I've written previously about YA, or Young Adult, fiction because it is about the only genre currently showing good growth in terms of sales. You can find my earlier posts by clicking on "young adult fiction" in the list of labels on the right, or at the bottom of this post.
Over the weekend, The New York Times led its "Sunday Styles" section with a lengthy feature on Cassandra Clare, one of the most successful YA authors. According to the article, she's "an alternative world builder" who sets her supernatural plots in urban settings.
"The books give you wonder in everyday life," The Times quoted one of her young fans as saying. "She shows you that even if you live in a big city, there can be the possibility of fantasy."
Fantasy, as opposed to reality, appears to be an increasingly attractive environment for young and not so young Americans, which may say something about the current state of American society and declining optimism about the possibilities for advancement and self-fulfillment.
Like some rock stars, Ms Clare travels in a custom bus adorned with her name to events often mobbed by her fans, some of whom travel long distances to attend one. Readers of her books tend to be deeply possessive of the characters Ms Clare creates, sometimes to her distress since she feels that having invented them. she should be able to control what happens to them.
The enormous financial success enjoyed by Ms Care and other prominent alternative world builders such as J.K. Rowling, of "Harry Potter" fame, and Stephanie Meyer, author of the "Twilight" novels, has its downsides, The Times noted. Many YA and fantasy writers find themselves embroiled in lawsuits, generally over allegations of plagiarism, the article said.
"Fantasy is a genre of tropes and I think a lot of people don't understand that," the paper quoted Ms Clare as saying with respect to one lawsuit.
Such lawsuits may be a phenomenon akin to Willie Sutton robbing banks "because that's where the money is."
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