Friday 31 August 2012

Is There Any Sense Left In The World (Of YA Fiction)

(Edit/Preface: Beware all ye, who click on the link with the idea that this might be an actual discussion. It is merely a cleverly, yet misleadingly, titled drabble about me being a boring teenager, than actual sense or YA fiction. Enter at your own risk.)

A: YES. But I am a teenager, and henceforth full of Inane Teenage Bullshit, and feel to make my opinion known an something that really isn't a matter of any importance because it is quite frankly not all that true. But I don't bother you with my Bullshit that often, so I feel like it's okay for me to make invalid points every now and again. I'm 16, for crying out loud! I'm basically a walking, breathing mass of hormones and contradictions to things that do not need contradicting.

Nevertheless. It is late, and I'm not nearly vocal enough (nor do I have any people who really want to listen to my Teenage Bullshit on things that aren't in anyway relevant to them) in Real Life. So I will do it here.

I have a question for you, dear Followers. Does stuff ever happen to sensible people? Because apparently stuff only ever happens to you if you're reckless and never stop to think about your decisions. The number of times that I read books where the characters just make the most idiotic decisions is ridiculous, and it frustrates me so much! I do understand that if they didn't, then there wouldn't be much of a story, but come on. Rational teenagers do exist, you know, and I feel that on behalf of all Rational Teenagers of the world, we're a marginally misrepresented population (though, ironically, this thought is probably rather irrational. Did I mention it was late?)

I'm going to confess something to you. I am a Sensible Best Friend. If I was a character in the book of my own life, I wouldn't even be the main one. I would just be that friend that's always around to give the main character the most logical advice which he/she would then completely ignore. I am that person, only less sassy. (I am working on the sass, just so you know. It's been a life's dream of mine to be sassy. Unfortunately, it hasn't been working out to well for me. I'm really rather bad at it.) All of my life that isn't being with my friends is so uneventful that I think I'm going to look back at my teenage years, and all I'm going to remember is sitting a chair writing ITB, reading books and trying to get a new high score on Temple Run. That isn't good, is it? You see, I need to read books about stuff happening to sensible teenagers, because otherwise I'll just keep on going on thinking nothing interesting will happen to me because it never happens to the people in fiction! Don't get me wrong, I'm very content with my lifestyle, and I'm a very happy (if not slightly bored) person. But next time, can we just not have a character with some sense throw it all away for the sake of The Moment. Can we just not do the whole I Used Think About My Actions But Now I'm Having So Much Fun And Facebook Philosophies and Wow I'm So Much More Fulfilled Now I'm A Teenage Rebel And Make All The Boring Sensibles In My Life Look Upon My Sudden New Choices With Disdain And Disappointment. I think I made those last ones up, but you get my drift, right?

Well, I'm not even sure what my Drift is at this point, but I'm capitalising the the first letter of lots of words so it must be important, right? It is really quite late. I hope you'll forgive me for this in the morning.

Where was I? Oh yeah, sensible people. I can't be the only teenager who doesn't want a sweeping epic romance all the time, can I? And I know what you're thinking, you KNEW it'd come down to the romance eventually. I always start it like it's about something else, but it always comes down to the same thing. But it makes people so stupid! I can't be the only teenager who doesn't want to see a person throw away their goals and dreams for a person. Who wants to read about a person who doesn't fall the romantic Shtick and calls them out on their BS. Who tells them straight up that it's not okay to decide stuff for them, and is just all round really sensible and likes themselves and doesn't take others shit, and maybe they have a romance or maybe they don't because they haven't really got the time/doesn't really want a serious commitment/isn't really all that into them anyway.

But I've never been in love before (this really is just all my other so-called 'Discussion posts'. You can probably just ignore it.) Does it really turn people into quivering idiots all the time? Because if it does then I do not want. My sensibleness is one of the things I admire about myself, and I'd be really disappointed if I gave it all up for some fleeting romance. Besides, if I end up changing that much for another person, I probably wouldn't want to be with them anyway. I like myself the way I am, and I don't want to change that for anyone but myself. And I definitely don't want to be the girl whose friends say that she's changed behind her back now that she's got a boyfriend. Another thing I pride myself on is my steadfast ability to not change (and no, I neither know nor care if that sentence made sense). So I don't think my problem is with the occasional silly heroine. I think it's just my inability in understanding why you'd want that, why that'd be the main thing you wanted from life. But really, you know me. I have this whole unjustified rage about codependency. I should probably get over it. Some People Want Codependent Relationships, Deal With It! 

