Majority rules...

[fajrdrako]

From September 4, 2008: Peer pressure: I was looking through books yesterday at the shops and saw all the Twilight books, which I know basically nothing about. What I do know is that I’m beginning to feel like I’m the *only* person who knows nothing about them.

Despite being almost broke and trying to save money, I almost bought the expensive book (Australian book prices are often completely nutty) just because I felt the need to be ‘up’ on what everyone else was reading.

Have you ever felt pressured to read something because ‘everyone else’ was reading it? Have you ever given in and read the book(s) in question or do you resist? If you are a reviewer, etc, do you feel it’s your duty to keep up on current trends?

I'm such a happy nonconformist, I've never in my life read anything because everyone else was reading it.

On the other hand, when 'everyone' is reading a book, I get curious. I want to know what it's like, and understand the conversations about it. This is why I've read the Harry Potter books, and Dan Brown, and... other stuff. I have not read Twilight, though for a while I thought I wanted to. Then I heard more about the story end decided against it.

The thing is, I often don't like the same things that 'everyone' likes. Though X-Men is still popular in the world of comics, it isn't a mainstream thing. Not even the movies, though they're better known. Dorothy Dunnett will never be to the popular taste - I am, in fact, always suprised when anyone besides myself loves the Lymond books, since I feel as if they're my personal domain. But not in a possessive sense.

This applies to the past, too. The classics that 'everyone' reads, or at least, gets assigned in school. I fell madly in love with Shakespeare - well, with Hamlet - as an adolescent - and then Dickens. But I never loved Jane Austen, or Isaac Asimov, or Andre Norton. I sample these things, all of them. And sometimes I'm glad I did. Tolkien, for example, though when I read Lord of the Rings I had no idea it was popular or famous, and no one called it a classic back then. I quite like the Harry Potter books, though not to the extent of feeling fannish about them. I hated The Da Vinci Code , but I'm not sorry I read it. Sometimes it's fun to hate a book for its absurdities and still half-admire it for its money-making properties. Now, that's alchemy - turning words into gold.

I used to review books (and comics) professionally, and enjoyed it. But it never made me want to read things I wouldn't otherwise have read. Writing style is, for me, the most important thing, and I wouldn't expect others to share my stylistic tastes. It's very individualistic, and very subjective.

I've never wanted to 'keep up' with what other people are reading. Sometimes because it looks boring. Mostly because I've always thought of myself as ahead of that curve anyway - I often read such books before other people do.

The important thing is having read the books and authors I love, not just Dorothy Dunnett but also Elizabeth Knox, Ellen Kushner, Megan Whalen Turner, Karin Lowachee. I don't care what's popular, I want to find what's good.

Yeah, I'm a book snob. Or perhaps an inverse book snob. I'm happy that way.

Comments

Re: Twilight...

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

Yes. I have various reasons for feeling a prejudice against it when I haven't even read it. And sometimes I suspect that the average snobbery against it is becuase it's written for the young, and the things that teens love are often sneered at by adults for no reason better than ageism - something I do not approve of. All the more so because these books particularly appeal to girls, and things that appeal to female readers are often considered the literary lowest of the low. (Just mention genre romance in genteel company.)

As josanpq was saying to me: these books make teenagers read, make them read eagerly, when they wouldn't otherwise be reading anything. In the case of her students, they're even reading them in something other than their native language. This is a very good thing.

But on the face of it, these books look to me like another teen fad.

Re: Twilight...

[louiex.livejournal.com]

I'm all for getting the youth to read :D From Goosebumps to Harry Potter, reading fads are the better of fads that I've seen come and go, surely~ But I do have qualms about the series specifically though (and this last one? Just wow :D Okay, I can't even really begin to start cause I'll just start laughing and facepalming again) that usually turns me off from reading them.

Hell, there are YA books out there that are often better than most adult-geared stories~

Re: Twilight...

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

there are YA books out there that are often better than most adult-geared stories~

Isn't that the truth! And there's crap written for all ages.

Yes, reading fads are good fads. And it seems to me that they are becoming more common - and more extreme. (I'm thinking of things like the midnight sales when a new Harry Potter book came out, with costume parties to go with it.) This has to be good: enthusiasm over books! Wonderful!

And come to think of it, didn't the same sort of thing happen whenever Lord Byron published a new book? Or a new installment of a Dickens novel appear in a magazine? So it isn't just a new phenomenon, it's more that it was in abeyance through the 20th century.

So yes, though this series has good side effects, it is in itself.... Highly suspect in quality.

Re: Twilight...

[louiex.livejournal.com]

So yes, though this series has good side effects, it is in itself.... Highly suspect in quality.

Oh yes yes, I concur :D

And no wonder the Doctor was such a Dickens fan! Can you imagine the release parties back then? *laughs* Now there's something I'd love to see~

Re: Twilight...

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

I love the Doctor for loving Dickens. And J.K. Rowling too!

Re: Twilight...

[monsieureden.livejournal.com]

I have to agree, after taking a YA class for graduate school, there is excellent young adult literature coming out. It's a collection in public libraries that has just gotten huge. It never used to be an entire room unto itself, and now it often is.

Re: Twilight...

