21 July 2014
What does it mean to cry over a book? It's a question that has been in the foreground lately, thanks to "The Great Y.A. Debate of 2014"-the conversation, sparked by Ruth Graham last month in Slate, about the merits of John Green's "The Fault in Our Stars" and other young-adult fiction. The debate has been about a lot of things, including the tension between high and popular art, the role of criticism, and the fate of maturity as a cultural value. But it has also been-peculiarly-about the value and meaning of tears. "I'm a reader who did not weep," Graham wrote, defiantly. "Does this make me heartless? Or does it make me a grown-up?"
