Carinci95

Great article and really good points. I feel as though our affections for a fictional character can be more damaging to ourselves than people around us. The books I’ve read often describe a character as highly attractive – ‘He had high cheek bones, a strong jaw and eyes which blazed like fire. When he looked at me I felt like I was set alight and my world as I knew it shattered into a million pieces.’ – The amount of times I’ve read something similar to that is mental, and when I was a young person I feel like these descriptions set unrealistic expectations of what to expect when I love someone. I certainly fell in love with the idea of characters more than the character themselves. Sometimes we feel like we love a character because we are yearning for a similar connection within our real-life relationships. Passionate lovers, rock-solid friendships and knowledgeable mentors all exist in real life but if we feel like our friends, lovers and mentors don’t meet our standards we might be more prone to search for these things through fiction.

This is a great article. I’ve found the common trends exhibited in YA novels to be frustrating. It’s difficult to find a new book exciting or eye opening when the same plot is being used for a different story. I feel as though this is why I showed interest in Bryce Courtenay and similar authors at a very young age. My young mind needed to feel rattled and shocked by what I read. Sure, the cliché stories appealed to my hormonal teenage dreamer side – but while we are easily influenced and young, they can also be damaging and can provoke us to try and find what is being written about in these stories. We might start to crave love interests with brooding men, yearn for tragedy and look for a special power within ourselves that will never come out. Often tragedies and hardships are romanticized. What I’m saying doesn’t relate to all YA books obviously – and my argument might seem a bit flaky but I’m late to class so that’ll have to do. Awesome article!

Very interesting article to read. The comment about the red baseball cap was great. It took a little while for some arguments to sink into my mind and I think the article could have been simplified slightly. But that’s probably just because I’m reading this while exhausted. It was great to read something about Trump that was more analytical than accusatory. I also feel as though a lot of this article could be attributed to other world leaders – and leaders in general.