Led by Millions Top Tenner The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins, dystopia is unseating vampires as the dominant theme in teen fiction, according to The Independent. The paper lists several other examples of the hot new trend, including Plague by Michael Grant and Matched by Ally Condie. (We’d argue that with dystopian classics like 1984 and Lord of the Flies on teen reading lists for decades, this is an old trend that’s new again.)
The Teenage Years are More Dystopian Than Ever
The Poet’s Essay
Recommended Listening: David Naimon interviews recent Whiting Award-winning poet Brian Blanchfield about his essay collection, Proxies.
Vermeer was a Hacker
“The way Vermeer painted this wall is consistent with a photograph. It is not consistent with human vision.” In a fascinating new documentary by Penn and Teller, a digital-graphics artist spent five years building a lens, a room, and a harpsichord to figure out how.
●
●
The Glenn Beck book club?
Move over, Oprah. Glenn Beck‘s got something he wants you to read…
●
●
Free Kindles for Big Readers
TechCrunch has discovered that Amazon is (essentially) giving away free Kindles to those readers who are in the prime Kindle demographic: readers who order a lot of books each year.
●
●
2 comments:
Add Your Comment: Cancel reply
This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.
Seems About Right
“Post-truth” has been named word of the year by the Oxford Dictionaries, reports The Guardian. Considered an adjective, its definition is “relating to or denoting circumstances in which objective facts are less influential in shaping public opinion than appeals to emotion and personal belief.” The Dictionaries report its first use in 1992 by the late Serbian-American playwright Steve Tesich in relation to Iran-Contra and the first Gulf War. And we thought Colbert’s “truthiness” was funny.
●
●
John Lewis’s March
Comics specialist Dominic Umile checks out March: Book One, the first installment in a nonfiction graphic novel trilogy and biography of civil rights activist and current Georgia Congressman John Lewis.
●
●
Dear Diary
“Despite its brevity, the diary is an illuminating document that offers a glimpse into the mind of the artist as a young woman.” The never-before-seen diary of Flannery O’Connor has been published in Image, an arts and faith quarterly, and reveals the shadow of the writer she would become. See also: our own Nick Ripatrazone on teaching O’Connor.
Dystopian novels are defintely the new “it” for young adults. Its about time too, I couldn’t stand seeing a new series about vampires. I think dystopian is a great genre for young people because it forces them to reflect on the society they live in, which is important contemplation for young people before they step out into the world.
Interesting timing – as I read and reviewed The Hunger Games just last night after much prodding from friends. That book is still getting lots of publicity and play. I was not at all impressed, but I agree that there are a lot of wonderful things for young adults to take from these post-Apocalyptic stories. While I think young people reading anything at all, even if it’s Twilight and the like, is a beautiful, wonderful thing – if authors manage to entertain AND provoke thoughtful discussion, all the better.