There is no doubt that “Anda’s Game” (2007), short story written by the Canadian blogger, journalist and science fiction author Cory Doctorow, is consistent with the requirement of a subgenre known as YAL.
This paper will attempt to examine some of the features listed by Robert C. Small Jr. (Hertz & Gallo, 1996), a renowned literary theorist about Young Adult Literature (YAL) and juxtapose them with the ones that are found in the short science fiction story “Anda’s Game”. In this narrative, the preadolescent protagonist Anda spends most of her time playing computer games online.
The first characteristic pointed out by Small, namely the fact that the main characters should be a teenager, can be found in the following excerpt:
“When Anda was twelve, she met Liza the Organiza, whose avatar was female but had sensible tits and sensible armor and a bloody great sword that she was clearly very good with”.
Holly Koelling (2004) states that the onset of puberty starts between ages 12 to 13. Given these characteristics, the reader may assume that the main character is an adolescent when reading this extract from the story.
According to Small, “dialogue reflects teenage speech, including slang”. This second feature can be identified in the following conversation between Anda and her father:
“Anda, I don’t think it’s healthy for you to spend so much time with your game,” her da said, prodding her bulging podge with a finger. “It’s not healthy.”
“Daaaa!” she said, pushing his finger aside. “I go to PE every stinking day. It’s good enough for the Ministry of Education.”
Anda’s informal language represents teenage speech used by adolescents to communicate with adults, as seen in the “Daaaaaa” and the choice of the word “stinking” for instance.
Another important issue to take into account according to Small is that the teenage main character is usually perceptive, sensitive, intelligent, mature and independent. For instance, the next talk between Anda’s and her progenitor shows her as the owner of some of the characteristics mentioned before:
Anda came home from remedial hockey sweaty and exhausted, but not as exhausted as the last time, nor the time before that. She could run the whole length of the pitch twice now without collapsing— when she’d started out, she could barely make it halfway without having to stop and hold her side, kneading her loathsome podge to make it stop aching. Now there was noticeably less podge, and she found that with the ability to run the pitch came the freedom to actually pay attention to the game, to aim her shots, to build up a degree of accuracy that was nearly as satisfying as being really good in-game.
Her dad knocked at the door of her bedroom after she’d showered and changed. “How’s my girl?”
“Revising,” she said, and hefted her math book at him.
“Did you have a fun afternoon on the pitch?”
“You mean ‘did my head get trod on?’“
“Did it?”
“Yes,” she said. “But I did more treading than getting trodden on.” The other girls were really fat, and they didn’t have a lot of team skills. Anda had been to war: she knew how to depend on someone and how to be depended upon.
“That’s my girl.” He pretended to inspect the paint-work around the light switch. “Been on the scales this week?”
She had, of course: the school nutritionist saw to that, a morning humiliation undertaken in full sight of all the other fatties.
“Yes, Dad.”
“And . . . ?”
“I’ve lost a stone,” she said. A little more than a stone, actually. She had been able to fit into last year’s jeans the other day.
As it can be spotted in the extract above, Anda becomes aware of her obesity and the related diabetes and decides to take action and have control over her health. Her change is connected to teenage maturity and independence showing the way she is able to overcome her sickness.
Small also considers that YAL texts are short. As “Anda’s Game” is a short story, this may be a good advantage to get teenagers involved in reading.
Considering what has been exposed, on the age of the protagonist Anda, as well as her lexical choices and her personality traits, “Anda’s Game”, the science fiction story written by Cory Doctorow, can certainly be considered a case of Young Adult Literature (YAL).
REFERENCES
‘Anda’s Game’ by Cory Doctorow: Overcoming Barriers to Entry. http://thecraftproject.wordpress.com/2011/02/20/andas-game-by-cory-doctorow-overcoming-barriers-to-entry/ Accessed 13/06/13.
Doctorow, C. (2008) “Anda’s Game”. From Strahan, J. (Ed.) The Starry Rift: Tales of New Tomorrows: an anthology of original science fiction. Viking, USA.
Herz, S & Donald, G. (1996) From Hinton to Hamlet: Building Bridges between Young Adult Literature and the Classics. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press.
Koelling, H. (2004) Classic Connections: Turning Teens on to Great Literature. Libraries Unlimited. Westport, CT.
Review: ‘Anda’s Game’ by Cory Doctorow. http://www.teleread.com/ebooks/review-andas-game-by-cory-doctorow. Accessed 13/06/13.
Wikipedia “Cory Doctorow” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cory_Doctorow. Accessed 13/06/13.
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