Why is YA so stigmatized on this board?

What is the most Veeky Forums example of YA, aside from Infinite Jest of course.

I don't care if others want to read YA but I find that as a genre YA is extremely shallow and therefore not worth my personal attention

If I owned a bookstore I would use that sign, if only for marketing though.

I used to shit on YA (purely out of ignorance of course) but I was at a bookstore and this piece of paper said it was okay and I gave it a chance at it is equally good if not better than the so-called "classics" mentioned here.

i don't have anything against it, it's just the kind of thing that generally doesn't appeal to me. however i've been meaning to read more ursula le guin, and allegedly much of her work is YA, so i wouldn't say i'm opposed to reading the stuff either.

Most disgusting post I've seen on Veeky Forums in a while you savage you.

It's for women

>but surely you don't find it compelling
>I shit on YA because I don't like it and I have yet to see a good apology for it.

there are some that are actually pretty good. Then again, I usually only re-read the ones I read as a kid. Still, I did read A Squire's Tale, Artemis Fowl and Howl's Moving Castle (which I fucking loved).

I guess it's like throwing a frozen pizza in the oven, instead of cooking yourself a nice meal. Enjoyable, but only for occasions in-between when you're feeling a bit lazy and you want something easy and quick.

My distaste for it doesn't lie as much in the genre itself as it does in the crowd it attracts. YA is/has been popularized by the intellectually immature and the mentally underdeveloped. Not even memeing. It would be one thing if it was a matter limited to children broadening their literary horizons to the realm of fantasy, but holy shit, I'm a recent college graduate and l know people who still worship J.K. Rowling like she's the leader of some cult.

People are trying to make quidditch an actual intercollegiate sport now for fuck sake.

Pretty much every YA is exactly the same.

>some young, bland, almost characterless young person is special in some super way
>gets inducted into a secret society of also super specials
>but the character is the most super special for basically no reason
>some dumb bad guy with a black and white motivation threatens EVERYTHING, even the normies
>so super special has to stop them somehow
>something something hot guy/girl
>something something side kick
>repeat until every sequel gets worse and worse because the introduction to the main character and the world is pretty much all you get with these stories

They very rarely break this kind of formula and even when they do (The Ill-Made Mute) its still not the overall most compelling read. Even Artemis Fowl which a decent protagonist doesn't have anything interesting to do, and he gets old real quick. Harry Potter is probably the only exception to the sequel rule as the world and characters continue to evolve. That is until they get to part 5 and it really starts to shit its pants.

The only exception to the above is Wizard of Earthsea which was concise, entertaining, great world and the character was not only great but wasn't some super special fish out of water snowflake. His arc started and ended with just a hint of tragedy, all his own fault, and required him to grow up and fix his own mess. But then again, the sequel was a slog so it seems like its pretty easy to fuck everything up even with a talented writer.

Ultimately I don't find them super entertaining and I feel my time is better spent reading something more challenging or what I am more uninterested in. At the very least even if I don't like a classic I can see what the fuss is about.

Nice try

Food is pretty popular.

I literally also have an eating disorder lmayo

late capitalist schlock that substitutes narcissistic investment in a fetishized notion of childhood imagination for anything resembling artistic substance. exhibit a in the case for the culture of an empire in decline: bread and circuses and infantilism rolled into one. the dystopian figures it can't seem to avoid don't help much either.

I don't think any John Green novels follow that formula

This sign is broadly true, but only because the standard of adult fiction has fallen through the roof. We are a society of children

>plucky young nerd who is special for absolutely no other reason has a side kick and a hot girl to stop a villain

Even if it doesn't strictly follow the formula its not super compelling.

It's pretty much differently named genre fiction.

and they can't say fuck

>implying they can't say fuck

Bingo.

do they say fuck in ya?

johnny green does

Because this site's user base is college age. What does one read in college? The great works of literature, of course. Historical plays, epic poems, challenging novels. Reading for self-improvement (to become EDUCATED), not reading for fun. Even if you got course credit for reading Twilight, there's no bragging rights associated with it. It's not an exclusive accomplishment.

I don't know, I think anyone with the stomach to slog through the entirety of Twilight without killing themselves deserves some credit

is he really ya, or ist that just what people insulting him say?

I think we're very aware of how people read exclusively YA and nothing else. It just doesn't do to be reading only that, or at least if you have a professed love for literature to do so. Veeky Forums likes to masturbate over older writers and traditional techniques because these seem to rapidly disappear and become less influential with time - yet they are still the foundation.

It's similar to how your high school teacher would deride you for not wanting to learn about Shakespeare when you're just trying to feel some girl's titty for the first time. People are motivates by simple things, and the focus is ever changing. Here there's a little sense of eternity, and we can speak on more eternal things.

>What does one read in college?

Minority authors and gender theory textbooks.

>Open a YA book
>Map on the first page
>Look at place names
>The Dark Forest

Because it's a completely pointless demographic designed entirely for marketing purposes and written by milquetoast plebs who have absolutely no artistic vision. If you want to read vapid garbage for mindless entertainment it's already readily available in every other section.

