美国国家公共电台 NPR In Love With Teen Lit: Remembering The 'Paperback Crush' Of The '80s And '90s

In Love With Teen Lit: Remembering The 'Paperback¹ Crush' Of The '80s And '90s

AILSA CHANG, HOST:

OK. If you were a preteen girl in the '80s or early '90s, chances are you spent endless hours like I did, devouring² pastel-colored novels with picture-perfect girls on the covers and plots that mostly played out like this.

GABRIELLE MOSS³: Heterosexual, white, middle-class girl experiences small problem that seems very big to her but is solved in about a hundred pages.

CHANG: That is Gabrielle Moss. For her new book, "Paperback Crush," Moss went deep into the world of '80s and '90s teen fiction.

MOSS: There was a little, micro, subgenre in '80s and '90s YA that I would describe as sensitive girl meets a ghost who helps her solve personal problems.

CHANG: (Laughter) Totally relatable.

MOSS: I mean, who hasn't been there?

CHANG: Moss eventually moved on to more grown-up reading. But when she turned 34, on impulse, she decided⁴ to buy a giant box of "Sweet Valley High" paperbacks⁵ off of eBay.

MOSS: About 50 volumes, which I got for $25 - amazing deal.

CHANG: Not bad.

MOSS: I started reading them and, you know, it was nostalgic stress relief. But I also started kind of noticing their themes, their messages. I started remembering stuff from reading them in my own childhood. And I started wondering, you know, what was the impact of reading all these books? You know, I used to read probably two of these novels a week.

CHANG: So I want to give listeners a sample of what you and I were reading back in the '80s and '90s. This literary selection is from "Sweet Valley High." It's No. 32, "The New Jessica."

(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)

UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: (Reading) Jessica's eyes narrowed as they strayed from the mirror to the peach-colored knit dress hanging in her sister's closet. Liz, can I borrow the dress Grandma Wakefield sent you, she asked imploringly⁶, her hand reaching out to stroke the soft fabric⁷. I'm so sick of all my clothes. Sighing, Elizabeth pushed her journal away. I don't know, she said, steeling herself. I've only worn it twice.

CHANG: Of course, scored by the perfect after school special music. That was the drama. Will Elizabeth loan Jessica the dress?

MOSS: Treated with utter seriousness.

CHANG: I mean, what do you think it was about the '80s and '90s that made girls like us turn to these kinds of stories?

MOSS: Well, within teen fiction, I found in my research trends are kind of cyclical. So in the '40s and '50s and early '60s, you had very wholesome⁸ books for girls called malt shop novels that were, you know, Jenny has a crush on Tommy. They kissed with closed mouths. The end.

In the late '60s, you had the rise of something called the problem novel. The most famous example of that would be probably S.E. Hinton's "The Outsiders."

CHANG: Yeah.

MOSS: And these books were grittier, more realistic. You had sex and drugs and family trouble. And then in the late '70s, the cycle just turned over again. A series called "Wildfire" was first released in 1979. And these were very wholesome romance novels. And they were such enormous hits that it was like the malt shop books were back.

CHANG: It felt like every girl defined herself by her relationship to some boy.

MOSS: That was often true in the romance novel. One interesting thing I noticed is that when they started, in the mid-'80s, publishing more books for younger girls - books like "Baby-Sitters Club" - those girls were too young to be obsessed⁹ with boyfriends. And so instead, they had these girls define themselves by their friendship relationships with other girls.

And I think that was one of the biggest impacts these books had on our generation and kind of planting the seed of the idea that your friendships with other women were as important in your life as a romantic relationship might be down the line.

CHANG: These girls were their own bosses. They were business-savvy, capable, balancing school with jobs. That's cool. That's affirming. You would think that that would still resonate with teenage girls today.

MOSS: And I think that would. And "Baby-Sitters Club" books are still, you know - they get repackaged and rereleased, or there are comic book versions. So that's one series from that era that has really held on for a new generation of readers.

CHANG: So earlier, you were saying you bought this huge crate¹⁰ of "Sweet Valley High" books off of eBay. You read through all of them again, and it gave you a chance to sort of reconnect with why these books you read so voraciously¹¹ as a teenager impacted you so deeply. What do you think the answer is now?

MOSS: Even in a very fluffy¹² book like "Sweet Valley High," there's an emphasis on making yourself happy, even though the girls of "Sweet Valley High" often make themselves happy in ways that make everyone else miserable¹³.

