-Here's just one example, one direction in which you could take your answer. A lot of people complain that JK Rowling and Stephenie Meyer took their books in too serious/dark/mature of a direction for books that were originally intended for a younger audience. I'm kind of thinking about the young kids I saw in the theater for Deathly Hallows Part 2, which is essentially a war movie in which many beloved characters die or are seriously injured; just as many young kids are probably reading the book. And Breaking Dawn... a lot more sex than necessary, a twisted plot with the whole baby feeding on Bella thing, etc. These books don't have as young an audience as Harry Potter, but there are still very young readers. So, do writers like Rowling and Meyer have a duty to keep their young audience in mind while writing?
Do writers have any duties to their audience at all? If so, what should they be? And why? If not, why?
BQ: To what extent do you think a writer should keep an audience in mind?
BQ2: If you write, to what extent do *you* keep an audience in mind?I think if an author has started a series and has a lot of people hoping that it will be finished, he/she should finish said book series. Not in a nasty, "rocks fall, everyone dies" way, but in a way that the author feels it should end. It doesn't have to be happy or cater to fan opinion, but it should end in a way the author feels is 'right', if you get what I'm saying.
As far as the examples you listed, I think Ms. Rowling was thinking of the people who had grown up with Harry Potter. The series get progressively darker, which is why I'm afraid to start reading them to my siblings, and they could easily finish the series by the end of this year without having to wait for the publishing dates. I think if people were smart, they would have stopped with "Goblet of Fire" and then waited until the younger audience could properly mature. I understand it's quite unfair to younger audiences, but if Rowling had kept the tone of the earlier books throughout the whole series, I can see many fans and critics feeling cheated of the deeper themes she could have expounded on.
With Stephenie Meyer, not having the slightest anticipation for Breaking Dawn except hoping that the online Twilight wars would cease, I will address the whole series: It's boring and it portrays life in a way that I highly dislike. Breaking Dawn may be more graphic and disappointing than its predecessors, but it follows true to the code Meyer set up, except for her breaking her own rules and failing biology forever to force a hybrid baby to fruition. But hey, that's just my opinion. I doubt I'd like any of Marquis de Sade's books or the Harlequin romance novels I see in various bookstores very much, but I'm not going to deliberately read them and then write long essays on why they're bad.
I think that a conscientious author would try to keep their young audience in mind, but not let it impede their series' progress or their creativity. It would be horrible if say, Stephen King put down his writing, worried about the influence that "Carrie" would have on young readers.
Duties, aside from the above mentioning, I think, go to keeping continuity and accuracy within their book(s)' universe. That way, people will keep reading their books, and I think that aside from entertaining people and themselves, a author's goal (and if not his, his publishing company's) is to sell books.
Nowadays, books are quite obviously sorted into their proper category, almost rated, to an extent, so there is little danger of a nine year old reading material that is obviously unsuitable. But I agree with you that lines start to blur when it comes to things like Meyer's Twilight series.
When I write, I would hope to make it clear in the first few chapters exactly what age group the book was for, so that unsuitable readers would (1 lose interest or (2 be kept away by their guardians.
EDIT: Steven J Pemberton, I just have to say your answer about Harry joining a Peruvian commune and/or Voldemort taking up basket weaving amused me greatly. Thanks for the laugh.JK Rowling made the books grow up as the first kids who read them did. That was intended by her so I think she was trying to have more of a duty to the original lovers of her book. However, I think you have a duty to both yourself and the audience to make the character grow to and relate to everyone.|||Yay! I"m back on B&A! I've missed everyone
I think a writer has the duty to show the reader some sort of truth as they see it. They must be honest to themselves in their work, weather it's through poetry, satire, or fantasy. There has to be some sort of moral or lesson in writing, even if that message is just for the reader to be entertained.|||I believe one of the wonderful things about being an author is freedom in writing. If you want to be a successful writer financially then, yes, you do need to keep your audience in mind. But the entire point of writing is freedom of expression and freedom in creating something that is your own.|||He must entertain his reader at the same he instructs and reveals and teaches and learns as he goes. A writer must transform himself internally into something better than himself for a while, and then return a better person for the journey, too-shay.|||if you're setting an example for them don't pull a Breaking Dawn with sex. JK Rowling's characters had to die to present her theme and moral of the story.|||I don't believe a writer of fiction has any duties as such, but there are a lot of expectations that he needs to fulfil if he wants people to enjoy the book (and, more importantly, if he wants them to read his next book).
