Failure is Not an Option
I'll tell you a secret.
I'm 35 years old and I don't have a driver's license.
Yep, you read that right.
People always freak out when I tell them that. In this day and age, and where I live, this is not the norm. We have a crappy public transit system, so driving is really necessary. Which sucks for someone like me.
Here's the condensed version. When I was 15, I went through the standard Driver's Ed training. That was a joke, because I got, at most, three hours on the road. And I had severe anxiety, having never behind the wheel before. The instructor told my parents that I was not in any way ready to drive. I needed more time. So, the following year, we gave it another shot, and I was still unable to complete the training.
It's That Time of the Year Again
Today is Father's Day here in the US. That wonderful day the industrial greeting card-making complex ruthlessly lobbied for until President Lyndon Johnson finally caved in 1966, issuing a Presidential proclamation to give the holiday some semblance of legitimacy.
(Later, in 1972, President Richard "Tricky Dicky" Nixon, another Hallmark toady (he glommed onto them after Gerber dropped him), signed Father's Day into law. Dark days indeed.)
Acquired Tastes
So, I have done an awful lot of drinking this weekend.
Not necessarily the best sentence to start a post with, but here we are anyway.
YA Saves: The Wall Street Journal YA Controversy
(Disclaimer: This blog post reflects the opinions of the author, not of Turtleduck Press as a whole.)
This weekend, the Wall Street Journal published an article arguing that YA fiction has become too dark. It's too violent, the author writes. It deals with situations and behaviours that could negatively influence young minds (she gives the example of self-harm, arguing that if a teen reads about it, s/he may want to try it – say what?). It's too explicit. It uses too much "foul language". The vampire trend is only another example of this depravity.
The blogosphere and Twitterverse (at #yasaves) exploded with rebuttals as readers and writers of YA weighed in. Today's teenagers are already facing these issues. Statistics. More. Anecdotally, I know young people who struggle with mood disorders, with whether to come out to their parents, with the extreme pressures placed on them in today's world. And I don't know that many young people. Turtleduck Press's own KD Sarge works in a school, and she sees a lot more than I do. Books aren't putting ideas in their little heads, but giving them tools to deal with their realities. Books tell them that they are not alone, that #ItGetsBetter. Laurie Halse Anderson says it better.
I agree with these arguments. I believe in the importance of talking/writing/reading about self-harm, rape, abuse, bullying, homophobia. I reject book-banning (others have pointed out the irony of the sidebar accompanying the article, which recommends, among others, Fahrenheit 451). I support the bravery of these authors in writing the stories that so many teens need to hear, and continually fighting the banning and harsh criticism of their books.
And yet.
