Sunday scribblings

http://sundayscribblings.blogspot.com/

I don't know if I really want another weekly blog "assignment," but anything with the word "scribblings" in it is going to catch my attention.

So let's give it a try. I'm not terribly interested in this week's theme (space aliens), so I'll go with last week's:

I just don't get it

As the mother of two teenagers, I've discovered that there is a segment of young adult (YA) literature devoted to tragedy. Fathers murder mothers. Best friends go crazy. Parents abandon their children. Everything bad that can happen does. And these books seem to do very well: they garner rave reviews, win awards, and receive special attention from their publishers and, subsequently, the newspapers and major book-store chains.

I just don't get it.

I don't deny that many of these books are well written. They can be compelling stories with moving conclusions. And maybe it's therapeutic for the authors to write them. But why would people really want to read them? Doesn't life have enough sad times for you? The depressive pall that reading one of these books casts over my life can last for days. It's just not worth it.

And why aren't the happy books receiving the rave reviews and awards and special attention? Why is it that tragic stories seem more worthy somehow?

It's like the Oscars. Comedies are very rarely nominated for Best Picture, and even more rarely win. I don't think this is because they aren't as good as their more dramatic counterparts, and it's certainly not because the actors and filmmakers and crews and studios have worked less hard to produce them. It is simply that because they make us laugh, we take them less seriously. So, Juno—a perfectly delightful "little" film about family, humanity, and love—loses out to a (no doubt excellent) movie about a very murderous psychopath on the trail of some drug money.

I just don't get it.

Why shouldn't we embrace the things that make us smile? Why shouldn't we look for the laughter, and joy, and happy times in life?

I am not an advocate for censorship in any form, of course. People can write what they want, read what they want, create and view and recognize what they want. And I am not an advocate for turning our eyes away from the real horrors in the world; evil happens and should be faced and fought.

But in my free time, when I'm plunking down my money for a couple hours' entertainment, I'll keep giving the happy story more of a chance. How about you?