Ga ga goo goo
Jun. 23rd, 2005 09:09 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
threemonkeysI bought a children's book today. Well it was in the kids section. On the other hand I could say that I bought a Neil Gaiman book today. It evokes a whole different image. Yet they were one and the same book. Even though Neil has written several wonderful books for younger readers, it does not change the mental view of him. Simple to explain - his books work on adult minds and experience in a way that creates a blackness even when they are simple stories for the child. I don't think he can help himself - its just the way that the stories come out. The Dave McKean illustrations help too of course.
All this is incidental really to what I had been thinking about. I have been researching just how many writers of juvenile SF/Fantasy there are out there . There are a lot. And it isn't just the Harry Potter thing - many of these writers have been around for ages.
I have this theory that Science Fiction/Fantasy (as distinct from speculative fiction - see further on) is considered a right and proper thing for younger readers. It is only us more mature types who are consigned to the status of "genre readers" if we indulge in this type of fiction. What I wonder is just how this affects the style of writing that goes into juvenile SF. I feel like it should give it more freedom, but in fact it seems to be more constrained. The wider more experimental areas of the genre (i.e. the spec fiction tagged stuff) just seem too hard for younger readers. Is that because the younger readers don't want it? Or is it because publishers don't think they can handle it? So "right and proper" for younger readers but only within certain parameters.
All this is incidental really to what I had been thinking about. I have been researching just how many writers of juvenile SF/Fantasy there are out there . There are a lot. And it isn't just the Harry Potter thing - many of these writers have been around for ages.
I have this theory that Science Fiction/Fantasy (as distinct from speculative fiction - see further on) is considered a right and proper thing for younger readers. It is only us more mature types who are consigned to the status of "genre readers" if we indulge in this type of fiction. What I wonder is just how this affects the style of writing that goes into juvenile SF. I feel like it should give it more freedom, but in fact it seems to be more constrained. The wider more experimental areas of the genre (i.e. the spec fiction tagged stuff) just seem too hard for younger readers. Is that because the younger readers don't want it? Or is it because publishers don't think they can handle it? So "right and proper" for younger readers but only within certain parameters.
