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[butterflydreaming]

Somehow I've been reading "Young Adult" catagorized books. The first was Feed (M.T. Anderson). Now I'm in the middle of Wolf Moon (de Lint). It's perplexing to see how things are marketed. What criteria earn the YA label? Sex? Age of protagonist? Themes? Length?

Why isn't Promised Land (Cynthia Felice) YA?

On an only vaguely related note, Beverly Cleary is turning 90. She has recently okayed a movie version Ramona. She made the writers change the ending of the screenplay.

Newsweek told me this, the same issue that has a big cover story about user-generated web content. The article mentions My Space, Flickr, and others. The article is a minimum content overview, but I did learn that as many people as live in St. Paul, MN (I think that was the city of comparison) signed up for My Space all on one recent Monday, making it the largest new account activation day to date.

Before anyone {*cough*rhonan*cough*) says anything like "that's a lot of emo", I would like to remind my readers that my big brother is on My Space.

And don't go saying Emo like it's a bad thing. Emo is the natural decendant of Goth!

Comments

[ironymaiden]

wow, i'd call Promised Land a SF romance.

i was trying to find someone on MySpace tonight, and it was one of the worst user experiences i've had. obviously it is compelling to others in some way i don't comprehend. C says it's a meet market?

[butterflydrming.livejournal.com]

PL is SF and romance-focused., but also so lightweight that it reads like YA. I've read a lot of YA that was far darker and deeper. 'Course, I never read romance novels, so I can't compare the genre.

[butterflydrming.livejournal.com]

My Space is very much a Meet Market, while at the same time having minimal interaction. And it's close to impossible to find someone specific unless you know what email addy they are using or if they've given you their URL. That's why I'm not surprized that Newsweeks says that their is a surge in new users every Monday. My Space is a little bit like an interactive calling card. And noisy, as you've pointed out.

I think the appeal to the masses is that it asks for very little maintainance. You put up a picture, maybe send out a "bulletin" every now and again. The profile page is the focus. Your "friends" can post a comment that shows up on it and stays there, something like a Glitter Graphics picture or some such.

Funny enough, my profile was "collected" by some random guy who seems only to want a large list of pretty girls. It has amused me to keep him in the friend list.