reason I read YA is because it isn't full of that, pardon me, crap. I want a GOOD, CLEAN, STRONG story. Some of the VERY best written works out there did not have foul language or sexual content. Seriously.
I understand there is an audience out there for things like this, but there is a larger audience, I feel, that just wants a good, entertaining story. Am I wrong in saying this? Maybe. The same could be said for movies as well. A good story can be told without foul language and/or sex.
While this won't fly in the adult book world, we do have to preserve whatever innocence is left of our children and don't allow this to enter into the YA world for whatever reason. Just because our children act more mature every generation doesn't mean we need to feed into it.
What is your opinion?
10 comments:
Hate to say it, but I think they throw a lot of that in for the teens as well.
I know I sure couldn't write that kind of stuff and I write for adults!
I believe kids are exposed to enough crap in the real world that they don't need to find the graphic sex, drugs and violence in books. In fact, it can be refreshing for some NOT to find it in a book they read. My YA fantasy romance is resonating with the jr high crowd really, really well--and it's wholly lacking in sex and language.
Amen babes!
PS. Your follow button doesn't show up. I followed on network blogs, but I want to follow on the other too. FYI. =)
You know, I noticed that about my button... Blogger has been acting up lots lately. It better fix itself.
But yeah, I agree Alex and Cheri. I know they throw it in there for teens too, to tempt them into reading thinking they are getting away with something... But it does have to stop, it is ridiculous. Like Cheri said on FB, it is desensitizing the kids into thinking it is okay.
I avoid modern YA novels for this reason, altho there are a lot of popular ones that are clean and fascinating reads-- like Hunger Games.
I think they take things too far in books and movies. It's nice to have that chemistry between characters and a passionate kiss but all this nudity and sex...yuck!
I have found quite a few that are clean and good stories. While the kids struggle with sex issues, they aren't acting upon them and having graphic scenes shoved in the readers face.
When I started teaching, I was stunned just how aware kids are now of *everything*. My take is if the books reflect their reality and perhaps help them deal with some of the many issues they face, it's okay.
This is true, Talli. I worked with kids recently and they had a pretty good concept of things. Great discussion, you guys. :D
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