I posted some poetry last month by Native American writer Sherman Alexie, but that one post didn’t even scratch the surface of his gifts. Alexie is a prolific poet and author of fiction, but his real strength is as a truth-teller, both via his storytelling and his acerbic cultural criticism (my personal favorite until now has been his blistering Los Angeles Times review of Ian Frazier’s book On the Rez, a review tellingly entitled “Some of My Best Friends.”). Last week, in an essay for the Wall Street Journal‘s Speakeasy blog, Alexie—author of a much-acclaimed young adult novel, The Absolute True Diary of a Part-Time Indian—took on a pearl-clutching WSJ critic who claims that today’s dark, violent, dystopian YA novels are corrupting our youth:
So when I read Meghan Cox Gurdon’s complaints about the “depravity” and “hideously distorted portrayals” of contemporary young adult literature, I laughed at her condescension.
Does Ms. Gurdon honestly believe that a sexually explicit YA novel might somehow traumatize a teen mother? Does she believe that a YA novel about murder and rape will somehow shock a teenager whose life has been damaged by murder and rape? Does she believe a dystopian novel will frighten a kid who already lives in hell?
When I think of the poverty-stricken, sexually and physically abused, self-loathing Native American teenager that I was, I can only wish, immodestly, that I’d been given the opportunity to read “The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian.”…Or any of the books that Ms. Gurdon believes to be irredeemable. I can’t speak for other writers, but I think I wrote my YA novel as a way of speaking to my younger, irredeemable self.
Alexie’s essay—you should read the whole thing, because it’s truly outstanding—reminded me of why I read as a child and teen. For me, reading widely was a kind of vaccination against the evils of the world. Books gave me perspective on things like sexual abuse, addiction, depression, misogyny, and anger. They bolstered my psychological immune system so that I was better prepared to handle those things when they touched my own life. Reading made me more empathetic and less ignorantly dismissive (still does, I hope). As Alexie points out, there are far, far too many kids who have first-hand experience of violence, abuse, and depression, so hand-wringing over whether kids might read about those things is downright offensive, especially when coming from the lily-white, well-heeled WSJ:
When some cultural critics fret about the “ever-more-appalling” YA books, they aren’t trying to protect African-American teens forced to walk through metal detectors on their way into school. Or Mexican-American teens enduring the culturally schizophrenic life of being American citizens and the children of illegal immigrants. Or Native American teens growing up on Third World reservations. Or poor white kids trying to survive the meth-hazed trailer parks. They aren’t trying to protect the poor from poverty. Or victims from rapists.
No, they are simply trying to protect their privileged notions of what literature is and should be. They are trying to protect privileged children. Or the seemingly privileged.
Even if your kids are fortunate enough to have an easy, sheltered life, keeping them ignorant about the hardships other people face ain’t going to help them in the long run. I’d also argue that these days, the internet has already shown them plenty of ugly realities by the time they’re 18, often without any context or discussion. Books, at least, provide that context and discussion. Controlled exposure is the key. By all means, give you tween or teen a book about violence, abuse or unhappiness, especially one that’s been written specifically for their age group. They will be better for it, as will the kids who personally identify with the darkness of those books, who vastly outnumber the sheltered ones anyway:
And now I write books for teenagers because I vividly remember what it felt like to be a teen facing everyday and epic dangers. 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.
The Speakeasy ran a poll at the bottom of the essay asking “Are dark themes in youth fiction helpful or harmful to teenagers?” So far the voting is 90% in favor of helpful. What do you think?
Thank you for this.
For starters, it’s perfect timing that you featured Sherman Alexie since I’m about to start Part-Time Indian now, on the recommend of just about everyone I know. Also, that original WSJ caused quite a stir in library land, which isn’t entirely surprising. I agree with Sherman that many teenagers already face the difficult realities of dark themes and it does help to read about them. I also agree with his point about this type of situation being an example of priveledge. I couldn’t agree more. This is something librarians face fairly often during banned books week and throughout the rest of the year. Parents often ask us to remove books that contain sexuality, violence, etc… or overall don’t meet their criteria of what literature should be. Of course, if a library only contained books with positive themes, there would essentially be no libraries.
To foureleven: I HIGHLY recommend “reading” Part-Time Indian by audio book. Alexie is the narrator, and obviously does justice to the work. It’s all just even better when it’s in his voice.
Becky, that gave me chills. Alexie is poignantly eloquent, as always.
