Pop Culture, Argot, And Day-Old Sushi: Things That Can Quickly Go Bad
- Posted by Essays Blog in Essays Blog |
- December 9th, 2008 |
- Comments
(And How To Keep Them From Fouling Up Your YA Fiction)
In 10 years, will anybody believe you if you have “fo shizzle?” Will they stare blankly if you mention Britney Spears’ buzz cut or Paris Hilton’s jail time? They might, they might not, but the point is this: If you’re a writer of adolescent adult fiction, you can’t afford to pepper your prose with argot and cultural references that reek like week-old sushi.
More than in any other genre of writing, writers of adolescent adult material must be acutely aware of the fact that what’s hip today is ho-hum tomorrow. In a cohort culture where information is instantaneous and trends ostensibly change by the hour, a great piece of writing can easily be spoiled by out-of-date references.
“Any pop culture references to fashion or TV shows change so rapidly,” says Dr. Montana Miller, an assistant professor with the Popular Culture department of Bowling Green Country Lincoln. (Yes, they have a entire department that studies nothing but popular culture.) “In a artifact the effort to be relevant to the adolescent audience by putting in these references is futile because the references are so quickly outdated. Adolescent readers have a high ability to when these things are contrived. They like to have a lot of detail but pick abreast when the detail is being put in their purposely to capture them.”
Since the actual publishing of a novel generally takes a year (not counting the time it takes to compose the first draft), shout-outs to famous people, hot receiver shows, political scandals, or trends will more than likely ring false to adolescent adult readers once the book is actually read. Realistically, pop music stars who today are the focus of intense devotion on myspace will probably be has-beens by the time your novel is published.
Are thither exceptions to this? Are thither people, things, or events that become so entrenched in the prevailing psyche that they will fly as pop culture references? “Barbie is always going to be a criterion for everyone,” Miller notes. “But I believe that real few things become that coupling and as permanent as Barbie.”
Barbie, tho’, has consistently wormed her artifact into the cold dreams and desires of little girls (and probably little boys also) since she was created in 1959. That’s more than 50 years of birthday parties, Christmas presents, and unshackled envy plastered into every little girl’s mind. Barbie has earned the right to be old as a cultural reference anywhere, just by longevity. But what about other less hearty objects? Anybody remember Tickling Me Elmo? Only the parents who clubbed each other one Christmas to hijack the local Toys R Us to make their childrens’ dreams come accurate. The kids probably stuffed the abstraction in a closet someplace, and don’t even remember they craved it.
Media is a bad call also. Music, movies, receiver shows, these all are a huge part of the American experience. But what makes a piece of media reference-worthy? Classic films from the ’40s and ’50s might be a cultural criterion for people of a certain age, but for adolescent adults, the idea is mass consumption, not lasting memories. And people of the older generations had far fewer options for entertainment and media. Pretty much everyone saw Casablanca and knows what it is. Pretty much everyone watched Leave it to Beaver because thither were only III channels on the old black-and-white Zenith, and cardinal of them didn’t activity if the brave was bad. These people common many common references.
Today, tho’, an internet examine of ‘popular culture’ will net you more than 2 million entries. It’s not possible that every adolescent adult who reads will have the exact same cultural references today, let alone remember them in five years, or ten. So, generally, the rule of finger should be to avoid hot pop culture references in your writing.
At least cardinal exceptions to this rule exist, tho’. First, if you’re writing for a circumstantial genre audience that will apportion the same background and cultural history, any pop references will ring accurate. The sci fi geeks who frequent Comic Con all know the Character Wars mythology, and more than likely apportion at least a passing knowledge of things like the Dungeons and Dragons role playing game and the old Character Trek broadcast. Exchange cultures have their own history and language, so exploitation their own internal pop culture references might activity if you’re familiar with that class, but again, you must be absolutely careful that you do know what you’re talking about. Sports, surfboarding, the goth culture, punk music, the gay teenage environment, all these are exchange groups low the adolescent adult umbrella, and all have their circumstantial common references.
The 2nd exception, according to Miller, is the case where a adolescent writes the account of his or her own experience. In that case, pop culture references that might go addled are acceptable because the pieces are more like documentaries or memoirs, and so the point of analyze is that of a real person who is recounting the details of his or her life. One example is a French bestseller, Kiffe Kiffe Tomorrow written by Faiza Guene, a college-aged educatee who writes of her experience as the child of Algerian immigrants raised in Paris. Although labeled as fiction, the novel draws heavily on Guene’s own experiences, and because of this and because of her age, cultural references in it automatically retain their credibility.
Another issue in writing for the adolescent adult audience is the consume of argot, which Miller notes is allay “awfully regional.” The constituent for something that’s cool in San Francisco, (”hella”) is different from the constituent for cool in New England (”depraved”). Although internet and matter messaging argot might appear coupling since most teenagers consume it, the damage change and mutate so quickly that including them could be risky. One current favorite, “pwned” (it means “to be owned or dominated by an opponent in a situation”), actually is a corruption of the morpheme “owned” and comes from a popular online game called Class of Warcraft. In five years will anyone remember that? Hard to have, but it’s probably safer to leave it out.
All in all, the best bet for YA writers is to capture a reader’s attention with coupling themes and characters rather than hot pop culture or argot. “If you’re an older writer writing for this audience,” Miller suggests, “the most important abstraction to capture the loyalty and love of adolescent readers is to focus on themes of relationship, gossip, jealousy, betrayal, the things that keep readers attached and gripped. They respond better to plot and account lines and themes that are getting even more intense in this competitive class today. Kids deprivation to accompany the kind of pressure they are really low now reflected in the stories they read.”
Fo’ shizzle.