Do dark themes in young adult fiction help or harm teenagers?

As you probably already know, journalist and book reviewer Meghan Cox Gurdon unleashed a firestorm in the world of teen literature with her recent Wall Street Journal article in which she wrote of the "explicit abuse, violence and depravity" in many of the YA books published these days. The general gist of her argument seems to be that reading violent literature may lead to violence in the reader: "it is ... possible - indeed, likely - that books focusing on pathologies help normalize them and, in the case of self-harm, may even spread their plausibility and likelihood to young people who might otherwise never have imagined such extreme measures."

Gurdon is not a stranger to getting people's backs up - as a long time columnist you could argue that she's not doing her job if she doesn't draw a decent response from time to time, but this time she's triggered a veritable barrage of disagreement from YA authors and fans - it's said that the newly formed Twitter hashtag YAsaves has been tweeted over 15000 times, and the blogosphere is knee-deep in opinions.

Here are snippets from some of the more interesting responses:

Laurie Halse Anderson, author of YA novels such as Wintergirls:

Books don't turn kids into murderers, or rapists, or alcoholics. (Not even the Bible, which features all of these acts.) Books open hearts and minds, and help teenagers make sense of a dark and confusing world. YA literature saves lives. Every. Single. Day.

Roger Sutton, editor of The Horn Book:

If you're a teen who is running your reading choices by your parents, grow up. If you're a parent who feels compelled to approve your child's reading, shut up. The books and the kids are all right.

Linda Holmes, NPR:

I'm more intrigued by the aspirational nature of the quaint but sad idea that teenagers, if you don't give them The Hunger Games, can be effectively surrounded by images of joy and beauty.

Author Veronica Roth, from the perspective of someone who was an "intensely sensitive teenager...adversely affected by disturbing things I read or watched on TV":

So yes, I understand that some parents are shocked by what they see in the YA section, and I understand they don't want their kids to read these books, but I can't help but think those parents need to be more shocked by the world.

Sherman Alexie, author of  The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian:

Almost every day, my mailbox is filled with handwritten letters from students–teens and pre-teens - who have read my YA book and loved it. I have yet to receive a letter from a child somehow debilitated by the domestic violence, drug abuse, racism, poverty, sexuality, and murder contained in my book. To the contrary, kids as young as ten have sent me autobiographical letters written in crayon, complete with drawings inspired by my book, that are just as dark, terrifying, and redemptive as anything I've ever read. ....

When I think of the poverty-stricken, sexually and physically abused, self-loathing Native American teenager that I was, I can only wish, immodestly, that I'd been given the opportunity to read The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian. Or Laurie Halse Anderson's Speak. Or Chris Lynch's Inexusable. Or any of the books that Ms. Gurdon believes to be irredeemable. I can't speak for other writers, but I think I wrote my YA novel as a way of speaking to my younger, irredeemable self...

When some cultural critics fret about the "ever-more-appalling" YA books, they aren't trying to protect African-American teens forced to walk through metal detectors on their way into school. Or Mexican-American teens enduring the culturally schizophrenic life of being American citizens and the children of illegal immigrants. Or Native American teens growing up on Third World reservations. Or poor white kids trying to survive the meth-hazed trailer parks. They aren't trying to protect the poor from poverty. Or victims from rapists.

No, they are simply trying to protect their privileged notions of what literature is and should be. They are trying to protect privileged children. Or the seemingly privileged....

And now I write books for teenagers because I vividly remember what it felt like to be a teen facing everyday and epic dangers. I don't write to protect them. It's far too late for that. I write to give them weapons – in the form of words and ideas - that will help them fight their monsters. I write in blood because I remember what it felt like to bleed.

Lastly, to add a bit of balance, an article in defense of Meghan Cox Gurdon by Janice Harayda at One-Minute Book Reviews

What did Cox Gurdon do to earn this torrent of vitriol? She did what critics are supposed to do – to look beyond plot and characterization and consider the deeper themes and issues raised by novels. In "Darkness Too Visible," she questioned the effects of books like Jackie Morse Kessler's Rage, a "gruesome but inventive" 2011 book about a girl whose secret practice of cutting herself "turns nightmarish after a sadistic sexual prank." Cox Gurdon quotes a passage from the novel that says: "She had sliced her arms to ribbons, but the badness remained, staining her insides like cancer. She had gouged her belly until it was a mess of meat and blood, but she still couldn't breathe."

It is entirely legitimate for a reviewer to ask, as Cox Gurdon does, how this might effect a vulnerable child or teenager:

What do you think. Do dark themes in young adult fiction help or harm teenagers?
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