"This isn't an argument for censorship, just an argument that a book can be fine for one kid and deeply traumatizing to another, because of what the second kid has gone through."
I read CotR in high school and I thought it was appropriate for that age group. No younger, though.
This reminds me of the recent article, I believe it was in the Wall Street Journal, that lamented the dark elements in YA. I read a few rebuttals in blogs that said, to paraphrase, that teenage life was not all flowers and puppy-dogs, and YA lit should be a reflection of that. That young adults need to see their real life experiences reflected in the literature aimed to them.
I don't mean to deny or diminish your trauma, but I also think that when a book provokes a strong reaction like that, it's doing something right. It's speaking to difficult truths about human existence--in this example, about how mental illness can destroy lives and families when it goes untreated. (Counting addiction as mental illness, here.) Several in my family, including me, have struggled with mental illness. I want to see protagonists deal with the same things I have, even if it sucks and makes me cry.
It would be nice if books contained some kind of warning like those expected in fanfiction, that way someone who would be triggered could avoid that book.
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
branchandroot
no subject
Date: 2011-07-20 02:23 am (UTC)I read CotR in high school and I thought it was appropriate for that age group. No younger, though.
This reminds me of the recent article, I believe it was in the Wall Street Journal, that lamented the dark elements in YA. I read a few rebuttals in blogs that said, to paraphrase, that teenage life was not all flowers and puppy-dogs, and YA lit should be a reflection of that. That young adults need to see their real life experiences reflected in the literature aimed to them.
I don't mean to deny or diminish your trauma, but I also think that when a book provokes a strong reaction like that, it's doing something right. It's speaking to difficult truths about human existence--in this example, about how mental illness can destroy lives and families when it goes untreated. (Counting addiction as mental illness, here.) Several in my family, including me, have struggled with mental illness. I want to see protagonists deal with the same things I have, even if it sucks and makes me cry.
It would be nice if books contained some kind of warning like those expected in fanfiction, that way someone who would be triggered could avoid that book.