Many of those expectations are set by the genre and the age of the intended reader. Many more are set by the first few chapters of the book itself. As soon as you learn that an evil wizard killed Harry's parents, and tried to kill him, and that said wizard was leading a war against the good wizards, you know (if you know anything about the conventions of fiction) that the evil wizard isn't as dead as everyone thinks he is, that he will rise again, that there will be another war (or he'll try to start a war, anyway), and that Harry will have to confront him, and either kill him, or defeat him in such a way that he can't rise again.
If any of that hadn't happened, you can bet there would've been a lot more complaints than there were over "needless" deaths. (Actually, if Rowling had written a story where Harry ran away to join a commune in Peru, or Voldy disbanded the Death Eaters and took up basket weaving, her editor would've torn it up and told her to do it properly.) Were the deaths really needless? There was a frakking war on. People die in wars, quite often for what seem like pointless and stupid reasons when you look back. I would've been more annoyed if the good wizards had won without losing anybody (or anybody the reader cares about), as that would've been unrealistic - Voldy and his minions would've had to be completely incompetent not to kill any of the good guys.
If the tone and content of a sequel is radically different from the previous book(s), that's partly the fault of the editor and the marketing people for not telling the author to bring it more in line with them. Much of the appeal of a sequel is that it's more of the same - another book about characters and a setting that you already know you like.
BQ: To what extent should a writer keep an audience in mind? To the extent that they want them to buy their next book. By the time I'm halfway through a book, I've usually made up my mind whether I want to read any more of that author.
BQ2: I try to take my own advice about the current book needing to sell the next one... I'm not sure how well I manage it. Death & Magic is a murder mystery set in a school for wizards, and is the first of a series. By the end of the book it's pretty obvious that the sequel isn't going to be set in a school (or not that school, anyway). The ending seems to set up the next book as a sort of mediaeval CSI, but within a few chapters, I've bundled the heroine off somewhere else. I think it's still a good story, but it mightn't be the story that people were expecting...|||With Harry Potter I always felt that J.K. Rowlin was slowly revealing that one the books where going to get darker as the read progressed. I think she meant for the book to slip into the hands of a 12 year old first magical and fun and by the time they are in the 9th grade they would be into the dark aspects of the book.
With Breaking Dawn it was more like huh where did this *ell come from. I mean really I didn't go walking into the young adult section for a sex book. If I wanted that I'll just stick to Sherrily Kenyon or some other romance author.
Also what if let say a kid picks up a book by Stephen King like Talisman or the Dragons eye. Right, especially the Dragon's eyes because it happen to be of the youth version and he wrote it for his daughter it not that dark compared to most of his writing but the kid finish this book and then later picks up another by IT. It not really about the writer the writer can't be aspect to stand over you and say. Put that down you can't read that. It should be the parents that read the book with an open mind and go, this is something you should read when your like 21 or older.
With my parents though they didn't do that. They felt that if I wanted to read I would read. If I wanted to discuss the book for incite into the characters I would. I never did I read all of Stephen King books through out High school all expect IT. Along with Terry Goodkind who ends up using a lot of rape scenes in his books.
BQ: To what extent do you think a writer should keep an audience in mind? I think it should depend on what age group you are targeting as a writer. If you are targeting an adult audience then make it adult if you are targeting a five year old then make it something that won't scare them half to death. Could you image reading Cujo to a five year old.
BQ2: If you write, to what extent do *you* keep an audience in mind? What age group am I targeting and how best to write the story and get it from my mind onto paper.|||I don't believe authors have a duty to keep their young audience in mind so much that they lose all creative freedom, but if you're setting an example for them don't pull a Breaking Dawn with sex. JK Rowling's characters had to die to present her theme and moral of the story. When I was reading it I didn't think "Oh, I'm gonna go kill my bro now" I thought, "Wow, I wish I could do something this great like Harry andHermione. I'm gonna be really smart and get straight A's like her."
I write YA, but that's because I'm one! I feel really guilty to the point of having to sleep with lights on if I add bad things in my stories, so I just delete it all to clear my conscience.
But think: If all authors were like me, wouldn't books be really boring? It's the parents' duty to monitor what children read, not the author, right?
