Week 12: Conspicuous Consumption and Teen Markets

This week for class, we were assigned to watch the documentary Merchants of Cool, a 55-minute episode from the TV series Frontline (produced by PBS) that is a sort of documentary on how businesses market to teens and the effect that this has on youth culture.

Overall, I found myself enjoying the program; I have never really thought of teenagers in such economic  terms (I recognize that they are a demographic that markets try to tap into, but I didn't realize they were quite so vital to the economy), and was surprised how many people dedicate their lives to market research specifically on teens, and on figuring out what's "cool" at the moment.

The program did a good job at representing teens as critical individuals who are capable of disseminating advertisements and what they watch, highlighting how advertising companies have to always change their marketing strategies because teens pick up that they're being manipulated. This was most evident when the program was discussing the evolution of Sprite advertisements, who went from making fun of traditional advertising models (which initially resonated with teens, but they caught on and turned against it), to becoming an icon within hip hop culture. They also showcase teens who discard the mainstream altogether, such as the fans of the rage-rock band Insane Clown Posse, and they do so in a non-judgmental way (towards the teens -- the bands under scrutiny are treated much more harshly.)

The narrator's epiphany near the end of the program resonated with me as well: marketing/advertising and youth culture creates what he calls a "feedback loop." Market researchers observe teens and try to produce things that teens will be willing to pay money for; teens in turn are affected (to a degree) by this, which shapes their culture; market researchers then in turn research that. As critical as teens can be, it's foolish to ignore that they are affected by marketing, whether for better or for worse. There are always going to be some who will go against the grain, but even they are affected by marketing -- they just react to it in a different way. In this regard, everything that teens do is a response to the marketing they are inundated with every day. So it raises the question (which is brought up at the end of the program): can teens have their own culture? Something that is truly and 100% their own? After watching Merchants of Cool, I don't have an answer, and it's become one that is incredibly hard to answer.

Of course, the program isn't flawless -- after watching I did a quick Google search about the program in search of its IMDB page. What I found was a whole webpage dedicated to discussing the program. One of the pages was an interview that Frontline had with about a dozen teens who watched the program to see what they thought. The first two questions and the answers given highlight how the teens who watched it felt they were not given enough screen time -- they were being told all this stuff about their culture from adults who are just trying to profit off of them. If you want to read more of the interview, click here.

The merchants of cool. Dir. Barak Goodman. Perf. Douglas Rushkoff. PBS Video, 2001. Film.

REVIEW: The Fault in Our Stars by John Green (audiobook)

Title: The Fault in Our Stars
Author: John Green
Narrator: Kate Rudd 
Publisher: Brilliance Audio
Genre: Contemporary/Realistic
Length: 7:19min (6 discs)

Summary: Despite the tumor-shrinking medical miracle that has bought her a few years, Hazel has never been anything but terminal, her final chapter inscribed upon diagnosis. But when a gorgeous plot twist named Augustus Waters suddenly appears at Cancer Kid Support Group, Hazel’s story is about to be completely rewritten.

Insightful, bold, irreverent, and raw, The Fault in Our Stars is award-winning-author John Green’s most ambitious and heartbreaking work yet, brilliantly exploring the funny, thrilling, and tragic business of being alive and in love.

Review: YA Master John Green has done it again by bringing readers (young adult or not) a story that raises the bar for YA fiction.

This book has been touted as: "a book about cancer without being a Cancer Book."  This is largely true, but it was sometimes to the detriment of the book, as Hazel's narration liked to remind readers often how much her and Gus's story was NOT about their cancer, an odd bit of hand-holding in a novel that respects and trusts its readers with pretty much everything else. However, I cannot deny that this is a book that defies the Cancer Book "genre."

How does it do so you ask? It manages this feat with the amazing characters. One of the most common complaints I've ever/read about this book is that its teenage protagonists are too "smart", and that teens who do not relate to Gus's existential musings, or Hazel's ability to quote poetry on command feel "inadequate", but I believe that's not giving teens enough credit. Hazel and Gus may be smart, but readers never forget they're teenagers: Gus plays video games and reads vacuous novels based off said games; Hazel loves America's Next Top Model and describes Gus as "hot." Furthermore, presenting teens with potentially challenging ideas such as heroism, existentialism, what it means to live a 'meaningful' life, etc. is something I think (some) YA should aspire to, and should not make concessions on.

