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Author Topic: Young Adult fiction and Adult fiction- the differences?
Constipatron
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I finally got around to reading the Prydain Chronicles by Lloyd Alexander. I've been meaning to do so for quite a while. I like it so far and I can honestly say, that though it's an old series, it's fresh and inspiring to me in so many ways.

The thought occured to me that these books in particular don't need much more to be added to what we may call "Adult fiction". Yet, it still remains that they're cheifly "Young Adult" books.
Why is that?

I've thought about that for a while now. There seems to be nothing huge to seperate young/adult fiction from each other other than the soberness and content. If soberness and content in adult fiction is the only difference, then adult fiction hardly seems that much better because of it.

Further, I enjoyed these books because they WEREN'T loaded with objectionable content; cursing, sex, etc. I admire fully, the author who can write without these so-called necessities in adult fiction. Reality can be addressed without delving into these things.

It's the same, I find, with Tolkein's work. The Hobbit, although initially written for his son or nephew contains mostly adult material, as does his Lord of the Rings trilogy. As these books are very inspiring to me, I find greater value in them because they're clean, well thought and well written.

So what's the REAL difference between young adult fiction and adult fiction?

I can relate to both, depending on the stories and depending on the hidden nuggets of wisdom within. I've read adult fiction, from CJ Cherryh and Mercedes Lackey, to David Eddings and OSC. To tell the truth, I find more wise and clear presentation from Alexander and Tolkein than any of these.

Is it style? Or is there a difference between the authors back then and the authors now? Perhaps we've lost something over the decades?

At any rate, I consider the Prydain chronicles and Tolkein's work to rate right up there with adult fiction, regardless of the lable they're printed under or assumed to be. In fact, I consider them more adult than most.

I'm curious as to what all of you think. What are the differences? If the difference is minor, then why the distinction? I don't want this limited to just these writers of course. I haven't read all that many young adult novels either recently, but of the few I've read, I've enjoyed them immensely.

These books are believable, they address character growth and wise insight, the struggles against evil and the overwhelming responsiblities of good. They're fraught with moral delimas both obvious and subtle.

Although I enjoy adult fiction, I believe I'd enjoy those books more if they weren't so obsessive with being so totally realistic as to include sex and cursing. NO, this ISN'T a rant about content in stories. I'd just like to know what the differences are.

Whether the differences are big or small, the value from these stories and countless others is the same. What I enjoy, I enjoy.


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Aalanya
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Well I think it's a couple of different things. A few that come to mind:

The age of the characters. Young adult books are often about younger characters and often deal with coming of age issues.

The theme of an adult book is frequently much deeper than the theme of a young adult book. The two types deal with two different levels of questions that people ask. Usually young adults are thinking about different sorts of issues than adults are.

Sometimes young adult books are written with easier vocabulary and sentence structure, but I don't think this is a requirement. None of these things are requirements, it's just a matter of whether the sum of them points to a young adult book or an adult book.

I'm sure there are other things, but those are a few to start out with.


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Silver3
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I also re-read the Chronicles of Prydain recently, and the main thing that struck me was the breathless pace. Something was always happening to our heroes.

Granted, there are adult books in which the pace is also the same, but I think that with a YA book you need to grab the reader's attention harder, and assume your reader's attention is going to wander far more than an adult.


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Christine
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Who on earth ever said adult fiction was "better" than young adult fiction?

Young adult fiction is targeted at an audience that is between (roughly) 12 and 17 years of age. Adult fiction is targeted at an audience of people over 18.


Target audiences are not always the only people who read and enjoy a book, but they remain the defining difference in this case. I have enjoyed many young ault books both while I was a young adult and since. I also enjoyed adult fiction when I was a teen, and continue to do so. It's just a guideline.


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wbriggs
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I'd say (raw answer) it's age of target audience;

and in practical terms, that means age of characters (often), difficulty of vocabulary, length, and how much objectionable content.

