Darkness too Visible

Reading Response: “Darkness Too Visible”                                                                                10/23

         The article, “Darkness Too Visible”, by Megan Cox Gurdon, is about how contemporary young adult novels have changed from the past. The author expresses her opinion on young adult literature being too dark for teens to read. Megan Cox Gurdon manipulates her evidence to support her claim, and only her claim.

         Megan Cox Gurdon gives evidence that only supports her claim. She first states her opinion: “How dark is contemporary fiction for teens? Darker than when you were a child, my dear”. She also says that modern authors are writing texts that “can’t be reprinted in a newspaper” and that just because teens can find many deep, disturbing things on the internet, it doesn’t give authors an excuse for more envelope-pushing”. To support her claim, Megan Cox Gurdon only uses evidence biased to her opinion of young adult literature is too disturbing. She uses examples from modern Young adult novels, but doesn’t quote the text; “By contrast, the latest novel by this ‘this generation’s Judy Blume,’ otherwise known as Lauren Myracle, takes place in a small Southern town in aftermath of an assault on a gay teenager. The boy has been savagely beaten and left tied up with a gas pump nozzle shoved down his throat”. Megan Cox Gurdon paraphrased, but did not use actual text evidence from that book, or any of her examples, for that matter, which leads to think that that book may not have been that brutal. Another example of Megan Cox Gurdon doing this is “for example, young Jack is drugged, abducted and nearly raped”. With out actual quotes, it seems as if Megan Cox Gurdon is exaggerating the awful drama in the books and using imagery to make them seem worse than they actually are.

         So even though Megan Cox Gurdon writes her article by using only what seems like dramatized summaries, is contemporary young adult literature really this “horrendous”, “lurid” and “nightmarish” and she makes them out to be? I think not. Megan Cox Gurdon clearly stands against modern teen fiction because she thinks it is too emotional for teens, but I think young adults have the right to decide what they want to read. Teens need to know about all the events that are happening in the real world, and we cannot be kept in a bubble to one day find out about this things by surprise. Teens can also choose not to read a certain book, and we should be able to have that choice.