/lit/ - Literature

>>7162027
It is called children literature. YA is meant for idiots. If they weren't they'd call it literature. At the age of 16 you shouldn't be reading dumbed down things.

>>7162027
This is like asking if junk food can be done well.

It doesn't make any sense.

>>7162049
this

what you're describing just wouldn't be marketed as YA. there is a lot of 'literary fiction' that centers on teens, coming of age, etc.

Its enjoyed by millions of people, that should be all the evidence you need to think that is done well.

>>7162049
>>7162053
>>7162055
>>7162089
yeah fair enough that makes a lot of sense. i suppose if it was good it wouldn't be marketed as YA, it would be called literature/fiction. does that then mean that authors who aren't as good at the craft and people looking to pander to teenagers and write absolute wank will specifically target the YA genre?

>>7162101
fucking fifty shades of grey you cockmongling mouth breather

>>7162101

Unwind is really good, actually.

I havne't read this but maybe

>>7162053
Take that logic to /ck/

please

>>7162102
>writer comes in with their shitty novel
>writer thinks their novel is actually meaningful because they're dumb
>publisher recognizes that this is a dumb novel but easily marketable to other dumb people as cheap entertainment

>>7162108
>>7162113
whats the problem, just because you personally don't like YA doesn't mean its objectively bad

>>7162102
pretty sure most of the 'YA authors' genuinely love that shit and are just lame. I don't think very many of them are slumming it or intentionally writing marketable bs

>>7162027
I thought "Feed" was pretty good

>>7162027

Yes it can.

>>7162153
If literary talent were completely subjective we wouldn't have acclaimed works, because everything would be the exact same level of shit.

Some books are better than others, and the vast majority of YA novels are far worse than everything else.

>>7162119
Fuck my country is retarded.

>>7162174
Can confirm. This book fucking rocks.

>>7162027
Yes, it can be "done well."

The problem is that all the autists on /lit/ are too busy huffing their own farts to realize that YA books are meant for children and not them. The standards are different, and you're genuinely stupid if you think comparing Harry Potter to literary fiction will make you look like you know what you're talking about.

>Hey, my kid is looking for a TV show to watch, any suggestions?
>WOWWW HE DOESNT WATCH MAD MEN OR TRUE DETECTIVE?? LOL!

Yes, the American trend of adults reading YA is really frustrating, but that doesn't mean we should discount it entirely.

>>7162174
Oh man I loved this book as a kid. Does it still hold up?

>>7162102
>pander to teenagers
So when something isn't made for you, it's "pandering" to someone else?

Sure thing, faggot.

>>7162163
>I don't think very many of them are slumming it or intentionally writing marketable bs
I dont think you understand how commercialism works.

>>7162202
Why do the brain-dead autists here seem to keep forgetting that these books are written BY fucking adults who should know better

>>7162259
Should know better to what?

>>7162202
Actually it's marketed towards adolescents and young adults, and the majority of /lit/ falls into young adults.
It is, you know, 'young adult fiction' after all.

>>7162286
You're being liberal with your definition of "young adult." Yes, technically anyone under 30 and above 16 is considered "a young adult" but that doesn't stop college-age kids from reading literary fiction, and it being assigned in college curriculums.

>>7162259
>stop making things that arent for me!!!!!!!

>>7162302
You spoke as if it were solely for children.

>>7162314
>letting children read shit tier fiction

>>7162371
>not letting people pick what they read

>>7162371
Yeah because kids would be just thrilled to read something by Nabokov or Faulkner right?

>>7162405
I kind of was.

>>7162405
They will be thrilled to read great children literature. You know, from the hundreds of non retarded novel for children.

>>7162259
are you expecting kids to write YA literature or run cartoon networks?

>>7162405
I know a fourth grader who's well versed in the Greeks

>>7162408
>>7162412
>Im never around children born beyond 2005

>>7162418
What happened in 2005? What aren't you telling us anon?

>>7162027
The sad thing is most mainstream fiction for adults is already written at the YA level.

>>7162259
Cartoons are made by adults as well, autismo.

>>7162431
They should know better too, since cartoons are also worthless.

>>7162430
"adult" is just a spook

>>7162418
Children didn't turn retarded in 2005 even if the jews think they did An actual jew cancled Young Justice and Spectacular Spider man to make teen titans go

>>7162027

YA lit can be written well, but ultimately I think that anyone that's age 16 or older should start reading seriously.

Things that aren't quite as esoteric as high modernism or postmodernism (woolf/pynchon/joyce) can be staved off.

But I think that Frankenstein, Bovary, Hemmingway, Catcher in the Rye, Mockingbird, Twain and all that stuff is all perfectly fine.

Alternatively, you could look towards high fiction and scifi that is well written but less formal ie. 1984, Fahrenheit 352, Slaughterhouse, etc.

Series of Unfortunate Events, Dahl, basically the YA books i read as a kid tbh

I guess if a YA book makes you feel something other than just wanting to see what happens next in the plot than its probably done well.

>>7162439
Just because children grow up watching or reading stuff that isn't completely patrician certified doesn't mean they're guaranteed to become mindless plebs in later life. There's nothing wrong with doing a 'pleb' activity if it's just for entertainment.

I listen to anime OSTs and read manga but that doesn't somehow stop me from appreciating literary fiction.

this board is CUCKED by YA readers. lmaoing at all this slave morality. why would it even be relevant what other people are doing?

>>7162174
Read this twice. Great then, but I wonder how it would be now.

>>7162442
this guy gets it

>>7162470
>le cucked
Worthless opinion.