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http://www.wetseal.com/outfitter/outfit.鈥?/a>|||I agree with you with Harry Potter and Breaking dawn even when reading it, it might seem scary to little kids. As Harry Potter was aimed for a younger audience and Twilight the older (Through HP did move up as the books went on 4-7 are more teenagerish then 1-3) Rowling I think did pretty well because she and all the fans knew that it was gradually getting darker and older for some little kids. As for Twilight, Meyer wasn't consist in anything (especially with the last book! It was so random) she didn't seem to realise that little kids read the books. I think I was 13 when I read the first book and so on.. maybe 15 when I read the last so I understood it better then I would have but...(I hate Twilight so...) I think both Rowling and Meyers by the end were aiming for a older audience and Meyers didn't realise that still little kids would be reading it...
I think Meyers could of done a better job, Rowling definitely knew and everyone says 4-7 are for older kids. I am so defending HP sorry about that :)
Yes writers do have duties who know maybe a little kid will pick up a very dark book and read it. The author has no control so instead of toning it down they should make it obvious that this isn't for younger kids (it also depends on the age group they are writing for)
Other duties include: The story, making it good, covering stuff, no plot holes and just making it enjoyable.
BQ: Well it depends on what they are writing for: age group; girls/boys; genre
BQ2: Well mine is for 13-18 year olds but I suppose a younger child could pick it up and read it
But its targeted toward teens (older teens at that)|||I don't think that anyone working in a creative medium has a responsability to anyone as far as making sure their material is 'appropriate' for people to see. I don't think writers, artists, musicians, etc should censor themselves in the hope of not offending others. People are responsible for their own actions and what they expose themselves to. I understand that every once in a while a person will be exposed to something that they choose not to be.....leave the art show/concert/stop reading/etc.
The Harry Potter novels are perfectly appropriate for the age grou they are WRITTEN for. The characters are 11 in the first book and it is perfectly appropriate for an 11ish yr old to read, in the last book they are 17 and the audience that was 11 when the first book came out would have been 19 or 20, so again I think it's still appropriate. Who said that the last book is intended for 11 yr olds? I think she planned on maturing the books with the age of the characters/original audience. The problem is that parents are allowing their 10ish year old kids to read ALL the books at once (since they are readily available) instead of them having a yr-ish in between reading them (which I had b/c I had to wait for them to come out =) ).
And as for the Twighlight Saga.... the books main character is what..17? when the story starts...meets a boy she's attracted to and can't keep her hands off of, and acutally WAITS until they are married to have intercourse!! That is all perfectly appropriate, if people think that 17 yr olds are not thinking about or participating in sex or sexual acts then THAT's the problem. People shouldn't be uncomfortable with talking about real issues that face teens and yound adults today. If her story would have been set in an elementary school then that would be alittle less acceptable but my advice would be for parents to monitor what their kids are reading or have a open and honest relationship with them so they can talk about anything that comes up in this crazy ride called life.
BQ: the only thing you should be thinking about in respect to your audience depends on what your goal is, entertainment/shock/arousal/....etc. One shouldn't be saying..." Maybe I shouldn't write this scene like this b/c maybe someone will think it's inappropriate..."
BQ2: I don't write so n/a.
---NOTE: with the HP franchise...it's an odd predicament since the books are all available at once for todays 11yr olds.....of course I know they will want to go see the movie but...as a parent or older sibling or other family member, knowing the subject matter of the later books...you should be capable of assessing that the last few films are inappropriate for the younger of the HP fans. I saw 6,7,8,9yr olds in the theater for both parts of DH, and I wouldn't have considered bringing a child/sibling/family member that young b/c I think that those movies are not for them, but that is the parents responsability and everyone can make their own choice. And..I doub that HP is gonna be the worst thing they ever see before their time.|||Reminds me of a question asked here a while back, about having some sort of Rating system for books as there is for movies & TV programs; even if it is a mere cautionary line regarding violence, sex, expletives, etc. A rating system Beyond mere age-demarcations.
Haven't read/seen either of the series. However, even as an adult, I couldn't get through some of the books of Prestigious writers because of the horrific number of expletives or imagery. These were Booker Prize winners & one held the highest writing award in India [Roddy Doyle, Arundhati Roy, Ismat Chugtai] ! I felt totally suckered having spent an amount (however little or large) on buying the books, thinking they were critically acclaimed. Couldn't get beyond 2 pages ! And these are the Only books I've actually Thrown away - not given/donated/gifted or even relegated to the back of my library shelves !
