JOHN MARSDEN
..is that people of different generations read the same book and talk about it and it does open up lines of communication within families. I'm sure we've all been told by readers of situations where that's happened and it's quite moving.
MELINA MARCHETTA
Exactly, yeah. When your book can cross generations, that's the best compliment that you can have and it's 'cause you actually didn't plan for that to happen but that there's dialogue going on at someone's dinner table about something you've written on so many different levels.
JENNIFER BYRNE
Shifting to the other side of Young Adult, with the rise of Young Adult fiction, of course there has been the rise in complaints, attempts to ban. I love the term they use in America is 'frequently challenged' books. And the overwhelming majority of 'frequently challenged' books are Young Adults. Including The Hunger Games, Harry Potter - remember the brouhaha about witchcraft? Frequently challenged. Now, is this because adults want to ensure that children's mind is kept clean or are we just control freaks? What do you think? Why such close supervision?
STEPH BOWE
I think that adults really underestimate teenagers and underestimate what teenagers are aware of. You know, a parent's going to think their child's sweet and innocent and lovely when they're actually being exposed to a lot of things in the school yard, on the Internet, wherever else. And I think trying to ban books, while they've got good intentions and they want to protect their kids, I think they're really definitely taking the wrong tack because kids are just going to then be even more curious to read those books and be exposed to those things. I think it's much better to give teenagers the freedom to read whatever they want to read and, you know, be there to guide them and talk to them about, you know, the book about drugs or the witchcraft in Harry Potter or whatever else it is.
JENNIFER BYRNE
But there is much tougher stuff. I remember Crank which was about the kid who got absolutely hooked on I think on methamphetamine. But there's stuff on incest, there's stuff on paedophilia, on parental abuse, very tough subjects.
JOHN MARSDEN
Sure, and there are in every branch of the publishing industry, you'll find books that have, that are on the fringes, that have gone to extremes and which perhaps aren't... Sometimes that's just on the grounds of taste. I mean, Princess Fergie's book about a talking helicopter for kids was kind of one of the most vile things ever published I think for young people. But, yeah, there are definitely books that I wouldn't want to read or would like to not bother with when I'm stuck in a school library. But it's also been said quite validly, I think, that protection is the oldest form of repression. And so, when I see people talking about protecting children, I wonder what it is that they're trying to control and repress and why they don't allow their children the freedom to explore and to be adventurous and to let their natural spirit of wanting to engage with life.
MORRIS GLEITZMAN
It's ironic, really, that the same sort of anxiety stemming from a troubled world that fuel so much great YA literature is I think causing some adults to want to kind of try and keep the lid on the whole thing. It's an uncontrollable world but they want to control what they can and restricting what young people do has been a very fond form of trying to control the world for many generations of adults.
JENNIFER BYRNE
Trying to control the world but I think you've also talked about the fear of teenagers, that in the end they're the next generation and somewhere in the back of our minds, 'they're gonna take ova'.
JOHN MARSDEN
Yeah...
MELINA MARCHETTA
Most of the time, they haven't read. I think that most of the time, someone hasn't read those books so what happens is a book ends up being an issue-based thing and there are those - what you mentioned before, incest, in those books - but there's so much more. But the people who are banning them haven't read them completely. They've just heard that there's this issue in it and, you know, when someone writes a list of all the issues in one of my books, it sounds awful. I just think, read it, judge it as a complete thing.
JENNIFER BYRNE
But even if they do read it and they do judge it, do you think they should be imposing those limits?
MELINA MARCHETTA
No, because what upsets me in the end is I still think it all comes down to sex and sexuality and I feel that that gets condemned more than violence does. And I think that in The States especially there's a very, very strong religious right that, you know, will review your book and then will give a warning at the end. And that, you can't control that. I mean, they control a lot of schools over there but as a writer, you have to really block that out of your head, you can't write thinking of what's going to, you know, be condemned or what you think is going to get you a headline, you just can't.
JENNIFER BYRNE
Can a book be too dark in your opinion? Or in fact what you're saying is that's the opportunity to talk?
STEPH BOWE
I think it's a really difficult thing to judge because there are books outside my personal taste that other teenagers would probably read and find something really engaging about and enjoy. And I don't think necessarily being exposed to these things is what corrupts the youth. I think it's a matter of context, it's a matter of knowing what you're reading and I think it's a very sort of safe format to explore these issues, to start a conversation with your parents or with your friends. I don't think anyone's ever read a book bout drugs and then thought, you know, read a teenage book about drugs and then thought, 'I think I'm going to become a heroin addict now.' They're exposed to a lot of terrible things and I think books are a safe world to kind of figure out your feelings about things, learn about things, enjoy a story and start a conversation.
JENNIFER BYRNE
So the connection that some people make particularly in America that bad conduct is caused by reading bad books, you think it's just rubbish?
STEPH BOWE
No teenager has ever read a book about sex and then thought, 'Oh, my God, sex! I never thought of that before.' It doesn't happen, you know. They're already being exposed to so much on the Internet from their friends, there's so many pressures in the world. Reading a book in which there's a healthy sexual relationship is not going to damage them.
