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CaptainJackSparrow

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The novel might share some tropes with the YA genre, but the quality of the writing and the depth of the themes is on a whole another level, Plus, although many of us did read the book in our early teens, that's surely not the main target audience, nor is the book something you'd find you've grown beyond when eventually you re-read the book when you are well into your thirties. So it's far from being a YA novel. But it does have a YA protagonist

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1 hour ago, dudalb said:

People think the Dune novels are a YA series????

I am shocked so many people are unaware that the Dune novels..at least the first three...are generally considered among the best Sci Fi novels ever written,truly classic, comparabel to LOTR.

I admit, the cultural illitereacy of people around here deeply distrubs me. I don't expect everybody to have read the books, but not even being awaer of them.

I am not sure of the opposition your are trying to make, YA or not has nothing to do with being good or not, it just mean teens and young adult in a significant number are attracted to the material, like Hobbit, LOTR or Harry Potter.

 

There is 0 judgment on value attached to that term a bit like calling something SCI-FI or epic.

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7 minutes ago, Barnack said:

I am not sure of the opposition your are trying to make, YA or not has nothing to do with being good or not, it just mean teens and young adult in a significant number are attracted to the material, like Hobbit, LOTR or Harry Potter.

 

There is 0 judgment on value attached to that term a bit like calling something SCI-FI or epic.

Yeah, I think your point is definitely valid. A lot of people here are getting offended because they think YA = Hunger Games knockoff.

Edited by Menor
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At least as I see it (and I admit I might be grossly mistaken), a YA novel is specifically aimed at teenagers (although it might interest older demographics). It's a different thing when a book happens to be quite popular with an younger demographic, although they weren't written with that public as its main target.

 

Catcher in the Rye is of course very popular with teenagers, but I myself would not consider it to be a YA novel.

 

But like I said, we're probably discussing semantics and I'm probably wrong in my assessments,  But if I had to put Dune in a book category, YA would be far from being the first that came to my mind

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30 minutes ago, Merkel said:

At least as I see it (and I admit I might be grossly mistaken), a YA novel is specifically aimed at teenagers (although it might interest older demographics). It's a different thing when a book happens to be quite popular with an younger demographic, although they weren't written with that public as its main target.

 

Catcher in the Rye is of course very popular with teenagers, but I myself would not consider it to be a YA novel.

 

But like I said, we're probably discussing semantics and I'm probably wrong in my assessments,  But if I had to put Dune in a book category, YA would be far from being the first that came to my mind

I think both of your definitions are valid. YA is basically a marketing label so it's not like there's any really agreed-upon classification. 

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32 minutes ago, Merkel said:

At least as I see it (and I admit I might be grossly mistaken), a YA novel is specifically aimed at teenagers (although it might interest older demographics).

That would be a good (and better) way to define it as well, but it is harder to know a writer target audience intend versus looking at the result how much it is popular with teens, in some case like Tolkien he said explicitly that he wrote The Hobbits for is kids, making it explicitly YA. I am not sure you can be grossly mistaken, it is not scientific at all, same goes for Horrors or not (2001 a space odyssey play has an horror movie to some people)

 

The American Library Association has classed Dune has Young Adult, NPR did, most people here that talk about it and I read it before the movie project was announced I would venture to guess read it before turning 20, but those are fuzzy and like for Lord of The Rings, YA adjacent, it does not score 100 on the scale like a Hobbits, Star Wars Phantom Menace, Harry Potter or Hunger Games, but it is not close to 0 either.

Edited by Barnack
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tbh I think a lot of kids would find Dune boring. Yes, sure, many of us did discover it as teens, but it’s not pitched at that audience.

 

As a complete aside, as an example of YA being essentially a marketing tool, there were “juvenile novels” back in the 50s and 60s. Juvenile novels... like Starship Troopers. :rofl: 

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3 hours ago, Barnack said:

 

From video games and toys:

 

dune-gun-1984-2.jpg

EYJqOstWkAARfMU.jpg

 

It is not from a lack of trying if that is true.

I mean even stuff like Terminator, Aliens and Robocop got toys and merchandise made out of them in those days, that doesn't mean those films were aimed at young audiences.

Edited by cookie
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Quote

Common themes related to YA include friendship, first love, relationships, and identity.[4] Stories that focus on the specific challenges of youth are sometimes referred to as problem novels or coming-of-age novels.[5]

out of the young adult fiction wiki entry

 

Aimed at / written for YA is something else, those too are usually YA fiction. Maybe that use is more on the forefront of the awareness, see the ... less nice, or ~ over-the-top novels/movies based on those?

 

As said, to me the story details of Dune are far too complex, wide spread to feel like its a typical, only, or fully ‘young adult’ novel, but I do see why others see it as such, especially if checking it for details like CoA, first love, and in the case of Dune (in especial part one) identity matches too, I feel the identity part was a big focus in Lynch’s filmed version as well.

Why I did not sort it into the YA section of my library is:

Paul does not behave ‘teenager-like’, his reactions to the outside, how others can see him, is never immature, he reacts IMHO very mature, very controlled.

What is also a bit atypical for a lot of YA’s, is the frequently shifting perspectives, in especial as the perspectives include also the adult characters.

 

That it got analyzed for its reading and interest levels means at least a lot of teachers, or educational based people consider it as YA material (interest level grade 9-12) - in a way. I guess it got mentioned by some of them to their pupils in such a way - people tend to remember the first intro impressions like that. Also it gets still used ad reading material including e.g. comprehensive understanding the material tests.

I’ve seen it, as told, in libraries sorted in into both general areas, the adult parts of Sci-Fi, and in the YA area, so I see no need to ‘fight’ over if it this or that, but I see seldom a reason to ‘fight’ over culture/Zeitgeist based POVs. How something is seen is fluent and depends on the region/country/language translated to too.

 

 

 

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