PF as YA

Jonathan Goodwin · 15 Apr 2009, 22:47 · from 2009-April.txt.gz

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From: joncgoodwin at gmail.com (Jonathan Goodwin)
Date: Wed, 15 Apr 2009 17:47:03 -0500
Subject: (urth) PF as YA
In-Reply-To: <c2e.50550f33.3717b68f at aol.com>
References: <c2e.50550f33.3717b68f at aol.com>
Message-ID: <37bfbeb60904151547o2b803698xa2dd622f75148a3e at mail.gmail.com>

I know that "didactic" has a pejorative connotation in many
circumstances (which might be derived from New Critical orthodoxy, at
least in part); but I meant it only descriptively.

In the interview that I quoted in my original message, Wolfe goes on
to address the very issue of the necessity of fictional moral
ambiguity in a morally ambiguous world. (He mentions Treasure Island
specifically). But it also seems clear that he takes the instructive
or moral exemplar aspect of writing seriously. Is it significant
_morally_, for example, that Christopher is or believes himself to be
genetically modified?

On Wed, Apr 15, 2009 at 5:15 PM,  <JBarach at aol.com> wrote:
> Jon?writes:
>
>> For those of you who suggested that Pirate Freedom
>>?was a YA novel, does your definition of that genre
>>?include an element of didacticism?
>
> I'm baffled.? Why should a YA novel include "an element of didacticism"?
> Some YA novels have that, I suppose, but hardly all of them.? Read, for
> instance, Megan Whalen Turner's The Thief (and sequels).? Or, going a bit
> older, John Bellairs' novels, which are entirely fun and not at all
> didactic.? I don't know if you'd say there's a didactic element in, for
> instance, N. D. Wilson's recent?100 Cupboards and its sequel Dandelion Fire.
>
> If you find a didactic element in these novels, I suppose you could make
> just as good a case for saying that adult novels include "an element of
> didacticism."? In fact, it would be easy to make that case for Flannery
> O'Connor or Walker Percy or G. K. Chesterton or C. S. Lewis.? Or Gene Wolfe,
> whose books frequently (and especially recently) seem designed to teach
> wisdom and spur the reader (as well as the characters) toward maturity.
> That's something you see pretty strongly in Short Sun and Wizard Knight, for
> instance, the latter of which especially is about a boy becoming a man and a
> man becoming a true knight.
>
> John
>
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