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Megan Abbott and fiction for teens: 'Noir suits a 13-year-old girl’s mind' Megan Abbott and fiction for teens: 'Noir suits a 13-year-old girl’s mind'
(2 days later)
Fear of missing out pervades the young-adult fiction of Megan Abbott. It starts with puberty and is fueled by boredom. “How pathetic”, says a high-school cheerleader in Abbott's novel Dare Me, from 2012, to an adult who wants to get to know her. “I’m not even interested in our lives.” To be just interesting enough to see how uninteresting you actually are: this is the predicament of the 15-year-old. It leads the teen-girl heroes of Abbott’s fiction to drink white wine, take diet pills, and have sex with unworthy boys. Afterward, they go home and text about it. Fear of missing out pervades the young-adult fiction of Megan Abbott. It starts with puberty and is fueled by boredom. “How pathetic,” says a high-school cheerleader in Abbott's novel Dare Me, from 2012, to an adult who wants to get to know her. “I’m not even interested in our lives.” To be just interesting enough to see how uninteresting you actually are: this is the predicament of the 15-year-old. It leads the teen-girl heroes of Abbott’s fiction to drink white wine, take diet pills, and have sex with unworthy boys. Afterward, they go home and text about it.
Reached by phone, in Memphis, where she was on tour with her new book, The Fever, Abbott said, “I remember adolescence being a daily disillusionment. It’s like a checklist of experiences that you haven’t had, that you want to have.” Reached by phone, in Memphis, where she was on tour with her new book, The Fever, Abbott said: “I remember adolescence being a daily disillusionment. It’s like a checklist of experiences that you haven’t had, that you want to have.”
Abbot said, “It’s a terrible vision, but that’s the way it works.”Abbot said, “It’s a terrible vision, but that’s the way it works.”
“I pretend to like it,” one of her characters says, “until I do”.“I pretend to like it,” one of her characters says, “until I do”.
The Fever tells the story of a peer group of girls in the fictional town of Dryden, USA. One of them is afflicted by an illness no one can explain, which causes her to convulse and fall into a coma. Soon others are experiencing seizures, and videos show up on YouTube. Dryden’s adults are left to wonder; there is a PTA meeting that is tense. "Your semen is poison!” a mother tells a teen. In a way the girls cannot control, the reporting of symptoms becomes competitive. “Kim, Kim”, thinks the heroine, Deenie, of one sufferer. “This is the best thing that ever happened to you, isn’t it?” Even in the psych ward, in-crowd rules apply. The novel is based on events that took place in Le Roy, New York, in 2011. It may evoke others, from a little before that, in Salem, Massachusetts. The Fever tells the story of a peer group of girls in the fictional town of Dryden, USA. One of them is afflicted by an illness no one can explain, which causes her to convulse and fall into a coma. Soon others are experiencing seizures, and videos show up on YouTube. Dryden’s adults are left to wonder; there is a PTA meeting that is tense. “Your semen is poison!” a mother tells a teen. In a way the girls cannot control, the reporting of symptoms becomes competitive. “Kim, Kim,” thinks the heroine, Deenie, of one sufferer. “This is the best thing that ever happened to you, isn’t it?” Even in the psych ward, in-crowd rules apply. The novel is based on events that took place in Le Roy, New York, in 2011. It may evoke others, from a little before that, in Salem, Massachusetts.
Abbott is from Grosse Pointe, Michigan. Though she has lived in New York for 20 years, she identifies as a “shy Midwestern gal”. In conversation, she says “Gosh”, and observes of the filmmaker David Lynch, “He’s a huge influence.” She says, “I even play music from Twin Peaks when I’m writing sometimes.” She shares with Lynch a vision of suburbia as a land of clean lawns and closed doors, behind which lurk the polymorphous perverse. Abbott is from Grosse Pointe, Michigan. Though she has lived in New York for 20 years, she identifies as a “shy Midwestern gal”. In conversation, she says “gosh” and observes of the film-maker David Lynch: “He’s a huge influence.” She says, “I even play music from Twin Peaks when I’m writing sometimes.” She shares with Lynch a vision of suburbia as a land of clean lawns and closed doors, behind which lurk the polymorphous perverse.
The other inspiration she cites is Sigmund Freud. Of her upbringing, Abbott says: “People would talk about it only 10 years later – remember when so-and-so’s daughter gassed herself in the garage? You could never really know another person’s experience. Everyone’s a secret keeper.” The other inspiration she cites is Sigmund Freud. Of her upbringing, Abbott says: “People would talk about it only 10 years later – remember when so-and-so’s daughter gassed herself in the garage? You could never really know another person’s experience. Everyone’s a secret-keeper.”
