Special Guest Chat Discussion

[EricG1793]

Well, this past Saturday, we had our first (and hopefully not last ) special guest chat. We were hosting Dr. Jes Battis (but call him Jes; he... didn't like it when I called him Dr. Battis ), author of "'I am the molten heart of the world': language and metamorphosis in Diane Duane's Young Wizards series'".

Unfortunately, a few of us hadn't realized it was happening.

So, for those of you who hadn't realized, or couldn't make it, you can look at the transcript, courtesy of Garrett.

Jes had some interesting things to say about the series.... He says that the first few books were Darker than the later ones. What does everyone else think about this?

[alla]

As much as I like chatting, getting up at 4am in the morning just isn't feasible .

As for the earlier books being 'darker'; I'm not sure. I would say that there is a difference in the tone between SYWTBAW, DW, HW and the rest (the change happening in A Wizard Abroad), but I don't know if I would say its a definite 'darker to lighter' change. The later books deal with different things; the death of a parent, deeper relationships... in my opinion I would say that AWD is the darkest, but that may just be me.

Reading through the transcript... some of the things that he mentions - I don't agree with, and they get me kind of annoyed. Particularly things like:

... and what about teen sexuality? Duane's characters never really flirt, kiss, or have sex (albeit rarely) so i was curious about that--was The Speech a kind of sex?

In Young Adult/Teen/even childrens books sometimes, why do people (read: adults) have to over read relationships to the point of 'oh there must be sex in there somewhere'? It is really annoying. And the Speech as a kind of sex? What the...?! I went through my teenage years not caring about sex; having good friends who were male (the guys were easier to understand than the girls). You don't have to have sex with a guy just because you're female and you are friends with them. The characters in these books are young teenagers. From what I remember of the lower end of high school, sure, there were some kids who were 'going out' or whatever, but the majority at that age were still either not interested or kept it to themselves. In fact, if you revealed that you 'liked' someone, it usually got you teased mercilessly.

These days there is far too much negative emphasis put onto children's relationships, and it is annoying. Adults need to remember (and I am an adult and I do) that kids can be friends without needing to have any deeper relationship.

Relationships are touched on within the YW series; Nita feels strongly for Kit, but the way that I read it, its a strong friendship, and nothing more at this stage. There are other characters, such as Carmela (who is older than the main characters, anyway) who is obviously interested in relationships.

And before anyone responds with 'What about Dairine and Roshaun?', I think that theirs is a special kind of relationship. Some children do form lasting relationships at an early age, but not all.

I guess that the point I am trying to make is that picking children's books to pieces like that - as in going in and finding 'ooo what has the author implied about sex in their books' - is, and I can't find a nicer way to put this, is wrong. Let the kids enjoy their childhood. Let them have fun, let them learn these things for themselves.

[EricG1793]

I agree with you, Alla. I'd say that he went quite over the top of the Terms of Service....

Aside from those issues, though, he did have some pretty interesting things to say. He did come across the YW series like many of us others did: the classic snagging of the hand on the book in the library.

[Garrett Fitzgerald]

Originally posted by alla:
Relationships are touched on within the YW series; Nita feels strongly for Kit, but the way that I read it, its a strong friendship, and nothing more at this stage.

Kit, on the other hand, is definitely noticing Nita -- remember in TWD when he sees Nita in the short skirt, and thinks that it's a shame she doesn't dress like that?

I'm too far away from my teenaged years to remember at what point I really got interested in girls. I think it was sometime after I started college at age 16, but I'm not sure: I know I didn't go on my first date until several years after that.

And I don't think that talking about sex in front of younger folks is necessarily out of line: I gave my now-10-year-old It's Perfectly Normal at least a year ago, because I wanted her to be properly informed. If you want over-analyzing of literature, check out the Freudian analysis of The Cat in the Hat sometime. :-)