One day maybe I'll try writing YA.


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Robert Nowall
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Well, when it was first published, "fantasy" as a commercial category amounted to "Lord of the Rings" and a few other works. Dense, epic...adult. Things got published every so often but they were usually marketed as something else. After a couple of passes here and there, fantasy really got rolling in the mid- to late-seventies.

"Young Adult?" I'll have to go with the age of the characters, as Aalanya says, particularly their age in the opening book of the series.

(I liked 'em when I read 'em---but I haven't reread them since. Certainly they've stayed in my mind ever since, particularly the last volume. I even went to see the Disney cartoon based on the first book when it was in theaters.)


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Constipatron
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Hmmm... well, to me, there isn't much distinction. Well, aside from soberness and content. The Prydain chronicles addressed some things that I still deal with even as an adult. As does the Lord of the Rings and the Chronicles of Narnia.

I think the distinction has far less to do with the character's age than the actual content. Example, Ender's Game; young kid, but the content is somewhat more sober, hence, not really a "young adult" story.

Though, it does make sense that the attention span and the subject material and vocabulary would be different between those audiences.

I think "adult" fiction would benefit greatly from the clarity that some "young adult" fiction has. But I suppose that we all have to write for a specific audience. I think it's doable for "adult" fiction to be written with the clarity, pace and subject material that some "young adult" fiction has.


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ethersong
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Personally, I've never seen much of a difference. I started reading Terry Brooks in 5th grade as well as The Wheel of Time in the 6th. Are those Young Adult. I suppose they are...although they both seem rather "adultish" to me. On the other hand, OSC's books don't strike me as outstandingly adultish as far as writing style...although I'll to say that his content is a bit more serious.

But I'd definitely say Ender's Game was a YA book. But Speaker of the Dead wasn't. Its hard to say. If I could find out why I classify those two books that are in the same series differently...then maybe I'd know the difference between YA and Adult fiction. I think I'd have to say its the content. Speaker for the Dead has very big moral issues that it deals with. Most kids don't get them or care about them. Heck, most adults don't.


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Survivor
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It's harder for most adults to tell the difference...as readers, at least. When you're writing YA literature, you definitely notice.

As others have said, it's a matter of whether you're writing it with younger readers in mind. There are basic matters like sentance structure and vocabulary. Realistically I'm of two minds on this point, but pragmatically it's a sound distinction (and one reason that I don't aspire to try my hand at YA literature). Then there are matters of relating to life experiences. Some are in terms of what kinds of experiences that younger readers will actually have had. For example, if you want to raise the issue of a guy who wants to marry a woman but can't because he doesn't feel he can support a family...you need to explain that to a YA audience, or perhaps replace it with some barrier (like raw social standing) which they'll understand a little better. A lot of SF and Fantasy doesn't have this problem so much, since it doesn't deal with experiences that most adults will have had either, so both are popular for YA literature.

Then you have matters of educational/cultural experience. YA readers won't remember where they were when Kennedy was shot or the Challenger blew up. They also might not have read certain literary works that characterized older generations of readers. They don't remember what life was like before cell-phones and the internet (oh, they understand what it's like to not have a cell-phone/computer personally, but have to be told that once upon a time nobody had them at all). They aren't likely to have traveled a lot, may be too young to have almost killed anyone while driving, may not realize that even sex can get pretty boring after a few years (not that it must, but it can--and that distinction may be another thing they don't understand).

Content issues...never mattered to me, and are less important today anyhow. After all, the most effective "adult" material has always had unrealistic and rather juvenille portrayals of its subject matter. It's always been more for kids, or at least the inexperienced.

The thing we call thematic depth...I'd say it mostly comes from the fact that most adults have long settled a lot of the basic questions, like their religious/political/philosophical affiliations. We want to explore the nuances...particularly those we're thinking about ourselves. We also stop fantasizing about being the main character, we're more interested in watching the main character. Or that might just be me, and to be honest, I was always one to refuse to believe that I could be as stupid/cowardly/emotional as the main characters in most stories.

