On Vulgarity and the Wall Street Journal

A couple of people (and, really, only a couple) have called me to task for using vulgarity in my piece on the Wall Street Journal and Meghan Cox Gurdon's assault on young adult novels and those who write them. So, for those people, let me explain. (The rest of you may be amused. I dunno.)

As I said at the very beginning of my piece:

When these disputes arise, I’m always tempted just to post “Go fuck yourselves” and let that be it. Because, in all honesty, “Go fuck yourselves” is roughly the same level of respect and consideration they show to me and mine.

When you pick up the massive builhorn that is a Wall Street Journal op-ed opportunity and use it to blast words like "hideously distorted portrayals," "depravity," "ugliness," and so on into the cultural debate, make no mistake: What you are doing (what Ms. Gurdon did) is shouting, "Go fuck yourselves" with that bullhorn. Shouting to people I call friends, about the art I have made my life's work. This was not an invitation to a debate: It was a scathing call to Middle America to tear books off shelves.

"I don't like the darkness in these books and someone should think of the children!" = "Hey, YA -- go fuck yourselves."

"These awful authors are money grubbing sleezes making bank off the backs of our poor kids." = "Go fuck yourselves."

"Here are some weak, smarmy, ill-informed put-downs of books I am not qualified to judge, but which I will denigrate with the biggest megaphone I have just because I can." = "Go fuck yourselves."

"These dastardly authors and their pernicious 'industry' use the shield of the First Amendment to pour filth into your kids' minds! What will you do?" = "Go fuck yourselves." 

All I did was say it back.

And lest you think there was rancor in what I said... There wasn't. I'm not angry at Ms. Gurdon. I think she's pathetic and I pity her, stumbling through a world she clearly cannot understand. (I am a bit peeved at the WSJ's blatant link-baiting...) Notice I resorted to my epithet at the end of my piece, when I admitted I was bored. "Go fuck yourselves" was tossed off with a yawn. Because, truthfully, these bozos aren't worthy of my rancor. When I'm pissed, you'll know it.

I have been assailed by bullies my whole life. You don't reason with them. You push them aside and go on with your life. Same thing with zealots. And that's exactly what we're dealing with.

See, some people seem to think that you can reason with Ms. Gurdon and her ilk. That you can point out all the good YA does and she will say, "Oh, goodness! I was so misguided and wrong! What was I thinking?"

Not gonna happen. Never gonna happen. I have never in my life been able to change the mind of a bully or a zealot. These guys don't want a debate. Their tactic is simple: Say something inflammatory, force you into a defensive posture, then continually change the nature of the argument so that the defenders can never really make a point. Because these guys don't want to hear your point. They're not open to being convinced. They just want the clicks and the ad revenue and the political clout that comes from leveraging a socio-cultural issue.

When you argue with them like the rational person you are, you've already lost.

Which is why my response is to say (this time cleaned up for the sensitive among you), "Hey, in the strongest possible terms, I'm asking you to please leave my friends and my art alone!"

Hmm.

No, just doesn't have the same ring to it, does it?

(Oh, and in the unlikely event of an apology and complete retraction from Ms. Gurdon, I will emend my previous post and this one to read, "I AM A HUGE DICKHEAD AND JUMPED TO CONCLUSIONS" in gigantic bold type at the beginning. But no apology will come, so I'm really not worried about this.)

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1

You Rock
By: Dorothy on Mon June 06, 2011, 14:18:04

Thank you Thank you Thank you. This post and many more like it across the Interwebs, make me continue to be honored to be a youth librarian. It is a joy to share your works with teens and be able to say, "He is a great guy who knows what you are going through because he lived it." Keep up the good work! You are fucking brilliant!!!

2

hell, yeah!
By: kellye on Mon June 06, 2011, 17:20:17

You're absolutely right, Barry. I always try to reason (and get no where but frustrated and exhausted). And I et myself get angry and hate that I'm giving that emotion away rather than funneling it into my "depraved" YA novel!

One thing that really upset me this morning was that I had mentioned the WSJ story to a friend in an email. She is smart and well-read (though she doesn't read YA), and she has one child, a 10 year old daughter. This woman is politically liberal, and she emails me this: I don't think it was against YA. I thought she brought up some really good points. Gotta admit: I really don't want [her daughter's name} reading about a lot violence, sex, rape, mutilation etc. Why should she? (Don't answer; that's something we can discuss when we get together.)

Of course, I have responded to her and have sent her a couple of great blog links. And she know that I'm writing about a difficult subject and has been nothing but supportive! What worries me is that, despite its decidedly conservative bent, the WSJ gives credibility to these wild opinions, and that can cause a lot of damage to KIDS.

Excited to read your original post now!

3

You don't rock.
By: meme on Mon June 06, 2011, 20:57:23

You are FORTY YEARS OLD, man! Too old to be angsting about the article, too old to be "tagging" your header and too old to be living in a teen dream world. Calm down. Take a Lipitor.