Bad prose.

It's not even fun though. What's so fun about reading the same teen fantasy or teen drama repackaged over and over?

Because it's essentially pulp but dressed up in hardcovers

This made me laugh harder than you know

Because it's all prolefeed. 'Young adult' is code for 'unintelligent adolescent', and widespread perpetual adolescence works in the favor of those who wish to impose 1984 on us, whatever name you want to give them.

This

This is the only correct answer. YA is means of manipulation, just like moronic commercial music and movies. I really wonder wonder what will happen once the 20 year old manchildren of today turn 40 and become the backbone of our society. We are headed towards an imminent collapse, aren't we?

/thread

all the kids on summer break getting btfo lol

>because of the age range of Veeky Forums. people here in general are young adults, and feel a need to prove that they aren't children anymore. the irony being if they were actually mature it wouldn't matter to them.

This is true.

Only teens and young 20something try hards who think they're the shit take shots at YA readers here. Older user simply don't give a shit about it as much.

Most people here don't care about it at all but when it's brought up shitting on it is the appropriate response if one is to respond at all.

Because it's just objectively lower quality work

Although people who think anime or fucking video games have literary merit have absolutely no right to join in the hate.

Most people who read his books are firmly in the YA range, and the quality of Looking for Alaska (can't speak for any others) felt pretty YA to me

Because it's entertainment for children and most people here have a more serious interest in literature as an art form.

Catcher in the Rye is YA

He does, except in his case super special means having cancer.

YA is the equivalent of Capeshit. It's made solely to be disposable and forgotten, zero depth, zero edge, the sole purpose of it is to sell. It's not even good as low tier wannabe Dickens material.

Just because a book appeals to young people doesnt mean it's YA.

Yeah fair enough.

But when people shit on it with any emotion you know it's a younger guy.

>Why are bad books stigmatised on the literature board
Seriously?

Because I'm not a young adult. I don't see why I should read books explicitly written for a younger demographic.

>there are some that are actually pretty good.
This isn't a good apology, are you fucking stupid? Why did you reply to my post?

did you read the rest of my post, you fucking autist?

fuck off back to /r/books with that

I did, it still isn't a good apology. It's a bad analogy. Kill yourself, cretin.

Obligatory

come and shoot me yourself you fucking coward

When i want something easy and quick i just go to your mom's kek

>Why is YA so stigmatized on this board?
Reading is supposed to be the reasonably smart person hobby. Fiction requires little intelligence to enjoy regularly, young adult fiction even less so. So, a lot of people that read shit that requires any sort of brain power get offended when they get grouped in with people who read oversized children's books.

I don't want to kill you, I just hope that you kill yourself.
>coward
>Non-murderers are cowards
lol

The implication is that well-read people who have a good understanding of the art simply don't enjoy genre fiction. There are plenty of good reasons to think this is true, and so when people talk about how much they loved X or Y YA book, it's interpreted as them admitting that they don't really get literature and they just read for the plot.

Maybe it's a false distinction, but you'll find that a large number of posters believe in it, or at least there's a vocal minority.

Don't even know what the term really comprises desu. I know it's meant in a negative manner on this board, but what about stuff like The Hobbit or Watership Down? Are those YA?

grow up

...

...

delete this right now you lil fucker
i've read shakespeare first when i was 10, there are no excuses to fed yourself with shitty modern clichés

Underrated post

>people here in general are young adults, and feel a need to prove that they aren't children anymore
This. Plus the edgelord compulsion to shit on anything that's popular.

I'm in my thirties, and here's a few kid/YA books I will always remember fondly and some I occasionally revisit:

The Wind in the Willows
Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH
Trumpet of the Swan
Sign of the Beaver
Redwall
Duncton Wood
My Side of the Mountain
The Henry Huggins books
The Hardy Boys series
Hatchet
Harry Potter
The Chronicles of Narnia
Alice in Wonderland/Through the Looking Glass
Captains Courageous
The Once and Future King
The Jungle Books
The Giver
Rabbit Hill
The Swiss Family Robinson
The Voyages of Dr. Dolittle
Tom Sawyer
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
A Wizard of Earthsea
A Princess of Mars
The Hobbit
Where the Red Fern Grows
Black Beauty
the James Herriot books
Uncle Remus' Tales
Robinson Crusoe
A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court
The Complete Sherlock Holmes
Smokey the Cow Horse
The Starbuck Twins books
The Fantastic Mr. Fox
The Dark is Rising series
The Chronicles of Prydain

That's just off the top of my head.

Because this a "literature" board, not a "books" board. It's the same as going on to Veeky Forums and wanting to talk about your mountain bike. That's fine, but there are other places to do so, because Veeky Forums is specifically automotive. Go to r/books or even /b/ or /soc/ or something, but Veeky Forums is supposed to be about "literature." Not all books are literature, OP. I'd say the same thing for someone looking for suggestions for a non fiction book about a specific time period, that's what Veeky Forums is for.

Classical children's literature is entirely not the same thing as a brainless YA novel.

