John Green or how writing disturbing books for young adults can make you a millionaire
I love books, I always had and for me reading is a form of relaxation, an escape into another world so I rely on the author to create a good atmosphere, story line and characters. The classics or the modern authors, they both brought me enjoyable moments and I usually can tell from the first pages of the book if it is or not what I am looking for, if that book will be something I will love or it will collect dust in one corner of the library never to be heard from again.
In the past I could walk into a library and easily find a book. Nowadays it is not so easy. The writer market has changed and the public as well. Many times I have seen books as best sellers that I could not read. And not because those were difficult to read. Kant is difficult to read, E .L. James not so much.
I understand people's need and fascination for books like 'Fifty shades of grey', 'Twilight' or 'Hunger games'. Personally I could not read them. I have the first two volumes of the Twilight Saga, first I bought, and the second was a gift. I could not go further than the first volume which by itself was a struggle to finish. But young girls with behavioral issues need to believe that they will be pickup up by the most popular guy in the school, or that sadistic millionaires can have their character modified by naive girls. That is fine, I get that. They need to dream impossible dreams.
We have an abundance of poorly written books on the market. Self-published or not, we are swimming in trash literature.
I was never the one to criticize without reading first. I was the one to think that librarians are people who love books. Now I believe they just want to sell books, regardless of their content.
For adults we have various sections in the library and online where they can pick what they need from classics to modern drama, comedy, thriller, biography, self-help, horror... We also have Stephen King, Elfriede Jelinek, Irvine Welsh, Chuck Palahniuk and so many more for the unusual reader.
My problem is with library choices for young adults. A couple of days ago I was in my local library, browsing the foreign language books, aka books in English since I live in Austria, and I saw in young adult section the new book by Rick Riordan (the author of Percy Jackson series and a couple of other books). I like the guy and I think is a great choice for young readers. So, I was happy to see that he wrote something new. Beside me, a man was looking for a book for a 14-year-old girl and had no idea what to buy and the librarian was offering her advice.
'There is a new book, excellent, it would make a great gift!' she said pushing a volume of 'Turtles all the way down' by John Green into his arms. 'It is about a girl who gets detention and one kid dies, it is great'.
I look at her cross-eyed. Young, probably half my age, she clearly does not understand what it means for an adult to give a gift to a teenager. You need to take in consideration the parents who will not take it lightly if you bring an inappropriate book into their house. It is like giving a set of drums to a toddler as a gift. His parents will probably scratch your eyes and shove the drumstick where the sun does not shine for you to feel the pain that they are about to experience.
The real problem is that particular book was on the stand as a best seller at young adult. A book by John Green, famous for his 'The fault in our stars' a love story between two cancer patients. Lovely story line, clearly set up to lift your spirits.
This new book though reaches a new level: mentally ill teenager, with OCD and self-mutilation tendencies, all visible from the first couple of pages, goes Sherlock Holmes. Isn't this a great gift for a teenager? A teenager is a person by definition extremely impressionable, very volatile and difficult to be managed by their parents who, at that age, are the enemy. You do not want them to think: 'Wow, it is cool to have OCD and hey, let's start cutting ourselves because we want to be like the girl in the book!' or 'It is not bad to have OCD because when I will grow up I will be a millionaire like John Green.' And I am not fantasizing here, the book has 4.5 stars on Goodreads and many are 'identifying' themselves with the character. Which can mean two things: either way too many people have mental issues or they find it cool to be like in the book. Both extremely disturbing scenarios.
Mental illnesses are a very serious thing, a crippling affliction that can make life for the person who is ill and their family and friends a living hell. It can lead to violent tendencies or self harm and serious troubles adjusting in real life.
This is why I do not understand how we can have a mentally ill author who writes for young adults. If his books will be sold to adults, no issues, but to address them to a such fragile public... Psychologist have triggered the alarm since years about self harm issues.
John Green says he has OCD, but he also identifies with 'Turtles all the way down' character Aza and if this is true, he does not have just OCD but a ton of other phobias that made his way of thinking seriously disturbing. He has an army of followers due to his constant media presence, even before these last two books.
I do not blame him; he does not know better and wants to make money, or his publisher who believe he caught the golden goose and probably went on publishing whatever John Green writes because he has an army of online followers, but the librarians. If you do not advertise his books, he will not sell. You must have some sort of responsibility for promoting this kind of behavior. Or if you are so intent on selling it, put it on adult shelves. But probably there are not so many adults keen on reading his work.
We live in an insane world where parents work long hours to provide for their children. They try to do the best but the world around is not helping. From advertisements to sugary and fast foods that make the children sick, education that is not what it was in the past to all that bad media that they are exposed to (bad reality shows, aggressive or questionable movies and even cartoons) they cannot grow up as responsible and well-formed adults. Issues and diseases occur and parents are trapped.
Every single one of us is responsible for their actions therefore I felt obligated to interfere beside that librarian the other day. I could not let that man buy a book that will raise questions he could not answer from the girl and her parents. I wanted that 14-year-old girl to have a Christmas filled with magic, not with pain and troubled minds, I wanted her to have her innocence longer. So I put 'The Sword of Summer' in his hands, a story of a young boy and Norse Gods, a little Nordic magic and adventure.
Fairy tales are for children and the young. Monsters and bad things should come later. We must protect them as much as we can.
The blue librarian
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