I definitely believe they are helpful. My two favourite books can be considered YA: Ender’s Game, by Orson Scott Card, and Sister Light, Sister Dark, by Jane Yolen. Both books involve murder and war, and both books spoke to me in powerful ways that helped me through the turmoil of my teen years.
Thanks for writing about this, Becky. I very much enjoyed Alexie’s essay, and agree wholeheartedly with him.
Mega-word. Alexie is one of my must reads. His sensibility feels similar to a Jewish one in that he can find humor and humanity in terrible situations and come out stronger.
And really, WSJ, what kind of world do you think your privileged kids live in? Get a clue already.
@MM: I’ve seen interviews with Sherman Alexie where he talks about Jews and Native Americans having a shared history of genocide and similar humor because of it. Here’s a link to his long poem “Inside Dachau” that draws parallels between the Jewish and indigenous experiences of genocide. The 6th and 7th stanzas are my favorite.
http://www.bpj.org/poems/alexie_dachau.html
WORD. To all of it.
The WSJ essay and the continued attention to the issue (including in places that ought to know better, like NPR!) is just too frustrating for words. As a former young adult, I have to say I read more genre fiction than I did straight-up “young adult” material … I didn’t like stuff with a heavy-handed moral message and/or the sort of “gritty” stories about drug addiction, etc., that were all the rage in the early 90s (PSA to the WSJ: this “trend” is not new!). But I am offended on behalf of all young people — and hell, all people in general! — by the assumption that this literature is exposing teens to stuff they wouldn’t otherwise know about. Sometimes it is, sometimes it isn’t. If we erase all the painful, violent shit from literature then that’s tantamount to telling the children who experience drug addiction or sexual abuse: “your experience is so abnormal and horrible it’s unspeakable.”
THAT would be the real crime.
I think the escapist fluff should be available too … young people shouldn’t be forced to read stuff that gives them nightmares if they don’t want to. Jeanne Birdsall, an award-winning children’s novelist, specifically decided to write books where nothing truly traumatic happens because as a child who had traumatic shit happening to her what she wanted to read was “Little Women” and “Swallows and Amazons” as reassurance and comfort.
So the whole range of human experience should be available to our children and our teenagers through literature. Full stop.
what anna said!
also, I’m reminded somewhat of what Aristotle said about theatre, in that watching and being engaged by the performance provides catharsis.
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In order to do this, the full human experience should be depicted on stage (the Greeks didn’t just do tragedy and didn’t solely have happy feel good stories either
I think the same can be said of books.
Lately I’ve been reading 2-3 YA novels to every adult novel… I have one child old enough to be reading this stuff, and I’m trying to find good stories, mainly sci fi / speculative fiction / dystopian / alternate history. There is so much more GREAT YA stuff out there now, compared to the 80′s when I was growing up. I’ve really been enjoying the stories and passing them along to my child.
You’d think the WSJ people never read Dickens. Back in the day, if you wanted to read, you read fiction written for adults, since there was no YA literature. And some nasty stuff happened in those British novels, starting with Fielding and company and going forward. Rape, theft, murder, kidnapping, fraud…you name it and you can find it in a classic English novel.
This whole separation of genres is pretty arbitrary. People should read what they like reading and not worry about what the person sitting across from them on the train is going to think.
@BeckySharper – Thank you for sharing that link!
@foureleven: You’re welcome. Isn’t it amazing? He wrote a villanelle! About Dachau! And it’s brilliant! The man has some serious talent.
I found this blogpost after reading Alexie’s WSJ response – and I could not love/agree with Alexie and what he says about reading more! Though your post focuses on his response, I just want to add that Alexie is so much more than a YA author, and that Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian is so much more than a YA novel. I read that novel when I was 28 years old, and found it every bit as therapeutic, insightful, emotional, and helpful (yes!) as I probably would have at 13. I am a high school teacher, and that is my go-to novel recommendation for my students because not only is it well written and interesting, it is real and relatable. And when I loan students my copy, I have to remind, harass, and demand for them to give it back when they finish!
I recently read a collection of Alexie’s short stories (The Toughest Indian in the World), and found this experience to be almost as enjoyable as Absolutely True Diary. His writing for adults is just as complex and filled with humor as his writing for YAs. If you’d like to know more about his short stories, check out: http://abooklst.blogspot.com/search/label/Sherman%20Alexie