Dear flist, I need your tasty tasty brainz

[labellementeuse]

Help me, flist, you're my personal library and reference tool!

So I'm doing a research project on young adult fantasy and how it might compare in theme, style, and content to adult fantasy. The idea is to pick two YA texts and one adult text and use these as tools of comparison. I'm using Holly Black's Tithe, and Charles de Lint's The Blue Girl (YA text) and The Onion Girl (adult text). (Yes, I am taking the most awesome class ever!) All of these texts are, to one degree or another, really concerned with violence against women and violence against girls/children - chiefly, but not limited to, rape and child abuse. At any rate, both the YA books - if you've not read them, I recommend, although I think de Lint's adult books are in some ways superior (and I say that as an egalitarian reader) - and the adult book are fairly graphic and similar in theme. (There's some sanitisation and I'll get into that - they're great texts to use because of their similarities, because variations stand out and are significant.)

HOWEVER, both the books are fairly recent - 2002 for Tithe, 2004 for The Blue Girl. I think urban fantasy generally is interestingly concerned with violence against women - perhaps because de Lint is so influential in the genre - but I also think that Tithe and The Blue Girl represent new levels of willingness to be graphic and honest with it in YA novels. I also believe they represent the move towards female protagonists for YAs as being as sympathetic as male protagonists, and also a broad tradition of women in faerie literature (I have so many ideas, guys, they're coming out of my ears, this essay will be a zillion words long - but the idea for me is that teenaged girls (and sometimes gay boys) are supposed by some authors to have special knowledge about faerie.) ANYWAY! My question to you is: am I right about the trend? I've read a lot of YA fiction but my knowledge is not enclyclopedic and I'm only 20. Do you remember YA fantasy, especially urban fantasy, novels published in '99 - '95 - '90 - '85 that deal seriously with child abuse, drug use, sex, violence? That feature girls or gay boys, especially "alternative" (rebellious, wrong side of the tracks, dealing with class prejudice, whatnot) types? That deal with faerie? How? Is faerie an escape, a dangerous place, a neutral location?

(Side paragraph: There's an argument that in YA fiction gay girls and boys are usually in similar positions to these alternative types - they find themselves feeling as if they're on the fringe of their school's society because they don't conform to heteronormativity, rather than because they don't conform to expectations about appearance, class, intelligence, committment to education. The difference is that these characters have little to no choice in this feeling of being different (although they may "pass" somehow) whereas other alternative types often speak of embracing their difference, or choosing it, and can point to significant moments that made them choose this kind of behaviour.)

Anyway, after all that blather - ladies (& gents?), I'm really interested to hear your opinions as well as your book suggestions. Hit me with it!

(x-posted to ya_f_sf, sorry if you get it twice.

Comments

[bad-mushroom.livejournal.com]

The Changeover/The Tricksters might serve. Laura isn't "alternative" or anything but she is definitely poor, and the Gardendale suburb sounds pretty "wrong-side-of-the-tracks" to me.

[labellementeuse.livejournal.com]

(And they're especially interesting because they're NZ texts!) Hmm - to be honest they don't really have the narrative of graphic sexual violence that I'm looking for, and that might actually be a good signal to me. There is definite creepiness, and of course Sorry can be a bit scary! But Laura doesn't actually get raped, the threat of the old man at the store is not specifically sexual, etc. In fact I think Changeover is quite a good example of an older text pre this trend - it does feature a girl and it does feature her voyage into another kind of world, a magical world (not Faerie per se, but) but it's not graphically violent, Laura's homelife is broadly secure, etc. They are what I would call modern YA novels in that the young adult protagonists have the agency and power to save and defend themselves, definitely, but not modern in the graphic sense I'm thinking of.

[bad-mushroom.livejournal.com]

I actually found some of Sorry's earlier advances quite sexual-assault-ish...the bit where he gropes her in his room is actually quite frightening (which is why he's such a fascinating character--his transformation is, in many ways, more profound than Laura's).

