PF as YA

Jonathan Goodwin · 15 Apr 2009, 21:50 · from 2009-April.txt.gz

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From: joncgoodwin at gmail.com (Jonathan Goodwin)
Date: Wed, 15 Apr 2009 16:50:28 -0500
Subject: (urth) PF as YA
Message-ID: <37bfbeb60904151450l562f1efap639973f799cb6aaa at mail.gmail.com>

For those of you who suggested that Pirate Freedom was a YA novel,
does your definition of that genre include an element of didacticism?
If so, what lessons would you a young person take away from the book?
Though this is a disputable claim, I find it plausible that younger
readers are more apt to identify uncritically with the protagonists of
books they read. Another generalization is that writers of YA fiction
try to create sympathetic (and perhaps even instructive) protagonists
for these identity-seeking young readers. I find it difficult to
believe that Wolfe intends Christopher to be such a character. At the
same time, however, was there any doubt in your minds that Christopher
as American priest is intended to be sympathetic in his current
actions and beliefs?

In an interview with Peter Wright published in Shadows of the New Sun
(Liverpool UP: 2007, p. 143, viewable via google books), Wolfe says in
an interview that There Are Doors came closest in execution to his
original conception as any of his work. I wonder how PF would measure
on that scale. (He also mentions on that page his bafflement at the
unexplained/unexplainable strong reactions that readers have to his
work.)

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