But in books like "Baby-Sitters Club" or "Sleepover Friends," there's an emphasis on thriving and, you know, doing things that bring you joy, helping¹⁴ others, creating a community, seeing your ideas through.

Those weren't really ideas that I was getting at home, just because my parents were from a different generation. But I really got it from those books. I feel like they raised me, in a way.

CHANG: Yeah, maybe fluffy, but meaningful fluff.

MOSS: There's fluffy moments. There's meaningful moments. There's a lot of moments where they're arguing about sweater dresses. It all comes together into a beautiful hole.

CHANG: That's Gabrielle Moss. She's the author of "Paperback Crush." Thank you so much for joining us.

MOSS: Thank you for having me.

(SOUNDBITE OF JOHN BUTLER TRIO SONG, "SPRING TO COME")

1 paperback   

n.平装本，简装本

参考例句：

• A paperback edition is now available at bookshops.平装本现在在书店可以买到。
• Many books that are out of print are reissued in paperback form.许多绝版的书籍又以平装本形式重新出现。

2 devouring   

吞没( devour的现在分词 )； 耗尽； 津津有味地看； 狼吞虎咽地吃光

参考例句：

• The hungry boy was devouring his dinner. 那饥饿的孩子狼吞虎咽地吃饭。
• He is devouring novel after novel. 他一味贪看小说。

3 moss   

n.苔，藓，地衣

参考例句：

• Moss grows on a rock.苔藓生在石头上。
• He was found asleep on a pillow of leaves and moss.有人看见他枕着树叶和苔藓睡着了。

4 decided   

adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的

参考例句：

• This gave them a decided advantage over their opponents.这使他们比对手具有明显的优势。
• There is a decided difference between British and Chinese way of greeting.英国人和中国人打招呼的方式有很明显的区别。

5 paperbacks   

n.平装本，平装书( paperback的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• This shop only sells paperbacks. 这家书店只出售平装本的书。 来自辞典例句
• Other paperbacks were selling for ten or 15 cents each. 其它的平装书每本才卖十或十五美分。 来自互联网

6 imploringly   

adv. 恳求地, 哀求地

参考例句：

• He moved his lips and looked at her imploringly. 他嘴唇动着，哀求地看着她。
• He broke in imploringly. 他用恳求的口吻插了话。

7 fabric   

n.织物，织品，布；构造，结构，组织

参考例句：

• The fabric will spot easily.这种织品很容易玷污。
• I don't like the pattern on the fabric.我不喜欢那块布料上的图案。

8 wholesome   

adj.适合；卫生的；有益健康的；显示身心健康的

参考例句：

• In actual fact the things I like doing are mostly wholesome.实际上我喜欢做的事大都是有助于增进身体健康的。
• It is not wholesome to eat without washing your hands.不洗手吃饭是不卫生的。

9 obsessed   

adj.心神不宁的,鬼迷心窍的,沉迷的

参考例句：

• He's obsessed by computers. 他迷上了电脑。
• The fear of death obsessed him throughout his old life. 他晚年一直受着死亡恐惧的困扰。

10 crate   

vt.(up)把…装入箱中；n.板条箱，装货箱

参考例句：

• We broke open the crate with a blow from the chopper.我们用斧头一敲就打开了板条箱。
• The workers tightly packed the goods in the crate.工人们把货物严紧地包装在箱子里。

11 voraciously   

adv.贪婪地

参考例句：

• The bears feed voraciously in summer and store energy as fat. 熊在夏季吃很多东西，以脂肪形式储存能量。 来自《简明英汉词典》

12 fluffy   

adj.有绒毛的，空洞的

参考例句：

• Newly hatched chicks are like fluffy balls.刚孵出的小鸡像绒毛球。
• The steamed bread is very fluffy.馒头很暄。

13 miserable   

adj.悲惨的，痛苦的；可怜的，糟糕的

参考例句：

• It was miserable of you to make fun of him.你取笑他，这是可耻的。
• Her past life was miserable.她过去的生活很苦。

14 helping   

n.食物的一份&adj.帮助人的，辅助的

参考例句：

• The poor children regularly pony up for a second helping of my hamburger. 那些可怜的孩子们总是要求我把我的汉堡包再给他们一份。
• By doing this, they may at times be helping to restore competition. 这样一来, 他在某些时候,有助于竞争的加强。