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DRAFT TODAY, POST TOMORROW: Some posts may be in draft status until I (aka procrastinator extraordinaire) get around to posting them.



Friday, June 10, 2011

Why I can't write a book

I've heard that I had a crazy, messed up life when I talk about my "childhood" and my family.  I've been told I should write a book about it.  Well, that's all and good, but I wouldn't know where to start, where to end, and what to put in between!  I don't know that I'd want anyone to read it--I mean, it's was a messed up life.  I would be concerned about accuracy, too--timelines get blurred and what people said may or may not be true (or they claim it's not although it's known to be true).

It appears that a novel based on a life story can be a way to deal with that.  But that doesn't quite get me on board.  While I don't think I'd be writing for young adults, I would be horrified to find out I had written something that was controversial or, even worse, banned.  A recent WSJ article claimed that teens are reading darker, more graphic literature and more should be done to protect young readers.  I found her arguments flimsy and the article (and gender-specific recommendations) condescending.  As many others have pointed out, she must think that young adults are innocents who are not aware of the real world.  Or maybe she really believes that these gory, awful things don't happen to the majority, or the rest of us shouldn't discuss it in front of the younguns'.  I have to agree with someone who says if it hasn't happened to you, you know someone who is dealing with it.  Right now.  It is happening.  Isn't it better that we're talking about it?  Or does it "normalize" behaviors to read about it?

Is censorship ever the answer?  I think it's better to have kids reading something disagreeable or irredeemable than to not read at all.  There are fantastic librarians out there that make sure strong readers, like my younger self, are able to find challenging books to read, while they may not recommend all the students read the same things.

In this excellent rebuttal (READ IT!  READ IT ALL!), the author of one of the oh-so-offensive books mentioned in the previous article writes about resilience, and about reading books the way I remember: As a child, I read because books–violent and not, blasphemous and not, terrifying and not–were the most loving and trustworthy things in my life....I read books about monsters and monstrous things, often written with monstrous language, because they taught me how to battle the real monsters in my life.

And now he is a writer for a teen audience: I don’t write to protect them. It’s far too late for that. I write to give them weapons–in the form of words and ideas-that will help them fight their monsters. I write in blood because I remember what it felt like to bleed.

It makes me want to write.  And read controversial young adult literature.

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