Episode 44: The Outsiders

It’s a real weeper this week: we’re reading S.E. Hinton’s The Outsiders (1967) and talking about tough, dangerous, sensitive teenagers and the readers who love them. You might be familiar with this book if you like teen melodrama (you should) or the 1983 movie with the entire Brat Pack. The book is about a 14-year-old greaser, Ponyboy Curtis, who is both School and Cool, his brothers Sodapop and Darry, and their gang of buddies, who range in charisma from Steve (who?) to Dally (why, Matt Dillon of course.)

We discuss the emergence of young adult fiction, the invention of the “adolescent,” boy gangs, and teen cuddles. We mention it in the episode and suggest checking out Michael Cart’s Young Adult Literature: From Romance to Realism (we discuss the third edition from 2016). For funsies, might we also suggest checking out some of the 1940s and 50s books on adolescence, like Erik Erikson’s Childhood and Society (1950)?

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