Let's talk Bildungsroman

[rolanni]

A Bildungsroman is a "coming of age" novel. Literature -- even genre literature -- is littered with the things; after all, Growing Up is one of the great themes of fiction, like: Man* Against Man, Man Against The Other, Man Against Academe, Man Against Himself, &c, &c. Examples of such works include, but are by no means limited to: The Catcher in the Rye, Oliver Twist, The Witches of Karres, Stranger in a Strange Land, To Kill a Mockingbird, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Balance of Trade and Fledgling/Saltation.

With the theme being so prevalent, it's a little startling to find people who state flatly that they Never Read and/or Actively Dislike Coming of Age Novels. It's like those peculiar people who state that they abhor books told in the first person because first person is the sign that the writer has not mastered their craft -- i.e. it's easy to write in first person. Trust me, it's not.

Neither is it easy to write about young people and their growing up, especially if one wishes to maintain the basic dignity of the character and the integrity of the experiences that shape them into the adult they will become.

I read coming of age novels, just like I read novels that deal with Man Against The Other, or Man Against Himself (though I confess to a slight distaste for Man Can't Have Erection; happily there are few of those in the genres in which I typically read) -- I mean, they're stories, and stories need certain things to drive them: Theme, for one.

Maybe I'm in a minority, though. What do you guys think of Coming of Age novels? Love 'em? Loathe 'em? Kid's Stuff? Inquiring minds want to know!

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*Where "Man" stands in for "Human" -- I'm sorry; I got all this stuff back in the Bad Old Days when we could say things this way and not offend three-quarters of the internet. Which didn't exist. Which was probably a blessing.

Comments

[otterb.livejournal.com]

Some I like very much. To Kill a Mockingbird, for example, and Balance of Trade. Others I find unreadable, usually either because the hero/heroine is too rashly overconfident (this annoys me more than too whiny, though that is a fault as well) or because the obligatory Confrontation With the Bullies is telegraphed much too far in advance.

Everyone is entitled to one utterly irrational literary prejudice, so I won't quibble about the people who don't like coming-of-age books as long as nobody presses dark-and-sexy-vampire books on me promising that this one is different. I Just Don't Like Them.