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

I used to read a lot of YA fiction - not as a teen, but in my thirties and forties. Loved it. Still do, theoretically, but it's the stories about youths who encounter a crisis, or have a 'coming of age' experience, or a change in outlook, that I loved. Some YA authors use philosophy and psychology in ways I really enjoy reading.

Re: Twilight...

[monsieureden.livejournal.com]

Yes, I read a lot for the library world, now as an adult, and enjoy a lot of it. I sometimes think Eden might get classified as YA since all the characters are so young and it is essentially a coming of age.

Young Adult Novels...

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

So what YA authors do you like? I'm always looking for recommendations. Those that spring to mind are Annette Kurtis Claus, Meagan Whelan Turner, Barbara Wersba, Norma Klein, Isabelle Holland, J.D. Salinger (of course), Diana Wynne Jones. Who have you been reading?

Re: Young Adult Novels...

[monsieureden.livejournal.com]

Sure. YALSA is a good site to check if you want to see books winning awards.

http://www.ala.org/ala/yalsa/booklistsawards/booklistsbook.cfm

Most of what I read for class were award winners, because these are the books that tend to make it to library shelves. These were my faves (now dated, as it's been a year since my class):

The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing (Anderson, M.T.) volume one, volume two comes out in October

Stardust and Sandman and others by Neil Gaiman (you may have read these already?)

American Born Chinese (graphic novel)

The Book Thief

Ellie Wiesel's books can be good and considered YA by many. And a lot of manga, like Monster, and Death Note. Monster isn't fully translated yet though.

Steinbeck was also in my reading list.

I was reading Pirates! (Thumbs), which I liked, but didn't get to finish it, so I guess I didn't like it enough.

Re: Twilight...

[silverwhistle.livejournal.com]

All the more so because these books particularly appeal to girls, and things that appeal to female readers are often considered the literary lowest of the low.

Not if they're actually good. I know we'll never agree on this, but my view is just because something is popular with women doesn't mean it's any good and should be supported because of some pseudo-feminist principle. Look at the crappy celeb mags (obsessing over which z-lest 'celebrity' has cellulite/stretch-marks/whatever) that were devoured by my former colleagues at the dental office. A large number of women adore them; it doesn't meant they're not tacky, brain-deadening bilge. With genre romance, formulaic fiction that deals in clichés and gender stereotypes is not, and will never be, great literature.

Re: Twilight...

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

just because something is popular with women doesn't mean it's any good and should be supported because of some pseudo-feminist principle.

I don't think anything that isn't good should be supported. My point is that many things that are actually good are dismissed or denigrated because they don't fit masculine tastes. Actually quality is beside the point - the people judging them aren't judging them becuase they're bad, but because they aren't to their tastes.

And I agree that there's a lot of bad stuff out there.

My current assessment of the Twilight books is: best ignored till it goes away. I agree with josanpq that if it encourages young people to read, then it's good in general; but I can't think of a good way to bring these girls to the next step and get them to read more widely. If they've developed a taste for it, maybe they will.

Re: Twilight...

[silverwhistle.livejournal.com]

Unfortunately, I can only see them graduating on to 'grown-up' vampire bodice-rippers like this: this is just so, so wrong… (http://www.amazon.com/Tempting-Darkness-Templar-Vampire-Book/dp/1599986574/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1196613122&sr=1-1)!

I'm honestly not sure if it's any worse for people to be completely illiterate than to read rubbish.

Re: Twilight...

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

LOL! This is... quite remarkably outrageous.

I like to think there's hope for anyone, but a case can be made for illiteracy - if not book-burning!

Re: Twilight...

[silverwhistle.livejournal.com]

In my bleakest moods, I sometimes think a case can be made for culling the wilfully moronic.

Re: Twilight...

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

I find that ignoring them works just fine.

Re: Twilight...

[monsieureden.livejournal.com]

I kind of regard bodice rippers like reality TV. It's completely mindless media that a lot of people seem to love. I dunno.

Re: Twilight...

[monsieureden.livejournal.com]

ahah oh man, we interlibrary loan that stuff ALL THE TIME.

Re: Twilight...

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

I was joking with maaboroshi about vampire Templar romances. We thought it was just a silly notion we made up, but bizarre enough that it was bound to exist. And so it does. (Shudder.) I wonder if they're guardians of the Grail, too.

Re: Twilight...

[monsieureden.livejournal.com]

I'd believe anything, to be honest. It all seems to exist. I'm still not quite recovered from the science fiction story about my dear Prince Rupert, traveling through time with Shakespeare and changing the course of the English Civil War...

Re: Twilight...

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

What, the Royalists won?

Re: Twilight...

[silverwhistle.livejournal.com]

My point is that many things that are actually good are dismissed or denigrated because they don't fit masculine tastes.

I honestly can't think of anything that is actually good that falls into this category.
Or maybe you think I'm too masculine?!

Re: Twilight...

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

You don't seem very masculine to me at all! No, I haven't heard you falling into this particular fallacy, and it's quite possible that the people around you don't, either. Which is a good thing.

Re: Twilight...

[silverwhistle.livejournal.com]

I can't say I've ever heard of it happening, to be honest. I've only heard the claim being made by some of these ghastly US genre-romance writers (you know the sort: big hair and Botox), who rather than admit to writing porn-laced trash, prefer to claim that they are "victims of sexism"… Yeah, right.

Re: Twilight...

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

I can picture the type, for sure.