Does YA Mean Anything Anymore By John Green

Writer John Green, known for composing hit novels, explains why the young adult fiction genre is still very well needed; as well as how it will adapt in the future in his article “Does YA Mean Anything Anymore?: Genre in a Digitized World”. Throughout the text, he hits on multiple important topics such as worry, empathy, the inner darkness, meaninglessness, morality and genre; all setting up for or proving his point on YA’s purpose. Green discusses how a good book of the YA genre helps plenty of people deal with reality and this so called “Inner Darkness” that all people possess, and how the genre will have to fight for survival in the future. Green starts out with the importance of worry to him. He explains why the future of the YA genre is worth fretting over for the fact that it might not exist for much longer. He also brings up how books he read in his past helped him to cope with his problems because he could empathize with the characters; giving him a feeling that he is not alone. …show more content…
The darkness tends to creep up when we are undistracted and have nothing better to do than think. But Green describes his darkness as a feeling of meaninglessness. He explains that this feeling of meaninglessness terrifies him because if everything he does will not have any sort of effect on the world after he is gone, he wonders “why should I do anything, in fact whether I should do anything” (Green 16). To prevent the darkness from emerging, some watch television, some play sports and some read. For Green, like tons of other people in the world, reading has been the ultimate distractions giving the reader not only something to focus on, but also in the YA genre’s case, allowing the reader to connect with the characters. This way, people that enjoy YA books may not only simply distract themselves from reality, but give them hope for the