To go back to the characters, I loved the humour Gus, Hazel and Isaac all brought to the story. Their gallows humour may not sit well with everyone, but it breathes life into these characters. What really hits this story home however is how Green presents their humanity, even in the face of their death. There are no heroic fights against cancer or characters who keep face despite the fact they're dying. No, Green shows us characters like Gus's last girlfriend, whom he didn't even want to date during the last stages of her cancer because her brain tumour made her say horrible things to him. This honesty about disease and what it does to people, and the respect that the text clearly possesses for people with terminal illness, in that it gives them life outside of their disease, is what makes this book special.

Some minor complaints are that it did have some moments that were a little too saccharine; I'm thinking specifically of Gus and Hazel's date at the restaurant in Amsterdam when people would randomly toast them, or the applause they receive when they make out in the Anne Frank House. Otherwise, this is a moving love story between two teens who, as Hazel would say, "have a touch of cancer."
 
Since I listened to this as an audiobook I do not want to make some notes about the narration. By and large, it was very, very good. It's not surprising that this title received an Odyssey Award (an award given by the ALA for Teen Audiobooks). Rudd's reading is impeccable and she gives each character a distinct voice and way of speaking (though I found her rendition of Isaac to be a nasally.) She brings a lot of emotion to these characters, whether they're being funny or somber. 

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Green, John. The fault in our stars. New York: Dutton Books, 2012. Print.

Week 10: Censorship in YA: A Closer Look at Weetzie Bat

This week for class we are taking a closer look at the issue of censorship in young adult materials. We were assigned to read either Monster Walter Dean Myers or Weetzie Bat by Francesca Lia Block. I chose the latter, and will be approaching it from two angles: pro-censoring it, and anti-censoring. (For the record, I'm anti-censoring all the way.)

But first, a short summary of Weetzie Bat:

Weetzie Bat is the story eccentric high-schooler Weetzie who wears old taffeta dresses, Indian headdresses, and is head-over-heels in love with the glitz and glam of Los Angeles. One day she meets Dirk, and the two set out on a quest to find their perfect Ducks (aka boyfriends -- Dirk is gay.) One day, Weetzie receives a magic lamp and wishes for Dirk to have a Duck and for her to meet her Secret Agent Lover Man, and a house for all of them to live in. Weetzie receives all these things, but does it mean happily ever after? 

Written in poetic prose, Block takes readers on a journey through a magical and slinkster cool incarnation of L.A. as Weetzie explores friendship and love.

Pro-censorship stance: Weetzie Bat's content could be viewed as some that is not appropriate for its teen audience. Throughout the course of the novel, the characters in Weetzie Bat engage in: sexual activity, underage drinking, drug use, homosexuality and pregnancy out of wedlock. Suicide and AIDS are also discussed. Weetzie's alternative lifestyle of living with two gay men alongside her lover may also incur a negative reaction from patrons, as well as Weetzie's decision to have sex with both Dirk and Duck to conceive Cherokee, thus giving Cherokee "three dads." A concerned parent may find all of these issues that the novel tackles to be too mature, or too difficult for a child or teen.

Anti-censorship stance: There are many teens who live, or participate in alternative lifestyles. Many teens are gay and need literature that represents them in a positive light. Dirk and Duck's homosexuality is presented as normative, a small towards supporting gay rights and equality. It's also a fact that many teens (13-18 years) / young adults (19 and up) become pregnant out of wedlock; they need a support system, not to become a pariah or shunned from society, and this book is representative of this lifestyle without condemning it. Presenting alternative lifestyles in a positive way is not a gateway to encouraging teens to participate in said lifestyle, but does provide people who do literature that they can relate to. It is important to consider the experiences of all teens. There is also the undercurrent message of loving oneself and self-respect (p. 24-25) when Dirk and Weetzie are experiencing abusive relationships. Though the passage is brief, it's important message to important on young adult readers.


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You may have noticed that I have not touched on the quality of the writing or the plot, but I do not think those are issues that patrons would seriously consider when challenging a book; they are likely to be much more concerned with content and how said content will affect impressionable readers.