So, as far as "duty" goes, it is the creative liberty of the writer. However, I still feel there is some Moral duty that the writer should consider, beyond mere financial & commercial success, especially in case of young readers. While I agree that they have a right to information & titillation - about dark subjects, death, sex, violence, - I also believe there should be Some boundaries. What is wrong with being given age-specific fiction? Don't young children/readers have more developmental milestones to cover, when they become more mature & comprehending ?
And what is wrong with children thinking or reading Rosy, Idealistic themes ? Don't we all crave for positivity, happiness, lightness, dreamy fantasy, even as adults?
Small doses is fine.
I am also not against Euphemisms - those who Know will understand the deeper meaning, those who are still young will understand eventually. Why should everything be So In-Your-Face Literal ? Isn't it more seductive to have some parts concealed , some revealed ?
In fact, I believe using euphemisms or any other kind of imagery & explanations only means the author has more command & expertise And Versatility - to think up Alternatives, alternate scenarios,... than to merely use anatomical references. Here I am thinking of Arundhati Roy's "God of Small Things" [Booker Prize]. Yes, it was well-written in the sense that one wanted to know what happens next. However, it felt truly defiling And to me it also showed lack of imagery And of simple etiquette/ decency - she didn't leave Any Orifice unaccounted for, in her quest for titillation. What deeper message she was trying to convey, I didn't get.
[[ *** Lewis Carroll's books were so much fun when we read them as kids. That there was a whole other layer of meanings didn't matter to the 'overt' story. As adults, reading the same books brought on additional insights & meanings. I don't think we 'lost out' as kids - we just weren't mature/knowledgeable enough. As and when we matured, it all took on new dimensions *** ]]
The author should think of whether s/he will recommend the book s/he has written to her/is Own child of the same age? If yes, then go ahead. If there is even the slightest hesitation, then rewrite/tweak the content/language.
Earlier posters have already given some wonderful insights & I don't want to repeat those points. So, this is my 2-bits. :-)
Add : Over a decade back, my neighbour's daughter [aged 12-13] used to get Nightmares after reading R L Stein books. Her parents were very concerned but she had almost become addicted to those stories ! Her parents were from the Hindi medium, hence did not know much about English language & writing & hence didn't "monitor" her reading very closely - "everybody's reading them" was the standard reply she & her friends would give. It was much later that they connected the nightmare episodes to her RL Stein reading.
My point to this narration is again, that parents don't always know [for various reasons, including their own educational background ; altho' it has become easier now through the vast resources on the net] despite the fact that they want to monitor their child's selection ; & secondly, that the writer's stories Can have an impact on growing, young minds. So, there is some kind of moral duty that writers who target the youth must own up to & respect.|||To entertain, leave it at that.
As authors, it is our duty
To create lovable, enticing characters
And do horrible, evil things to them.
Hehe *evil laugh*
BQ: To what extent do you think a writer should keep an audience in mind?
Tough question actually. Um, I really think that they should just tell the story and leave it down to the audience to interpret - not completely of course but they will obviously look at certain things differently because we're all different.
BQ2: If you write, to what extent do *you* keep an audience in mind?
I probably do the above. My characters "curse" rather than swear in direct speech but that's more because I feel that people who swear only do so because they can't express themselves easily and most of my characters can so its only in extremely tense situations when they curse.|||Cyril Connelly once said "Better to write for yourself and have no public, than to write for the public and have no self."
Authors actually cannot control who, or what age their audiences are. Stephanie Meyers never thought Twilight would be taken seriously. Once teen girls oozed over it, she must've figured sex content was appropriate. However, she couldn't control whether or not these readers would recommend it to their little sisters.
Answering your questions:
Yes authors have duties to their readers; the duty to create art from words, images and imagination. An author should have no restrictions in what they wish to write, only keep in mind in whose hands the book can fall into.|||Where is the line drawn.
I saw one book for teen girls that was on the banned list for discussing female difficulties that teen girls face. I don't remember anything being said about too much sex. Female health concerns is apparently inappropriate for teen girls to read about.
Another book I saw on the banned list was written for children to have a better understanding of their bodies and sexuality. I'm thinking that part of the reason it was banned is because parents think if they ignore the subject, their children won't find out about it. (I heard stuff in third grade, from my peers, I didn't understand until I was in high school.)
Perhaps if we kicked the Puritan influence out of our culture we'd have fewer problems.
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