In Abbott’s fiction, the secrets tend to be sexual. No father wants to find out his little girl has a love life – it sets off, Abbott says, “terror alarms”. The result is that the libidos of teens, on the page, have been stigmatized. “Teen girls’ experience of sex is underexplored in fiction,” she says. “Their experience of pleasure, and maybe their shame in it, but also their pleasure in that pleasure.” Abbott’s fiction offers a correction that is twofold: it describes both teen sex and the puritan hysteria it provokes. And it is provocative; her love scenes are precise. In one, in The Fever, she records “the snap of the condom”.In Abbott’s fiction, the secrets tend to be sexual. No father wants to find out his little girl has a love life – it sets off, Abbott says, “terror alarms”. The result is that the libidos of teens, on the page, have been stigmatized. “Teen girls’ experience of sex is underexplored in fiction,” she says. “Their experience of pleasure, and maybe their shame in it, but also their pleasure in that pleasure.” Abbott’s fiction offers a correction that is twofold: it describes both teen sex and the puritan hysteria it provokes. And it is provocative; her love scenes are precise. In one, in The Fever, she records “the snap of the condom”.
The Fever is Abbott’s third thriller set among adolescents. Before that, she wrote four novels she categorizes as noir – the mean streets, circa mid-century, which is not an obvious steppingstone to the world of Mean Girls. But there are, she says, parallels: “The high drama of noir suits how a 13-year-old girl’s mind tends to work.”The Fever is Abbott’s third thriller set among adolescents. Before that, she wrote four novels she categorizes as noir – the mean streets, circa mid-century, which is not an obvious steppingstone to the world of Mean Girls. But there are, she says, parallels: “The high drama of noir suits how a 13-year-old girl’s mind tends to work.”
Abbott’s previous book, Dare Me, was about cheerleaders. They trash-talk their enemies, perform handsprings in the halls, and are confrontational with their pom-poms. “Sounds like a porn star”, one girl says of the name of their coach, Collette French: “a classy one who won’t do anal”. The loss of innocence is an ancient theme. The annoyingness of innocence, a bit newer. In retrospect, Abbott says of Dare Me, “It was maybe a little hyperbolic.”Abbott’s previous book, Dare Me, was about cheerleaders. They trash-talk their enemies, perform handsprings in the halls, and are confrontational with their pom-poms. “Sounds like a porn star”, one girl says of the name of their coach, Collette French: “a classy one who won’t do anal”. The loss of innocence is an ancient theme. The annoyingness of innocence, a bit newer. In retrospect, Abbott says of Dare Me, “It was maybe a little hyperbolic.”
Abbott is always entertaining, but her new novel is moodier, dreamier, creepier. There’s a hockey motif (sweat, ice), a secret love, and a big dirty lake with a notable odor that kids aren’t meant to swim in. (It’s possible that this is a metaphor.) Abbott repeated something Allie Sheedy said in The Breakfast Club, John Hughes’s 1985 film: “When you grow up, your heart dies.” Abbot said, “My dad hated that line. Now I know why.”Abbott is always entertaining, but her new novel is moodier, dreamier, creepier. There’s a hockey motif (sweat, ice), a secret love, and a big dirty lake with a notable odor that kids aren’t meant to swim in. (It’s possible that this is a metaphor.) Abbott repeated something Allie Sheedy said in The Breakfast Club, John Hughes’s 1985 film: “When you grow up, your heart dies.” Abbot said, “My dad hated that line. Now I know why.”
Being true to the hearts of teens means ignoring other gods. Abbott spoke about a copy editor who was skeptical of a scene, from The Fever, in which crushed figs were supposed to litter an ice skating rink. “I had a hard time about that,” she says. “There were questions about seasons. But at a certain point, I said: ‘There have got to be figs!’ ” In the end, the figs stayed. Abbott filled them with dead wasps. Being true to the hearts of teens means ignoring other gods. Abbott spoke about a copy editor who was skeptical of a scene, from The Fever, in which crushed figs were supposed to litter an ice skating rink. “I had a hard time about that,” she says. “There were questions about seasons. But at a certain point, I said: ‘There have got to be figs!’” In the end, the figs stayed. Abbott filled them with dead wasps.