Are John Green's books and ones like them (Diary of a Wimpy Kid etc) just a retelling of the kind of romance-centre books featuring oppressed female outsiders as their protagonists (Jane Eyre etc)?
In a lot of older books, the kind written by Bronte et al., there's a shy, innocent girl who gets overlooked (often due to not being very pretty) and treated badly by those around her. The girl usually falls in love with a mysterious male stranger who is assertive and eccentic and who is attracted to her despite her lack of confidence or social status. The guy is often referred to as Prince Charming or a Dark Mysterious Stranger.
In John Green and a lot of other contemporary YA books there's a shy, innocent guy who gets overlooked (often due to not being very pretty) and treated badly by those around him. The guy usually falls in love with a mysterious female stranger who is assertive and eccentric and who is attracted to her despite her lack of confidence or social status. The girl is often referred to as a Manic Pixie Dream Girl.
Have these modern writers simply subverted a traditional plot mainstay in order to appeal to a generation of beta white males raised by single mothers, appealing to their self-pity and need for affection with the promise of an Other who will one day swoop in and validate their worth?
>>8012830
Jane Eyre is oppressed by her evil guardians, etc.
>>8012824
>In John Green and a lot of other contemporary YA books there's a shy, innocent guy who gets overlooked (often due to not being very pretty) and treated badly by those around him. The guy usually falls in love with a mysterious female stranger who is assertive and eccentric and who is attracted to her despite her lack of confidence or social status. The girl is often referred to as a Manic Pixie Dream Girl.
consider to watch anime lol, a shy guy often gets a whole harem of such girls at once there
so, with the crisis of masculinity we have guys who wait for their princess on a white horse in the towers nearby to the towers of girls who wait for such a white horsed prince
i think you misunderstand jane eyre though, the girl there is pretty strong willed
p.s. also you forgot to change her to him here when you copied the line from the previous paragraph
>and who is attracted to her despite her lack of confidence or social status.
>>8012855
I don't think it's so much a crisis of masculinity as the portrayal of meek, beta males as virtuous and deserving of both pity and special attention.
I'm reading Looking for Alaska right now and it's so unbelievably retarded I'm just hoping the protagonist gets put in his place for being so faggy.
He routinely mocks people who like sports, who work out, who are popular and so on while pointing out on every page how skinny and pale and unassertive and friendless and intelligent etc he is, despite the fact that these features (or lack thereof) still make people want to befriend him and be around him and even want to date him (Lara). Right now Alaska, who has made every move so far in getting to know him and bringing him out of his shell, has asked him to stay behind at school over Thanksgiving and they're currently laughing together while drinking wine by the school playing field. I suspect he's going to get cucked or something pretty soon but if he gets her I'll be pretty annoyed.
>Have these modern writers simply subverted a traditional plot mainstay
"Subversion" sounds too strong. They just accidentally stumbled upon a variation that turned out to be culturally relevant to the people today.
OH HE is the one that does Diary of a Wimpy Kid? No wonder you guys meme about his twitter post.. Guy is only known cause of his movie deals and got rich. Why the fuck you guys care about a guy that writes children novels?
>>8013080
Personally I dislike them because as a beta autistic faggot myself I hate the idea he pushes that women therefore owe me their pity and moist vaginas. I know my mentality and disposition suck and I don't want some faggot making money telling people I'm actually a cool misunderstood guy. Plus his beta autistic faggot characters get to fuck PTP which just tortures me.
>>8013088
I thought that book series was about a middle school kid that gets picked on? Why is he having graphic sexual scenes in a children's novel?
>>8013080
John Green didn't write the Diary of a Wimpy Kid series, OP meant books like those of John Green and like the Diary of a Wimpy Kid series
>>8013105
oooooooooh. then I don't know anything that John Green has done and wish /lit/ would stop memeing this guy if no one likes him.
>>8013120
He wrote the Fault in our Stars (the movie that all the teenagers shit themselves over a year or two ago) and a few other YA novels.
>>8013128
I don't remember that being a movie or having any advertisement. I must be losing touch with today's youth. I'm guessing /lit/ is mostly teenagers? I dont understand the memeing about YA authors and books.
>>8012824
John Green's audience is overwhelmingly female, so clearly the work is not purely male wish fulfillment: there must be something which appeals to women as well.
I think the reason the books appeal to young women is that the protagonist is non-threatening and superficially intelligent. They appeal to some men as well because the profile of the protagonist aligns with what young bookish men fantasise about. They are not interested in being hypersexual or macho, yet they are still seeking female companionship and intimacy. Hence Green is able to attract an audience of both men and women.
Comparing the two Green novels I have read, Looking for Alaska and the Fault in Our Stars, the former is clearly a male wish fulfillment fantasy while the latter is a more sentimental work aimed at women.
I haven't read the work of Eyre et al but I would imagine they have far greater depth to them than Green's writing does. His novels seem to be more about 'experiences' and entertainment than trying to make a serious point about life. The only such point I can remember from LFA was the blowjob being awkward and unromantic while hugging Alaska is full of sexual energy and the juxtaposition of the two being a condemnation of promiscuity. Pretty rudimentary stuff.
>>8012862
This has got to be the whiniest post about Alpha males that I have ever read.
>>8013134
It's more along the lines of the media and teenagers hyping him up as a meaningful and "deep" author, when /lit/ thinks he's not.
The Fault in our Stars was some bullshit about kids having cancer and falling in love with but life not being fair because cancer kills you and some other bullshit that teens love because it's "deep and really speaks about life"
