^^doesn't have much to do with my rant, but it's funny ha ^^
Sometimes I'm a hypocrite when it comes to how I judge books.
I was an English major, so I have read quite the plethora of genres, with all kind of content you can imagine. I took an entire course just on Toni Morrison's novels, and when my mom turned on my Kindle mistaking it for hers, she was all "what in the world are you reading?!?" So I generally have a higher tolerance for things like language, violence and sex in books: WITHIN REASON. (Like I never ever plan on reading 50 shades of grey crap because that is blatantly a porno for women so I know I would never read it)
And yet, when I know I'm reading something by, oh let's say, a Mormon author, I suddenly become such a prude ha ha. And you want to know why? Because they should know better! (In my opinionated opinion, anyway.)
A couple of examples. I HATED the book Ender's Game. Shocker I know, since so many people worship it. I'm just not a fan of sci-fi, but what really bugged me was all the crude language (not just swear words) that Orson Scott Card had his characters using (children, which I thought was completely unrealistic). Card is a Mormon, and Mormons really try to encourage good language. And in the book, I thought most of it was so unnecessary. So that's why it bothered me!
Now Twilight. Uggghh. Well there's a lot I could rant about, but Mormon Stephanie Meyer just kept pushing the limit on what she could get away with regarding the more intimate scenes between the two main characters. Which remember, is a 17 year old girl and a 200 year old vampire. Come on, Stephanie Meyer, you know better.
Am I being completely unreasonable? Should Mormon authors be able to just write whatever they want?? Nevermind, I don't care if I'm being unreasonable. It just bothers me. It has for years.
But along the lines of talking about Twilight, I just finished the Divergent series and the biggest problem I have with both of these series is that they both were originally targeted to young adult (aka middle and high schoolers) and then as they exploded in popularity the authors used it to their advantage and turned them into adult books that should not be being read by middle schoolers. With Twilight, it was mostly just sex, but with Divergent it was sex and violence. And all of this with the main characters being just 16 and 17 years old.
Of course I have read worse, but as I'm reading and thinking in the back of my head that these books are being targeted to a younger audience, it drives me nuts! These books are being stocked in middle school libraries, which means that twelve year old sixth graders could be reading it. Not okay in my opinion. I was talking about it with a friend of mine (who is not Mormon, and much less conservative than I am) and she completely agreed with me. She said as she was reading Twilight at the same time as her 13 year old niece, thinking it would be fun, and that it really started to bother her thinking that her little niece is reading that stuff too.
So what do you think? Where do you draw the line? I wanted to spew all this stuff out to see if I am alone in this world. If I am just a hypocrite, because I read it, or if I am justified in my ranting. But either way it feels good to get it off my chest.
I just love ranting ha ha. So thanks for reading!
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Nope, you're not alone. I stopped reading the 2nd Divergent book at about 25 pages in because I couldn't deal with the sex/making out. I think it's a sign of a very weak plot. I found the Twilight books disturbing as well - mostly because it wasn't until a week or two after I read it that I began to think critically about what I had read and whether or not it made me a better person for reading it. I just got sucked up into the 'world' and never really thought about what I was reading. That's a scary thing.
ReplyDeleteyeah, but you stopped reading, maryann. I didn't. I read it, but I don't think young adults should be reading it. so does that make me a hypocrite?
DeleteI also have a higher tolerance for language in my books, but my issue is not for Mormon authors but for books for Young Adults. I think that YA authors should definitely consider what the implications their books will have on adolescent readers---does it make them better teens and adults? That doesn't mean that YA books need to be in a perfect world, because that would be boring and teens don't live in a perfect world. But, they should encourage young readers to think about the behavior of the characters and to apply it to their own situations.
ReplyDeleteBTW---I noticed you are reading Wonder, I really enjoyed it!
just finished it and loved it! such a sweet book. and you are absolutely right.
DeleteI agree on the Twilight thing but not because she's an LDS author. But as a young adult novel, I hated the way it was glorifying wanting (begging for) sex at that age, and having a man was so important, and she was so dependent on the vampire guy, and he snuck into her room all the time, etc. I had a fifth grade student reading it once and I totally judged her mom.
ReplyDeleteAlso, not an LDS author but The Fault in Our Stars (aside from being boring and so, so stupid) had these young kids sneak off to have sex and even showed their immaturity by having them not even be able to really say "I love you" to each other. But that's fine kids. You don't have to be mature, or anything to have sex!
Deletei actually liked the fault in our stars, but i totally agree with you that it falls into the same thing we've been talking about. authors really should not be promoting teen sex, even if he's dying of cancer and it's his only chance.
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