Today I’m going to talk about something that is not entirely unique to YA books, but certainly something we have to worry about more than other genres. That is, objectionable content and book challenges (i.e. banning).
I was going to save this topic for Banned Books Week, but it’s a topic buzzing in the YA Twitterverse and Blogosphere this week.
If you don’t really follow YA writers, you may or may not have heard about a Teen Lit Festival in my native state of Texas (always doing me proud) that “uninvited” oft-acclaimed and oft-challenged YA author Ellen Hopkins (Crank, Tricks) who was scheduled to appear and address students. Ms. Hopkins wrote about it on her blog, and this article summarized the details and ensuing reaction from other writers. The gist is, unfortunately, pretty standard when it comes to censorship. A very small number of people decided what a whole lot of people shouldn’t be reading.
But this isn’t a post about ‘censorship is bad,’ and ‘censorship without context is both bad and infuriating.’ That’s being discussed on other blogs. It’s about deciding what to put in your books.
I’ve said before, there are no rules for what you can put in a YA book. Drugs, sex, alcohol, violence… it’s all about how you handle it and why it’s there.
In a lot of literary books that include sex, drugs, lawbreaking or other ‘objectionable’ content, it’s… well, it’s kind of a downer. These things serve as pits in the dungeon of the hero’s journey. At the other end of the scale, you’ve got some very popular books (made into a very popular TV show) where there is a lot of drinking and sex (usually off screen, or the scene fades to black, so to speak), but no consequences at all.
Genre YA falls somewhere in the middle. Our books may include references to drugs, alcohol, or sex. Generally when characters partake on or off screen, it serves the story in some way, even if it’s just characterization. In a way, this is more in line with how teens will encounter these things. Alcohol or sex may not impact their whole lives the way it does in Crank and they may not be on a journey quite like Looking for Alaska, but the personal impact is still there.
Let’s take sex for example. Sex in literary YA is often awkward and unromantic or even uncomfortable. But it’s not there for titillation. The character grows from the experience, usually in a pretty obvious way.
In crossover and genre YA, sometimes teens have sex and nothing bad happens. Gone are the days (thank goodness) when a teen character had to be “punished” for having sex. (Which is not to say you don’t still see it, but that’s a different blog.) However, even non-bad sex still emotionally impacts a young person. Which is why intimate scenes, whether or not they ‘fade out’ or ‘close the door,’ the emphasis is more on what’s going on in the character’s head than, um, tab A, slot B.
Leaving out that emotional impact is doing a discredit to our characters, and our story. And when deciding whether to include objectionable content or not, I look at whether it will impact the character (even if it doesn’t impact the plot) and if it doesn’t, I (usually) take it out.
Why?
1) Because everything in the book, “risky/risqué” or not, should have SOME impact on the character or plot.
2) Because why risk a challenge for no reason. Risk it for a damn good reason.
I want to know that if someone challenges my book, I can say, even if it’s only to myself, that scene/incident/idea belongs there.
Note that this will not keep you from being challenged. The only way to do that is to have your characters never do anything at all. Sooner or later, no matter how tame you think your book is, one person, one time, will find the something to objectionable. (Even if it’s just the word “Hell” in your title. Or a joke about Republicans.)
And whether it’s a big kerfuffle, an official challenge, or someone calling your book “evil and demonic” on a blog, there’s an emotional impact on you, the author. So it’s important to be able to stand by your work and say, I included that for a reason, and I did right by my characters and my story.
The Humble, Texas thing is still playing out. Several other authors who were slated to appear have pulled out in protest/solidarity with their colleague. I’m sorry for the kids who will miss hearing these interesting people speak, but I understand the choice. It’s the same thing, it may not change the world, but have to make the decision you can stand by.
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