Its about the phenomena of "modern teen books" - vampires, self-mutilation, suicide, cutting - a lot of disturbing stuff. I have to say that I've noticed this myself - not that I spend a lot of time in book stores anymore - but over the last five or so years "science fiction" has turned in to "vampire fantasy."
I've always wondered about the attraction of vampire stories. Personally I have not watched or read any since about 1969 or so when as kids we watched "Dark Shadows" - a
Since then I have had zero interest in vampires though now just about every shelf of the local book store's science fiction section is crammed with vampire nonsense. (It's fantasy - I live in reality. If you don't like your reality make a new one...)
I thought young adult literature was about things like S. E. Hinton's "The Outsiders" or maybe Newbery Award winners like "A Wrinkle in Time"...
How little did I know.
I do recall the Linda Blair TV show about rape in the 1970's but apparently that's all child play compared to today's "teen novels": From Jackie Morse Kessler's Rage: "She had sliced her arms to ribbons, but the badness remained, staining her insides like cancer. She had gouged her belly until it was a mess of meat and blood, but she still couldn't breathe."
Then there is the modern "Twilight" series. I suppose that this also fans these flames.
Today's modern teen novels cover homophobia, rape, incest, cutting, boozing, sexual abnormalities, beatings, you name it, all as regular fare.
About the most "lurid" novel I can recall of this sort was "Venus on the Half Shell" by Kilgore Trout.
In about 1972 I recall what was being read in the high school study hall - "Dune" by Frank Herbert, "The Arms of Krupp" by William Manchester, literature along those lines. When I entered high school the guys graduating were on their way to Vietnam - by the time I graduated in1975 the local draft induction and registration centers were all closed or sent anyone who went there to register away.
From my perspective as a teenager that was a rather large pallor hanging over everyone's head - "next stop is Vietnam" and all that. While there was protest music in the form of songs like Neil Young's "Ohio" beyond that everyone seemed to keep a cool head. And while there were suicides, abortions, and all the rest in high school - one or two in the four years I was there - that was by far exception and not the norm - nor was it glorified in any way.
So what's the point of all this?
Well, while the Vietnam war raged all around us as teenagers - on Walter Cronkite's news programs in vivid black and white - most people I knew or saw were not horrifically affected like today's youth. You knew guys that went to 'nam, or to Canada. You knew guys that "came back". You knew what you were facing. And it wasn't pretty. But hey, you were going to be grown up so you dealt with it.
Apparently today's teenage years are far, far worse off than what I saw in the 1960's and 70's - in spite of the war.
Personally I think the self centered 60's "drug culture" mentality which took over the entire country as the baby boomers aged and begin to integrate into the rest of society has done great harm to today's youth. Their message was "me first" - which didn't leave much room for their children's future when they came along later on.
In my high school years you thought about being 18 and reaching "adulthood". People dropped out to get married and have kids, people had kids, people graduated despite adversity, got married, people went on to college, people went to work. That was about it. There were no long decades of post-high-school malaise where you went to twelve years of graduate school only to wore at McDonalds. You might have had obstacles but your job, because you were young, was to overcome them.
Most kids I knew going into high school were already "grown up" by today's standards - some lived effectively on their own by then - high school shaped their thinking and future a bit more - exposed them to some new things or gave them skills needed for the futre - but on a personal level there was not a lot of change over those four years. The vector of their futures was quite often already settled - at least in general. Kids aspired to be "grown up" - to vote, to have the freedom of their own lives to do what they wanted.
You don't see that today - you're not a "grown up" until you've had your starter child, your failed starter marriage, your mound of unpaid debt, your rehab experience - all by age 30. No wonder they read books about self mutilation.
You could even see the beginnings of it by the time I graduated - the kids coming in as freshman were less serious, less grown up, worried less about the future and more about having fun.
Sadly I don't run into many people my age who give a rat's ass about today's kids (their own kids or their grand kids) - most of these folks are too busy "finding themselves" again after their second or third failed marriage, their drug problems, etc. - their own kids cast aside in the process. Little wonder these modern kids turn to thoughts of suicide, vampires, rape, and abuse.
So its little wonder today's kids are screwed up, read screwed up books, all the while fantasizing about suicide, death, rape, abuse, mutilation.
The WSJ should serve as a wake up call to the adults - the canary in the coal mine just died - but sadly it won't...
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