In the end, I don't have that much patience with the whole distinction, which is why I write (and read) what I like and let the chips fall where they may.


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Robert Nowall
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A comment on Survivor's comment---sure, the intended audience for Young Adult books do not remember the Kennedy Assassination or the Challenger Explosion. But that's Right Now, and Time Marches On, and someday there'll be readers who don't remember the Next Big Thing---whatever that may be. The time right now will not be a constant. There will be big and sweeping changes once again. (Anybody who's read or tried to write science fiction eventually has their nose rubbed in this---usually while trying to predict those changes.)

There's gotta be something more to Young Adult than the mere time frame. Especially if the writer wants to try to get his books to appeal to generations not yet born---or at least reprinted so those same generations can have a shot at reading it.


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Survivor
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Sure, the whole "generation" thing is only one aspect of what distinguishes YA. But it is a real thing, and it isn't limited to specific events. If you look at Cold War SF verses earlier and later SF, there's a marked difference in the overall worldview.

As for appealing to generations not yet born and all that...it's a fool's hope to think you control something like that. Those generations might not even be born at all, you know


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keldon02
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quote:
So what's the REAL difference between young adult fiction and adult fiction?

In recent mass market fiction I fear one difference may be in the boldness of whatever political/ethical/moral indoctrination the particular writer may be pushing. This is a bit more cynical than Survivor's slant on the idea, but then I'm a bit older and more cynical than him.

[This message has been edited by keldon02 (edited March 21, 2006).]


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Robert Nowall
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Oh, you've gotta assume there'll be generations after you. If you make your preparations on the assumption that the world will come to an end at some specific point, and it doesn't, then what will happen to you?

On the Cold War: some of the works written on it make interesting projections about the future. Some projected American victory or defeat in military or economic terms...a lot settled into some kind of permanent balance of power, where each side became more like the other, whatever happened in the course of the story. Very few projected anything similar to what actually happened. (I regret not writing an idea I had in the late seventies, where a section of the Berlin Wall was preserved as a museum piece / memorial long after the Cold War ended. Not that I had the skills to handle it properly in those days, but I would like to have tried it out.)

Now a lot of them are period pieces, detached from the reality of advancing history in the same way as accounts of the first moon landing are. But some are still read and will continue to be read.

A young adult novel (yeah, I remembered what topic of this thread is) has to handle this kind of problem if the writer wants any hope of living beyond the moment the book is in the stores. Particularly if the writer is trying to push ideas---in fifty years, the story might creak a little, but the ideas in the story can still carry it.


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Survivor
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If you make your preparations based on the assumption that the world won't end, that's a little more serious.

Besides, I'm not assuming that the world will end at any specific point, I'm just pointing out that there is no way that you can tell that there will be future generations of humans or know anything about what will seem important to them. You shouldn't write for them at the expense of writing for people who exist today. So it's useless to talk about them.

I think that the ones that projected that the Soviet Union would simply collapse economically were underrepresented, given what we then knew about the debilitating economic effects of large scale socialism. But that points up a difficulty in knowing the future, most of what people "know" isn't knowledge at all. The popular opinion that socialism is just as (or even more) economically viable as a free market remains deeply entrenched in America, all evidence to the contrary notwithstanding.

Anyway, if the world doesn't end when I think it should, I will end it myself.


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Robert Nowall
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Yeah, that's essentially it. First you concentrate on getting your work out and available to the readers in the here-and-now---put worrying about future readers onto the backburner, to be considered only after the here-and-now is taken care of.

I thought of ending the world today---an involuntary shift in working hours thrust on me, followed by two hours of an anthrax scare, did bring me down some. But then I thought about the mess it would make and the cleanup afterwards, and it all seemed too much trouble to go to...


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