(Re: Laura's homelife: secure...ish, I'd say. There is the lurking threat of poverty--no phone, symbolic sherry--and the increasing abandonment of her father-- wasn't he behind in child support or something?)

[labellementeuse.livejournal.com]

I agree, it's frightening, but the difference I'm pinpointing here is that Sorry's attacks are sexual assault-ish, and Laura's homelife certainly has hints of insecurity. I agree and I think that's part of why changeover is such a great book. On the other hand, Laura doesn't have to take care of her mother who is a drunk who sings in a band and whose boyfriends can be abusive, doesn't have to drop out of school to work to support her mother and brother, doesn't shoplift, do drugs or drink heavily, is not sexually abused by her father or brother or raped or almost raped by her boyfriend or her friend's boyfriend, doesn't find out she's secretly a changeling or have to deal with her friend being in a sadomasochistic gay relationship. ETC.

[bad-mushroom.livejournal.com]

Hahahaha, I do see your point :)

[karenhealey.livejournal.com]

I think in terms of sexual assault, not rape, but the *threat* of rape is made explicit. The seventh former, Jaclyn Close, is not on page, but she is reported to have been raped (and she is *named*, and I think that's important, both that the author names her and Laura remembers her name) and the stupidity of making jokes about ugly people being raped is made clear, because attraction *isn't the point*.

And Laura herself has a frightening encounter with footsteps behind her, a threat of the sort that is made more explicit in Valiant, where the dudes try to talk Val into the car. So, yes, it is not the same, but it clearly is a progression towards this acknowledgement.

And in the Tricksters, of course, Harry is actually sexually assaulted, and fights her attacker off.

[labellementeuse.livejournal.com]

I'd forgotten about Jaclyn Close and I agree with your assessment that it's significant that Laura remembers her name. Thinking about this and what I just said to bad_mushroom, I wonder if what I'm really identifying is a trend towards admitting that violence towards teenagers can come from within their home life as well as outside of it (and also that both Tithe and The Blue Girl do sanitise this to some extent by comparison to The Onion Girl - mentioning Francesca Lia Block might be useful at this point, as an author who emphatically does not sanitise this kind of thing (and who perhaps "gets away" with it more because of her style, which is so much more opaque than, say, Black's.)

I'm embarassed to admit that it's been so long since I read The Tricksters that I've forgotten most of it, although I do remember it as being darker than Changeover (I wonder if Mahy's more recent work - since she has such a wonderful body of work every item of which seems to me to stay relevant - might be said to conform to this trend, or if she becomes increasingly graphic without necessarily expressing the torn nature of family life that is so much more a theme. I seem to remember 24 Hours as featuring alcohol and drug abuse. I probably don't have time to re-read her back catalogue, though, argh, I need more time! And more words!)

*makes the talky face* I can really blah-blah about this stuff, can't I?

[bad-mushroom.livejournal.com]

Oh man, I'd forgotten about that scene in The Tricksters! Nice call.

[confusiontempst.livejournal.com]

I'm going to bow out of commenting, Urban Fantasy was never really my scene. Have forwarded to a couple of people that might have more comments who're buried on my flist though.

I'm going to guess that you're right, but this is more because I'm aware those are supposed to be societal trends than because of anything else.

[labellementeuse.livejournal.com]

That's really nice of you, thank you!

Heh, well, fingers crossed ;)

[karenhealey.livejournal.com]

Last night Holly Black read the first chapter of Laurell K Hamilton's Micah out loud to a hushed audience in the kitchen of the house I'm staying in.

I'm not helpful! Just bragging!

(I will endeavour to be helpful later, however!)

[labellementeuse.livejournal.com]

Whyfor you have such an awesome life? (On the other hand, you give me hope that my degree in silly subjects will eventually lead to this kind of awesomeness, so.)

[disturbed-kiwi.livejournal.com]

Okay, not having studied in the area, though enjoying the reading and writing of it, this is my thoughts.

I can't think of any YA novels I read that made me even vaguely think about sexual abuse of any form. Nope. None.

Is this really a big thing in recent books?

