I was recently asked about youth literature, its disconnect with our children, myself and my friend included, and where I am at in life at this moment in time: here is the answer I came up with. She also asked me to use a pseudonym, for her name, and for my own.
Dear Franzi,
You sealed your fate when you suggested I could rant about what I want, for the entirety of what is essentially, a creative writing assignment. How would I NOT do that? Also, I’ve always wanted to make a witty pseudonym for my writing, and this gives me an excuse for such horse play. Anyways: what to say? First I guess, about you. We’ve known each other for more than a year now, we met in first year university, and I am certainly glad that I met you. As far as I can, I’ll sum up what I think of you in two words: young + intelligent. What do I mean by that? Well, a few things. By intelligent, I mean mature enough to handle a situation, ie. university, in a way rare for someone so young. I mean sheer intellectual prowess: the ability to get the marks you do, and deal with the internships you’ve won through hard work, and cope with the pressure of one of the hardest university degrees offered. And I mean your ability to navigate the social minefield that is university with only mild glitches. By young I mean your energy, your ability to wake up in the morning, your enthusiasm for joining clubs, moving (when I’d far prefer to sit down, or sleep) and studying, working and advancing your station. But also, young in the way ice cream and chocolate eggs disappear in your vicinity. And finally, young in your willingness to try new things, meet new people, and cook new foods. All in all, you’re vibrant, bright and vital.
Now, back to the rant at hand, which is what I’m thinking about in life, about where I am: Well, a moment ago I was thinking about physics, chemistry and biology, and how to build those three strains of science into a working ‘magic system’ within a narrative, but that’s beside the point. Life for me is good, I’m happy, I have a wonderful girlfriend, brilliant marks, I’m optimistic, even though it doesn’t always come across that way, and I am very hopeful for my future. What I’m lacking is the motivation which I see behind you, behind Andrew, and the energy that I see from both of you. If you haven’t noticed by now I see a lot of similarities between you two, but that isn’t the point. The point is, I see very clearly what I have, and the attributes both negative and positive of myself and those around me: I pride myself on being able to see my flaws, and see what I have going for me, and work to diminish the earlier and accentuate the latter. I know I’m arrogant, but I feel if I’m open about it, it lessens the negative impact of the failing. And I know I sometimes lack motivation, so I work to emulate you, and Andrew, and Pat, and Dana and even Victor, though admittedly he is more easily distracted than those mentioned earlier. I think, dragging this rant back towards your question about youth literature, that the reason – and here comes classic arrogance on my part – that the reason youth literature doesn’t appeal to us, is two-fold. One: we are exceptional, and two, we are quickly becoming adults. Youth literature: and this is coming from an English student, so I feel I can speak with some authority, is stagnant. Not because it is poorly written, or poorly considered, but because it fails to take into account the new generation of youths, and because it underestimates the 'masses'.
We are a primarily optimistic generation, and more educated then ever before. Despite the media trying to tell us we are depressed about global warming, overtaxed by school and going to carry the burden of our elderly, our generation is one that has never seen a lack of plenty. It is a generation that pursues higher education with vigour, and a generation old before its time. The new generation, who has googl’d everything they ever wanted to know, which is full and totally sated with intelligence, and won’t be satisfied with dumb narratives and flat characters. Furthermore: a generation that understands the limits placed on our education and will happily attempt to remove them. Now, I’m not sure whether this optimism is me projecting, or whether society actually wants a happy ending, but I’m willing to call out the lacklustre narratives we’ve been given, the lack of vibrancy in our literature, and the formulaic approach of sex and violence applied to all of our media. Now, I have to end this rant, but I’ll tell you why I can’t relate to most narratives: they follow a formula, they ‘understand’ what we want and try to give us that. Well, here is what I want:
I want a love story, where things die and everything goes wrong, where the characters are real, the losses and successes are real, and the resolution is real. I want literature that is like life, but does away with its boring aspects, its high school drama, its sparkling vampire nonsense, and puts some real back in our fiction. I want a flawed protagonist, and a flawed heroine, and I want them to live happily ever after. But I want something of substance to happen first. I want a story written because the writer wanted to express him or herself, not because the boys in marketing asked for it. In short, I want nothing less than perfection.
Anyways: I’ve already gone far and over the word limit, and off topic, but that’s my piece.
Very Sincerely,
AnEpicWittyAwesomeSoundingPseudonym
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