>children/teen books before the harry potter poison

>The Odyssey and the Iliad.
>The Life and Opinions of the Tomcat Murr.
>Frankenstein.
>The Adventures of Tom Sawyer.
>Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.
>A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court.
>Kidnapped.
>Life with Jeeves.
>Steppenwolf.
>Animal Farm.
>A Member of the Wedding.
>Charlotte's Web
>Watership Down.


>books after

>The Hunger Games
>The Maze Runner
>Twilight
>Fault in our stars
>Fifty Shades of Grey
>flavor of the year YA #7
>Minecraft survival guide

what the hell happened?

>>7162848

>>7162848
HAROLD BLOOM DETECTED

>>7162857
tip it
i fucking dare you bud

I FUCKING DARE YOU

>>7162027

Amelie Nothomb

>>7162848
So many cozy memories of reading Watership Down again and again as a child.

even the dumbest YA book is 100x more intellectual than most of the shit 4chan likes (anime, video games, tv shows, flicks)

>>7163925

that's stretching it real big mate.


like ur mums arse hole

>>7163929
found the escapism addict

>>7162027
What made you think it can't be done well?

Also god bless everyone in this thread and their fragile sensibilities. I had no idea the likes of Harry Potter could strike the nerves of so many.

I like Septimus Heap
:3

>>7162848
Why did you put periods at the end of all entries in the first list except Charlotte's Web? Why are you doing this to me?

I liked eragon, it had an interesting take on the usual tolkienshit and i could relate to all the characters pretty well.
Also, since i see many nancy farmer bros in this thread, i would reccomend the sea of trolls series.
It didnt have a good ending but the majority of it had good content.

Know-brow YA can in a sense even be high-art

>...Of course a composer is doing this all the time, to a certain degree, but I refer to virtuoso efforts

>>7162187
YA is acclaimed that's why it's so popular. People will probably remember Twilight more vividly in the future than whatever PoMo shit you read.

The Outsiders was decent tbh.

>>7162049
So much this.

>>7162174
Nancy Farmer is great in general. The Ear, The Eye and The Arm is her best, imo.

The Chronicles of Ancient Darkness by Michelle Paver is inoffensive at worst.

Lemony Snicket's stuff is deeply charming and very entertaining.

>>7168472
tbh fam they made me read it in 7th grade and even then I thought it was a Jewish propaganda meant to push homosexuality on kids.

>>7167275

>literally Star Wars in a High Fantasy setting.

Your standards are low.

Discworld?

>>7162027
Recently I read Signal to Noise by Silvia Moreno Garcia. It was a gift from a friend who knew I liked music and literature. It became apparent that I was reading a YA novel but I finished it nonthe less out of courtesy and I enjoyed it. it was mostly magical realism with coming of age plot line with a past/present timeline but it was ok for something of theat caliber.

>>7162259
you're an idiot m8. tell me when you find a literary masterpiece written by a 10 yo.

>>7167690
So you think Ulysses was read by many back in the day and was acclaimed by the masses? No, and it will never be. It will only be known by intelligent people.

>>7170109
Everyone who's stepped foot on a college campus has heard of Ulysses. My mother who only reads Protestant, self-help garbage asked me if I'd read Joyce

>>7162174
this and Series of Unfortunate Events are probably the only YA/Children's books I'd ever consider reading again.

>>7162162
Good for you then, but I couldn't stomach it.

>>7162027
I'm workin' on it, OP. Check the horizon in about five years.

John Green's Looking For Alaska is a good read and a good book he written.

And then, Green wrote Paper Towns and the Fault In Our Stars, there is nothing inherently wrong with either, yet with Nerdfighteria and all, Green writting significantly altered from Looking For Alasaka, it is like a fifteen year old wrote them.
>"What are you doing?"
>"Looking at cat videos and listening to music, you?"
>"Awesome. Playing this video game ---"
>"OHMYGOD!"
>"What?"
"It's not [insert fictional game here] is it? You totally suck at that"
>She said deadpaned and sarcastically

The way he wrote those novels is noticeably different, it felt someone other than Green wrote them.

Can YA fiction be written well? Yes, Looking For Alaska is again, a good read. I'll stand by this claim.

However, I think with Green, he exposed himself to the community he and Hank created, interaction with your fanbase is not bad, but they should not effect your writting, in the case of Green, I think Nerdfighteria greatly effected the way Green writes, moreso than what had influenced him as a writer i.e., Salinger or Fitzgerald.

It is debatable rather YA fiction can be written well, it certainly can I am sure, yet authors shouldn't flock to what is popular with readers and mimic the latest trend with what is current, they should derivate to what they want or would like to read.

I love 'A Series Of Unfortunate Events' because Lemony didn't follow the latest conviction at that time, he wrote a novel that he would have liked to have read if he were a child, and that is what made it worth the read, it felt sincere.

>>7162101
Millions of people can be wrong tbh

>>7162027
Harry Potter.

>>7162027
Thief of Always

Chaim Potok

>>7162174
Oh wow, I actually forgot I read this
It was pretty cool

>>7162027
Bartimaeus trilogy was pretty good..

>>7162174
This was awesome. I need to go back and read this, but it is in storage til I can move to my new apartment...

The Abhorsen trilogy was baller too. Some of the best female protagonists in genre literature.

>>7171920
>there is nothing inherently wrong with either

>>7162027
Not sure where I was going with this but w/e

>>7162027
>>7172886
they are now /lit/ approved

>>7172922
Can you spot the three differences in this picture?

>>7172922
Can you spot the three differences in this picture??

>>7172922
>they are now /lit/ approved
>shitty frank miller cover Gravity's Rainbow with "Your task, in these dreams, is often to pens"

Pleb approved, you mean.

>>7162027
City of ember was dope IMO

>>7172952
/lit/ is so predictable