Werewolves and vampires and zombies – Oh My!

Jun 14, 2009

Posted by: Doris

Bloggers - Doris

I’ve read more then my share of novels, and I’ve noticed trends in content that often times reflect the culture of our society. Entertainment Weekly (EW) published an online article, “Girls Gone Dark” where it sites what they see as a new trend in books. The trend, as they see it, is toward a darker content in teen literature. Wall Stree Journal also reported on the current trend towards darker content in teen novels.

The EW article raises the question …

“Could this newer, darker literature be harmful for teens? “

*Passes out coffee*

I can remember the genre of the late 70’s. I was a new reader then, but I can remember grabbing my brothers comic books and reading about space ships, men on mars and nuclear weapons. Being in elementary school I had no idea that the focus of the news often followed the space race, the Cold War or the threat of nuclear annihilation.

Zoom about 30 years into the future and now we read about dystopian ideas and thoughts, we read books about cutting, about starvation, zombies, demons, vampires and about dark wizards . The content of our world is darker, it appears our literautre might just be reflecting that.

These articles started me wondering …

  • Do you see this trend as a negative one, or is it just a cycle that will turn around and we’ll be reading about flowers and puppy dogs all over again?
  • Is the darkening of the content of our teen lit a symptom of the world’s woes?
  • Do you think that reading the darker content could have a lasting impact on our young adults? If so, then how will it impact them?
  • Will Jo Rowling publish something soon? (Ok, off topic but I still want to know)

I posted the WE article on Twitter to see a quick response. These are the first responses. (if you’d like to follow me on Twitter, I’m dorish)

@sassymonkey (1/2)”There have always been dark teen books. If they are just noticing that they are way behind the curve. (2/2) The Little Princess is dark if you stop and think about it.” (Sassymonkey is a featured book bloggerr on BlogHer. I highly recommend her blog)

@tryston009 – (1/2)The article was interesting … while I agree with the author of the article in that it allows teens to confront the problems, (2/2) facing them today, I alsways have problems with “good, uplifting endings… because some times life doesn’t end up pn a good note.” (tryston009 is one of the incredible Lily and Stag staffers. He’s also about to start a new Ustream bi-weekly chat on the Harry Potter books)

@jkrfan Interesting Article but trend’s been around for eons, just comes back in cycles like all good things? 🙂
(JKRfan is the webmaster of JK Rowling Fan.com)





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