Harmful? No, sick-lit novels can really help teenagers
TaniTh Carey made some worthy points about the ‘disturbing phenomenon’ of ‘sick-literature’ — ‘novels that deal with complex subjects relating to death and disease such as cancer, depression, eating disorders and other important issues relevant to modern society’ — but concentrated mainly on the negatives of the genre, ignoring any positives. The whole issue is far broader than the aspects on which she focused. She calls the books ‘mawkish at best, exploitative at worst’. She suggests the genre romanticises topics such as cancer and self-harm, simply to create a compelling narrative; that the books ‘encourage copycat behaviour’. But it’s highly presumptuous to think someone will ill read them and ‘immediately reach for their blade’. it’s an insult to regard our generation as so weak-minded and shallow. if her assertion is true, should we assume that readers of Shakespeare’s Macbeth are striving to commit murder to progress their careers or that those who read To Kill a Mockingbird will be prone to racism? are publishers of sick-lit really ‘selling books by sensationalising children’s suffering’, glamorising stories of cancer and other issues solely to make a profit? i believe the authors are writing stories about the real world and the difficulties people have to face every day, as opposed to tales of princesses and fairies. isn’t it better to prepare teen readersd forf reality? These books can help them deal with difficult situations by taking up issues which are otherwise considered taboo. in fact, this form of literature can support and educate. This isn’t such a new phenomenon, either. Many famous works of the past, including a. a. Milne’s Winnie The Pooh (containing characters with mental disorders) and Frances hodgson Burnett’s The Secret Garden (which tells the tale of a young, handicapped boy) were written for very young children and are just as ‘disturbing’. But we aren’t living now in a world of damaged, psychotic adults, broken by the influence of such stories. LAURYN TAPPER, age 15, Salisbury, Wiltshire.