Saturday, July 26, 2014

Writing style

What did you think of the writing? We had the first-person, unreliable narrator; literary references and fairy tale interludes; dramatic metaphor; sentences like: "Johnny, he is bounce, effort, and snark. Mirren, she is sugar, curiosity, and rain." Clever, or too much?
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9 comments:

kc said...

This is an interesting question. The narrator is a very young person, and a particular kind of girl, so for her to be "authentic," she has to say sentimental-clever things like "she is sugar, curiosity, and rain," which in an adult narrator would be sappy and unforgivable. But if she sounded like an adult, it wouldn't be genuine. Then there's the issue of this narrator is in her teens and I am in my 40s, so I necessarily read this from the point of view of an adult assessing the worldview of a kid, albeit a very bright and mature kid. If I were 14 and reading this, I'm sure I'd have a very different outlook; what strikes old me as too much would probably have struck teenage me as exceptionally clever. I find this whole Young Adult genre very interesting for those reasons. I'm not aware of having read anything specifically from this genre as a kid. I suspect it didn't really exist the way it does today?

It's interesting to think about what makes something YA and why an author would deliberately pursue that market.

I mean, "Catcher in the Rye," for example, has a huge adolescent readership, but it's not really YA, right? Salinger had an adult audience in mind, I'm guessing, because even though you can really relate to that book as a young adult, you really have to be an actual adult with some life experience to fully appreciate the poignancy of the young narrator's story.

6:03 PM, July 27, 2014
Erin said...

Yeah, I think you have to put it in perspective. When I read the first couple of pages, I thought, "Uh..." But when I put it in the context of a YA novel, it didn't feel goofy to me anymore. I would have loved that kind of writing as a 14-year-old.

How does an adult write for a young teen audience? I doubt I could sound authentic in that voice, though I recognize it when I see it.

3:12 PM, July 29, 2014
cl said...

I didn't have a problem with her descriptions of her friends — I did pause in the beginning — because later it made sense to use that kind imagery to describe the dead and go back to traditional description for the others.

The dramatic metaphors were too much.

6:19 PM, August 01, 2014
cl said...

I think when YA is done well, it captures some emotional intensity that you never forget. Like when your boyfriend breaks up with you to take another girl to prom, and then you see her at the dance and forever remember every perfect fold in her dress.

So much of it is about bliss or belonging or sucker-punches.

Remember Erin's diary?

One of the most poignant moments for me in "Liars" was when Cady spots Gat at the start of the summer: "...The universe was good because he was in it. I loved the hole in his jeans and the dirt on his bare feet and scab on his elbow and the scar that laced through one eyebrow. Gat, my Gat." And in the next moment she understands the dried rose wasn't for her. I think that's what I mean about YA, specifically. That kind of disappointment happens to some of us over and over, but when you're a teen, that first time strikes the heart so hard. I really felt for Cady in that moment.


6:47 PM, August 01, 2014
kc said...

C, funny that you mentioned Erin's diary. I always think of that when I think of an adolescent voice and point of view. It's so special, in my opinion, because it's an actual adolescent's voice. It's authentic. It's in the moment. I'm not sure an adult can wholly capture that voice and particular turmoil again. Maybe that's my issue with YA literature: It often lacks poignancy because it's fundamentally not genuine. That's not to say that people can't write from other points of view than their own. You just have to be really, really good to pull it off.

4:54 PM, August 07, 2014
Erin said...

The emotional intensity, yes. I remember reading that diary and remembering the burning passions and yearning and humiliations, and thinking that I would never again feel quite so much. It was definitely a hallmark of adolescence.

9:24 PM, August 07, 2014
kc said...

Did you guys ever read S.E. Hinton's young adult novels? I only saw the movies. I'm kind of curious about the books now, though.

10:48 AM, August 08, 2014
cl said...

I remember the novels a bit. I think that must have been especially tough to capture the down-and-out demographic voice (and a male's) for "The Outsiders." I think I liked "That Was Then ... This Is Now," but the others didn't interest me.

11:30 AM, August 08, 2014
Erin said...

I never even saw the movies!

I just Googled her. Did you know she wrote "The Outsiders" when she was in high school?

3:28 PM, August 08, 2014

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