I don't think this ended up really having anything to do with the title at all. All it really is is early morning Teenage epiphanies. Sorry to burden your Google Readers with this irrelevant nonsense. This is probably one of those that I wrote more to get my feelings out than to really make sense, isn't it? Oh, well, it's nice for me to document my thoughts about myself and my opinions somewhere. Though maybe I should stop doing it on the internet...

I'm stopping now. I think I need some sleep.

4 comments:

  1. That was funny :) And you're good with words :)
    But I agree - all the protagonists in stories do seem to always go off and do dangerous, irrational things...obviously, like you said, if they didn't it wouldn't be much of an interesting story, but still...it would be nice to read something with a 'sensible teenager' in it too.
    I would probably be one of those types of characters like you if I were in a book too - that friend that's always around to give the main character the most logical advice which he/she would then completely ignore!

    Catherine :) x

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  2. "I've never been in love before... Does it really turn people into quivering idiots all the time? Because if it does then I do not want. My sensibleness is one of the things I admire about myself, and I'd be really disappointed if I gave it all up for some fleeting romance."

    Lol do you know who you sound like? Jane Eyre! If you haven't read that book yet, you totally, totally should. It's not typically shelved as YA, because it's a literary classic at this point, but she's extremely sensible and moral, and yet she has great love and adventure. (We love JANE EYRE!)

    Same goes for PRIDE AND PREJUDICE, although Elizabeth Bennet is a bit more flawed than Jane.

    This is a great "rant," and we totally understand your frustration. As much as we love YA, we do recognize that there are a lot of... less than wise heroes and heroines, and we wish that authors wouldn't underestimate teens so much.

    Oh, another great contemporary read for you would be THE FAULT IN OUR STARS. John Green really respect teens, and that's reflected in his portrayal of Hazel. (Warning: It's a major tearjerker!)

    And hey, you ARE the main character in your life. Always. But because you're so sensible, maybe your teen years won't be the most exciting ones. That's okay. There is a LOT more time coming, a lot more opportunity for adventure. You can study abroad in college, or get a job in a brand new big city, or even just use your savings to vacation in exotic locales. Believe us, as you get older, being non-sensible becomes more and more dangerous, less and less rewarding. Your practicality and groundedness will serve you really well in your 20s and 30s and 40s and onward. It will set you up for the best kind of life.

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  3. And this. THIS IS WHY YOU ROCK, CICELY.

    But if you're the Sensible Best Friend, I'm like, that one loser who goes to the same school as the protag, who doesn't even HAVE any friends. No, really. Le sigh.

    I'm not gonna lie, I want an Epic Romance! But that obvs wouldn't happen because I don't do the whole dating thing or whatever, but even if I did have an Epic Romance, I wouldn't CHANGE for anybody. What would be the point of being with somebody if they don't even like who I really am? That is such a cliched thing to say, LOL.

    I get the lack of sensibleness SOMETIMES, because sometimes I want to do reckless things just because I know I could, but that doesn't even make sense because I actually COULDN'T and that's why I want to do it. But yeah, most of the time it doesn't make sense. Like myself. Gahhhhhhhh. L8r.

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  4. I totally know what you mean and I felt the same way as you when I was your age… and I just cringed as I was typing that… I feel old now. sigh

    Anyway! What I'm saying is that even the sensible best friends can have fun and in all honesty, high school SUCKS, college will be better, even if your still the sensible one. My first Boyfriend made me into a stupid gooey mess of unsensible but I came to realise that myself towards the end of the relationship (which was ultimately the demise of the relationship) and to be honest it took the end for me to realise that even without epic romance life can be fun if you want it to be! :)

    I hope youre feeling better about being less excentric now hun and smile! Life is awesome, I promise, even when its not!

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