Week 13: Adult Readers and YA

 I wouldn't be me if I didn't reference Star Wars at least once in my writings. In 2007, at mega convention Star Wars Celebration, in front of thousands of adoring adult fans of the franchise, creator George Lucas answered a very serious question about the inception and inspiration of the first film. His response: "It's a film for 12 year olds."

While some may take this as a damnation, and an open infantilizing of those adult fans, I believe (and I believe Lucas himself believes) that this is a strength of the film. Yes, the Light Side and the Dark Side are very cut-and-dry morality, and the film relies on classic adventure tropes and basic hero's journey structure of fantasy, but it is due to these things that the film has such a timeless quality to it. Youths may view it and feel a sense of belonging and identity, while adults can feel reinforced and nostalgic of those very same things. Adults can remember and identify with the same struggles of morality the characters themselves are going through, the upheavals of family and expectations, or losing parental and mentor figures and for the first time having to forge their own path on their own.

In this same way, I think that there is great opportunity in the recommendation of YA novels to adults. The themes therein are often just as timeless, able to be identified with and empathized with by adults. Parents and caregivers may better relate to the experiences of the young adults in their care, recognizing their own similar life experiences spoken with different slang.

I wrote my special topic paper entirely about recommending graphic novels to adults. I explained how comics and graphic novels all have a complex visual language of their own, that their form and function are rooted in art and literary history, and that even though some may be simple pulp stories, there is nothing wrong with an adult partaking in those stories. Entertainment is just as valid a reason for reading as finding the great truths of the universe.

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