Foot: "I (heart) Novels"

I found this article interesting because I know very little about what drives young Japanese girls literary desires. Turns out it is not much different from what drives the interests of young girls all over the world; of course I'm talking about the traditional elements of a love story with multiple obstacles for the young lovers to overcome. The only differences that separate these low-brow love stories from country to country are cultural defences. The Japanese value Chastity and virginity much more than we do in America, so their love stories have the issue of a girl losing her virginity, and the shame it will bear on her. In American love stories it is no big deal if the girl does or does not have sex with her lover. In American and Japanese loves stories young girls value the idea of having a boyfriend, but in literature love doesn't follow these stereo typical guidelines created by the media and perpetuated by trendy young people. These love stories only hit the edges of what it means to be in a real relationship. The only good that I see going on in this article is that young people are writing, perhaps they haven't realized what makes a relationship yet, perhaps they are writing about the only things they know, what they see on the tv and in movies. I appreciate that people are at the beginning stages of learning how to express themselves through the written word, even if I don't like what they are writing. But I wanted to end on the comment that the original author of "Eternal Dream" said about the genre she helped create, "I regret almost everything I’ve ever published,” she said. “I could have done a lot to cover things up and I didn’t. I feel a profound responsibility about that.” The label of writer, she said, is unsuitable both to her and to the genre. “If I were some super-famous novelist, I would be running around saying, ‘Hey, I’m a novelist.’ But I’m not. I’m treated as this lame chick who’s written one of those awful cell novels. Do you think I can be proud of that? It really depends on which side the public is going to join. I’m considered a total loser for having done it, and I myself think that, too.” Her cheeks were flushed, and her eyes glittered. “People say these horrible things about cell-phone novels, and I’m not sure they’re mistaken. They say we’re immature and incapable of writing a literate sentence. But I would say, so what? The fact that we’re producing at all is important.”