[labellementeuse.livejournal.com]

I'm genuinely surprised at that - perhaps not in fantasy but it is certainly a theme in YA fiction for girls (the older edge of YA, perhaps, but still.) I wouldn't say that it's really really common but increasingly, yes, it's present (I think worthily.)

[disturbed-kiwi.livejournal.com]

Hmmm, that 'Worthily' comment just makes me think of the annoyance I've seen where superhero female stories have sexual abuse as a staple. Is YA different in that there is room for more events that define the character instead?

[labellementeuse.livejournal.com]

that 'Worthily' comment just makes me think of the annoyance I've seen where superhero female stories have sexual abuse as a staple.

Well, there is a difference, because superhero sexual abuse stories are what's known as "rape & revenge" storylines and generally they're poorly written and viewed as the only motivation for a female superheroine to do her bit - essentially, rape of women is seen as a good reason for women to be superheroes, and for men to be superheroes, but then the actual violence they deal with has nothing to do with women. Also, the fact that it's such an ubiquitous part of the female superhero storyline - there's nothing implicitly wrong with the occasional story where a woman who has been raped responds to this by empowering herself to fight back against the patriarchy, it's just that a) this isn't how it's usually framed b) it shouldn't be *every* superheroine and c) the overpersistence of this kind of story means that often women superheroes aren't fighting for *justice* or for ideals the way men are, but are fighting for revenge - in other words women are seen as needing a catalyst beyond just wanting to do good, whereas men often are not.

Whereas in YA fiction - well, for one thing sexual abuse storylines aren't the be-all and end-all of young adult female protagonists; for another thing these storylines are the point of the book, not throwawayn "and this is what made her the way she is"; and generally they're just dealt with a hell of a lot more sensibly than rape and revenge storylines in comics. additionally, where rape and sexual abuse occurs *as a matter of fact* rather than *OOH LOOK RAPE* I do think it's a different thing - I think there is value in acknowledging that rape and abuse does happen, especially acquaintance rape and incest, rather than the inevitable alley rape (which makes up a small percentage of real-world rapes anyway.)

My worthily comment was actually intended to be a statement that I think YA fiction does not need to be sanitised or bowdlerised and that I think there is value in the new trend of depicting teenagers as being genuinely at risk - not because teenagers and children should think of themselves as victims, but because teenagers recognise honesty and dealing with this material in fiction can provide children (and adults) with tools to understand it themselves.

[disturbed-kiwi.livejournal.com]

Well answered :)

[usagiko.livejournal.com]

The genre has now become known as "faeriepunk" (think cyberpunk and its offshoots).

Hmm, I'm reading one right now by Melissa Marr called "Wicked Lovely". It deals with the same things.

Also, the Dresden Files book #4 (I think it's #4?), Summer Knight, takes place mostly in Faerie and is for adults.

OH. And "I was a teenage fairy" by francesca lia block definitely deals with sexual abuse and faeries and teenage girls. Pretty much anything by her has a theme somewhere in that area.

[bad-mushroom.livejournal.com]

Sorry to be creepy, but are you liking Wicked Lovely? I liked it well enough but it seemed pretty unexciting/unoriginal to me. Also the title makes me lol because I'm from Maine and "wicked" means "really" here (as in "it's wicked cold outside!")

[labellementeuse.livejournal.com]

Oh, thanks for all of this! :) Yeah, FL Block is a really good one, we're actually doing one of her books in class (The Hanged Man, which is one of her more straightforward novels.)

[amarynth.livejournal.com]

I've always found JD O'Barr's Crow graphic novels (to say nothing of the movies based on them) to be some of the most obnoxious features of rape-as-enabler to be found in contemporary urban fantasy. They do not, unfortunately, involve any non-hetero characters, but they do have an interesting alternative-culture subtext to them, specifically the way the hero is usually a pretty granola looking guy when alive but on his return from the dead dolls himself up like the remnant of a teleporter accident involving Liberace and the KISS Army.

[labellementeuse.livejournal.com]

I'm actually not looking for rape and revenge storylines at all, but thanks :)