Popularity of young adult books.

[kokujin]

I heard some people talking at work about the The Hunger Games today, I never heard of it so I decided to look into it.It seems it's a another YA book getting the film treatment.My question is this why are YA books getting so much attention, are people not reading on their reading level anymore.It can't just be kids reading this stuff, it has be everyone, or it would never be that popular.

[Sly Wolf]

hmm... Good point, I wonder why...

[Guntz]

Maybe people read this stuff so they can feel more youthful... And probably enjoy "innocent sexual intimacy" which seems to be present in the more... "Colorful" YA books.

[profholt82]

My wife wants to see The Hunger Games, and a lot of the girls at work have been talking about it lately. They all read the Twilight and Harry Potter books too, so I've been surrounded by this phenomenon for awhile now. Everyone has been talking Hunger Games though, so I looked into it, and it looks a lot like Battle Royale. Did anyone ever see that? Back in college I took a Japanese cinema class, and another student did a presentation on it. Basically a group of students are forced by the government to fight to the death. It was extremely gory. I don't know all the details on The Hunger Games, but it looks like the same premise.

But yeah OP, it seems like YA books have been doing very well commercially the past decade or so, and I think it's a sign of cultural decline. But most of the great novels that are considered classics were never really appreciated during their time. We look back later and recognize their greatness. The books that have always sold well are the dime novels, romance novels and serials. The great novels are out there, but it's not until 50+ years after their publish date that people recognize them. There are certainly exceptions; Hemingway, for instance, was popular during his time. But the YA novels that are selling like crazy today have the same kind of appeal as the dime novels. They are not great, serious literature, but easy-to-read adventures that appeal to the masses.

[old man]

@OP: Probably because old fucks like me could give a shit, and hardly ever spend money except on bills and other old (or cheap) shit. So everything is marketed to the easy-to-please kiddies and DAs these days.


And to repeat what I posted on DP, Hunger Games totally rips off Battle Royale.

[kokujin]

But yeah OP, it seems like YA books have been doing very well commercially the past decade or so, and I think it's a sign of cultural decline.

I never looked at it that way, but you might be right.

[Chilly Willy]

And to repeat what I posted on DP, Hunger Games totally rips off Battle Royale.

Not a TOTAL rip off, but clearly heavily influenced by. That's no big deal - that's how culture works. Stephen King has a couple books/stories that are heavily influenced by Battle Royale - The Long Walk, and The Running Man. He at least admits he was influenced by Battle Royale - the idiot who wrote Hunger Games swears up and down she never even heard of Battle Royale before.

[kokujin]

Not a TOTAL rip off, but clearly heavily influenced by. That's no big deal - that's how culture works. Stephen King has a couple books/stories that are heavily influenced by Battle Royale - The Long Walk, and The Running Man. He at least admits he was influenced by Battle Royale - the idiot who wrote Hunger Games swears up and down she never even heard of Battle Royale before.

Running Man came out in '82 and The Long Walk is from '79, Battle Royale wasn't published until '99.I think Takami was actually inspired by King's works.

[KnightWarrior]

It's just a Fad like Harry Potter and Twilight

[SEGA.GENESIS1989]

Not a TOTAL rip off, but clearly heavily influenced by. That's no big deal - that's how culture works. Stephen King has a couple books/stories that are heavily influenced by Battle Royale - The Long Walk, and The Running Man. He at least admits he was influenced by Battle Royale - the idiot who wrote Hunger Games swears up and down she never even heard of Battle Royale before.

Ha ha! When I read a summary of this movie recently, that is exactly what I thought! I had an inkling that the author may have borrowed heavily from "Battle Royale"!

The author of "Hunger Games" claims that she got inspiration to write the book as a result of channel surfing one night. "On one channel she observed people competing on a reality show and on another she saw footage of the invasion of Iraq." From this, she supposedly conceived the idea of weaving the two concepts into her work. Yea right!

More than likely she was channel surfing and discovered that "Battle Royale" was playing on television! At which time she screamed "Eureka! Time to plagiarize!"

[Chilly Willy]

Running Man came out in '82 and The Long Walk is from '79, Battle Royale wasn't published until '99.I think Takami was actually inspired by King's works.

Right... why did I have that flipped around? Weird - I'm a Stephen King fan too.

[Kogen]

I never heard of 'young adult books' until this.

It seems like they invented the title to make their fans not feel like overgrown, low-IQ man-babies.

[Chilly Willy]

I never heard of 'young adult books' until this.

It seems like they invented the title to make their fans not feel like overgrown, low-IQ man-babies.

It's been around a LONG time. It's merely the book form of the PG-13 rating.

[Waterfaller]

It's been around a LONG time. It's merely the book form of the PG-13 rating.

Sorta like those Fear Street books R.L. Stine wrote? I guess? I dunno.

[sheath]

I don't remember Battle Royal having much of a story, I'm going to have to pick that one up again. If it has the typical young adult level of writing it'll blow Final Fantasy and all other modern RPGs out of the water!