Re: The Future of Young Adult Fiction?

Alma Hromic Deckert <anghara@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

Vocabulary is born of experience.

For many of us that experience was born in massive reading binges. I
learned my vocabulary not from a dictionary but from immersion into
language, from listening to people talk, from speaking to other
people, and from *reading* enormous amounts and varieties of material.
People who grow up without the foundations of that - well - I don't
know if massive experience in texting and SMS is going to prepare the
current crop of teens for actually reading a novel written in fully
spelled out language.

....Teens do read things other than texting, you know. Magazines,
websites, books in school, newspapers, more websites, occasionally even
(shocking, I know) books in their own spare time.

Pew Internet recently talked at Computers in Libraries (which I didn't
attend but I've read piles of blogs about the sessions) about their
(highly regarded) studies. One of which has found that 53% of adults
had been to their local library within the last year -- but 62% of young
adults have been to a local public library. (I got the impression that
the young adults were included in the adults, so the percentage for
'mature' adults would be even lower, but I'd have to read the original
study to be sure.)

So why are we worrying again that in addition to conventional English
orthography teens have also mastered appropriate SMS orthography?

I don't know, I am a biased witness. I have been so much in love with
language, with writing, with reading, for so long that I am probably
not in a position to offer a fully objective opinion on the matter - I
get defensive of the language as I know it and love it when I see it
rendered in SMS shorthand, or verbal stories being shortened,
simplified to the point of banality, or judged according to whether or
not they would do well when distilled into pure visual form in order
to satisfy a mindset which cannot conceive of sitting down to read
something substantial. (And yet I confess to being vastly amused by
LOLcats, bad grammar and all. Go figure.)

I love lolcats *because* I'm in love with language. The best part of
language is the games we can play with it.(1)

What do I look for in a book? Vision. Clarity. Grace. The kind of
story that grips. Characters that live. Words that don't need pictures
to tell a story. Not much to ask, eh...? <wry grin>

My friend made me read a book of pictures that didn't need words to tell
a story. It was brilliant. <thinks> The Arrival by Shaun Tan.
(http://www.shauntan.net/books.html and click on the appropriate cover.)
Vision. Clarity. Grace. The kind of story that grips, characters that
live, scenes that ache to read, simplicity, complexity, and above all
truth.

It was brilliant. After reading it I told my friend, "Everyone in the
world should read this book." I'd amend that, on consideration, to a
mere 99% or so.

Zeborah
(1) The second best part of language is singular 'they'.
--
Gravity is no joke.
http://www.geocities.com/zeborahnz/
rasfc FAQ: http://www.lshelby.com/rasfcFAQ.html
.

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