Block, Francesca L. (1989). Weetzie Bat. New York: Harper & Row. 

REVIEW: Anatomy of a Boyfriend by Daria Snadowsky

Anatomy of a Boyfriend (2007)
Author: Daria Snadowsky
Publisher: Ember
Genre: Contemporary/Realistic Fiction
Pages: 272 (trade paperback)
Series: Anatomy #1 (a sequel, Anatomy of a Girlfriend was released just this year.)

Summary: "Before this all happened, the closest I'd ever come to getting physical with a guy was playing the board game Operation. Okay, so maybe that sounds pathetic, but it's not like there were any guys at my high school who I cared to share more than three words with, let alone my body.

Then I met Wes, a track star senior from across town. Maybe it was his soulful blue eyes, or maybe my hormones just started raging. Either way, I was hooked. And after a while, he was too. I couldn't believe how intense my feelings became, or the fact that I was seeing—and touching—parts of the body I'd only read about in my Gray's Anatomy textbook. You could say Wes and I experienced a lot of firsts together that spring. It was scary. It was fun. It was love.

And then came the fall."

Review: For class this week, our theme is "Sex in YA Lit." Anatomy of a Boyfriend initially stumbled in its execution and the sexual content felt contrived, but by the end, Snadowski gained her footing and this read like a genuine and heartfelt exploration of first love and sexual exploration.

Our story is set in Florida, from the first-person perspective of teen girl Dominique Baylor. The novel chronicles her throes in first love as she meets and falls for track star Wesley Gershwin and the tribulations that come with their relationship as explore and experiment with sex. 

Initially, I found this book to be unconvincing as far as being an authentic look at how teens think about sex. Dom's conversations with her best friend and her thoughts about sex felt like an adult trying to imitate a teen instead of actually embodying a teen mindset. Snadowski did, however, capture the feelings that come with a first serious crush very, very well: the awkward conversations and silences, the wondering and agonizing over whether the feelings are reciprocated, etc. did feel true to life and incurred reminiscing on my part of similar experiences I had as a teen.

Where the writing really shines, in my opinion, is in Snadowski's descriptions of the sexual acts Dom and Wes commit. In the article Are Romance Novels Harming Our Teens (which was also assigned reading this week), one of the criticisms leveled against Romance novels is "their potential to create unrealistic expectations in their readers which may lead to relationship problems in real life" (despite there being romance in Anatomy, it isn't a Romance novel, but this argument could still be leveled against it); I would argue that Anatomy does exactly the opposite of this. The sex scenes, while certainly explicit, were far from sexy. Snadowski says it best in her Q&A at the end of the book, where she states that she was seeking not to condone sex, but to demystify it, and I think she has accomplished this wonderfully. Part IV of the book, which heralds the end of Dom and Wes's relationship, was also very well written and captured the overcharged emotions that accompany being dumped.

Our main characters, Dom and  Wes, are both realistic and would likely be relatable to many teens in how normal they are. Snadowski mentions in her Q&A that she is surprised at how many boys actually enjoy and relate to her novel because they see themselves in Wes, in that he's a normal highschool guy instead of a caricature of a hunky jock, or a supernatural creature like Edward Cullen. Dom and Wes both have interests and aspirations, they have families whom they love (Dom has her complicated relationship with her grandmother and Wes has a soft spot for his family pet) and it is these traits that make them fully realized people that teen readers can hopefully relate and sympathize with.

From a reader's advisory perspective, this novel could be a challenge. While I think that it depicts teen sex in a realistic and healthy way, it is still very explicit and this might scare away not only teen readers who may not be emotionally equipped to deal with it, but also parents. With that in mind, it would be necessary to exhibit caution when recommending this. However, if teen or parent patrons are looking for gateway literature to YA novels that deal extensively with teen sex, this is a great place to start.

Overall, while it had a shaky start, I warmed up to this novel considerably by the time I was done. The writing was largely serviceable, but sex scenes were wonderfully un-sexy and the feelings represented during the emotionally charged scenes were authentic and reminiscent of  my own teen experiences. 

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Snadowsky, Daria. Anatomy of a boyfriend: a novel. New York: Ember, 2008. Print.