That's honestly the biggest problem with this board. More than half the threads at any given time are completely off-topic. It's like people forget that Veeky Forums even exists and is meant for philosophy and historical discussion. I'm guessing that they just see the literature tag and assume they can talk about any book here.

>LITERATURE: writings in prose or verse; especially writings having excellence of form or expression and expressing ideas of permanent or universal interest

I would argue that there are SOME children's and YA books that qualify. Do you disagree?

You're supposed to outgrow it and instead people have equated it to literature because their reading comprehension stunts to around the level of a Facebook post.
The weight of ignorance is heavy but wieldy. The isolation of intelligence makes those who advance past descriptions of gas lamps in a trendy neighborhood lash out because they seek recognition from those who never do.

All readers are equal

You think it is impossible for a videogame to have literary merit? I don't know any that do (I have played very few videogames) but I don't see a fundamental reason why one wouldn't exist.

>there's always a badlands
>dark-/black-, the dark/black [geographical feature]
>[direction]land
>elves live in forests
>evil things in black/blighted/charred/dead/shadow lands
>the [hidden] vale

>childhood friends on a journey
>magic or supersecretpowers all of a sudden
>children or teens only
>adults are hiding the "real" real world
>there's always some bashful idiot village girl
>the strong mountain/foreign warrior
>the pet that's practically fucking useless 99.99999999999999999999999999% of the time, until it saves the day once and nobody shuts up about it
>some shite macguffin that turns out to be useless in the face of "the power of friendship"
>the bigbad always fucks it up for itself, but is described as if the heroes overcame all odds
>the journey used to take a single book, maybe 2-3, now 3-8 is standard and expected
>travel and npc's in books are never fleshed out
>characters rarely grow more than 3 pubes in the run of the series, if they grow a single fucking toenail

I don't hate YA, I just hate that shit quality actually sells because people are too boring to create something good.

Same with literature, genrefic, anime, video games... there comes a point when you've seen/processed "enough" and can just glance at a synopsis to know it's hack/low quality work.

How many "hyperintelligent-but-aloof specialist" shows are there on satellite tv? How many color-stylized-psychological-archetype-characters-in-a-super-fighter-guy-against-the-world-except-the-antiheroes anime are there? How many repeats of purposefully boring fucking conversations in a mundane setting do there have to be before authors, readers, and academics realize there's no hidden literary meaning besides the ones they project?

No, I have't had my cookie yet today.

This is an adult board. YA is for children. We don't want this board filled with Harry Potter, whatever is the next fad in children's literature threads.

>You think it is impossible for a videogame to have literary merit?

Yes

>Where the Red Fern Grows
My librarian read this to us when we were in fifth grade. My god.

Is YA any better or worse than shit written by Cornwell or Steel or Patterson? I think not. Most likely what that sign is referencing.

On this board, however, I'm led to believe that the majority feels literature is meant to be more than just a novel.

...

so if cervantes wrote a videogame with lots of dialogue and narration it would be bad dialogue and narration?

No they aren't. There are many different levels of reading, and YA facilitates only the most superficial kind.

en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/How_to_Read_a_Book

There is nothing inherently wrong with YA literature, and it is often enjoyable, certainly. I would give examples from my own youth, such as Harry Potter (that's right), Guardian's of Ga'hoole, Warriors, His Dark Materials, Ink Heart Goosebumps, Animorphs, so on so forth...
But while these YA works can certainly be engaging and entertaining, even beyond one's youth, if you do not eventually evolve past them as a reader, as a thinker, you are doing something wrong.
It strikes me that the issue is not precisely with the literature itself, but rather with the reader. Literature, quality literature, when seriously pursued and engaged, is meant not only to entertain, but also, and equally, to edify. If your tastes in literature are not growing as you do, it is very likely you have not matured as a person. This is generally true of all forms of media. If you are entirely satisfied with the childish, youthful perspectives in YA media, you have not matured.
That, I believe, is the nature of the problem.
All that said, I maintain that there is no shame in enjoying YA literature, with moderation, especially when revisiting or sharing works which you enjoyed in your youth.

/thread

People just want to evangelize art. It's not that they're insecure or immature, they just want more people getting deeper into lit instead of getting stuck on YA.

Yeah I don't know what these insecure children are throwing shrieking fits about. I still proudly display YA on my shelf. I haven't picked up The Illiad or Finnegans Wake in a while but they're excellent books that c/lit/s have no business looking down on.

Is this a copypasta

I disregard stirnerposts out of hand, and I've never been wrong to do so a single time. You merely supply me with another piece of ammunition to use to humiliate those who quote that make-believe non-philosopher.

>defending YA

Because it's what we used to call "boy's books" pretending to be something else.

Whatever you want to achieve by reading or writing, it can be done better by not trying to write for a "young" audience. It's OK. The young people who will like your stuff will read it regardless, because age is not a very huge factor in what people read, unless you get into issues that are related to actual mental development. In which case you're talking about legit children's books.

"YA" is often completely impossible to tell apart from other, similar fiction intended purely for entertainment. The label itself is basically an admission that the writer didn't try to write literature, and that it isn't for people who are looking for literature.

This the literature board. Go figure.