This past fall, I went to a discount bookstore with a few of my friends. I was mostly expecting to laugh at incredibly niche romance novels, enjoy the book smell, and maybe find a copy of a more popular YA book to add to my collection. But while I was sifting through the shelves, I found BZRK by Michael Grant. I was drawn in by the simplistic but striking cover and the very 2010’s YA sounding description. It looked and sounded exactly like the kind of thing I would’ve loved reading in middle school, but I wasn’t sure it was worth buying. I had other critically and reader-acclaimed books waiting to be read, so why should I buy something silly like this? Wouldn’t that be a waste of time? But one of my friends (my fellow Honeycomb editor, Brianna, actually) fed into my excitement, and I decided to buy it. It was cheap, so what the heck, right? But when I got around to reading BZRK I was surprised about how much I enjoyed it. And I think my experience with his book highlights the value in reading and writing for fun. So I was to use this book as a launching pad to talk about why us readers and writers shouldn’t discount the importance of fun stories.
(Photo: BZRK Wikipedia)
Plot Summary
If you’re interested in broadly knowing what the book’s about or need a reminder, here’s a spoiler-free synopsis: BZRK follows the conflict between the Armstrong twins, who plot to infiltrate the minds of multiple world leaders and rewire their brains to create their vision of a utopia, and BZRK, a group of nanobot hackers who work tirelessly to protect humanity’s free will. While this conflict rages, two teenagers, Noah Cotton and Sadie McLure, get recruited by BZRK to aid in the battle against the Armstrong twins. Noah struggles to understand what happened to his brother, Alex, who he’s told went insane after military service in Afghanistan. But he later finds out that Alex instead went insane while working for BZRK, and Alex’s former teammates hope that Noah can help them like Alex did. Sadie’s life is turned upside down when her dad and brother are killed in a plane crash. While she’s reeling from that, she learns that the plane was crashed by one of the Armstrong twins’ best recruits, the Bug Man. With the familial baggage and having nothing else to lose, Noah and Sadie agree to commit to BZRK’s cause and the mantra of victory of madness. This book is filled with fast-paced action, classic YA character descriptions, high levels of drama, and plenty of angst and cheese. And I loved every page of it.
What Readers Can Learn
One of my favorite parts of BZRK is how easy it is to start—and keep—reading it. The action almost immediately began, the stakes were clear and immediately apparent, and the style was easy to read. It only takes a few chapters for the major conflict and characters to be introduced, and some of those chapters do so through high-stakes action. I found myself flying through this book. And I was really enjoying the process of reading. It didn’t feel like an obligation, like it is for my academics, and because it was so easy to get invested in I was able to just enjoy the story.
I’m a busy person. Between school, multiple jobs, and just the other obligations of life, I’ve got a lot going on. And I know I’m not alone. All of my peers are equally, if not more, busy. So when I finally have time to read, I don’t always have the mental energy to read a heavy or super deep book. So that sometimes pushes me away from reading all together since I do really enjoy those kinds of stories. But it’s not always reasonable for me to read books like that, which is the benefit of stories like BZRK. Instead of having to forfeit reading all together, I can turn to a story like this. Now I’m still reading without taxing my brain too much. And this kind of reading is also restful. Instead of having to take a ton of mental energy to get invested in the characters, understand the worldbuilding, or analyze the themes, I can let myself chill and enjoy the story. It's like floating down a lazy river rather than swimming laps. It’s not to say that swimming laps is unenjoyable or bad for you—quite the opposite—but sometimes we just need to relax.
Along with that, learning to have fun with media takes the pressure off some of the stories we consume. I love critical analysis and obviously I think a lot about how stories can improve (editor check). It’s also sometimes fun and cathartic to critique something to death, but after a while that mentality of looking for cracks to tear open can be draining. Recognizing “amount of fun had” as a valuable criteria for judging media has helped me see the value in more types of stories and allowed me to have an overall better time with the stories I engage with. It’s not that I’ve lowered my standards for the stories I enjoyed, I’ve just created separate standards for different kinds of stories. While I enjoy both Breaking Bad and Bluey, I’m not going to judge them on the same criteria since they’re very different stories with very different purposes and I watch them for very different reasons. Sometimes it’s freeing to let the critical part of your brain rest and let something be glorious, dumb fun.
What Writers Can Learn
BZRK is also a very fun story because it doesn’t take itself too seriously. The nanobots skirt the edges of believability and the characters are constantly lamenting and monologuing about madness. There are definitely times when it touches on dramatic or when the character relationships progress in a predictable way, but those things didn’t take away from the reading experience because whenever those things happened I was having fun.
Sometimes I think people get so caught up in word counts and deadlines that they forget that this process is supposed to be enjoyable. We were all drawn to this field because something about it excited us. We loved the stories we read or loved the creative process or loved sharing stories with others. It’s supposed to be fun, and if we lose sight of that we can end up glorifying artistic suffering. It’s the problem with glorifying the starving, depressed artist. Because the reality is if you no longer enjoy your craft you’re not going to produce good art. Or at the least, your relationship with it will become unhealthy to the point where creating art at all is incredibly difficult. So have fun with your projects. Let some of your darlings live. I’d rather leave a few holes in my story than despise what it’s become. Or at the very least have writing projects that are just for you to have fun with. Write a holiday special that will never see the light of day or create a road trip AU with your friends. But whatever you do, make sure you still find ways to enjoy the creative process.
It’s also easy to think the only way to write something valuable is for it to be deep and serious. High art. I really can’t stand that term. It’s just a superficial way of tearing down stories and doesn’t mean anything substantial. I was once in a conversation where someone said the Percy Jackson series was bad because it wasn’t high art, and while I agree that the Percy Jackson series isn’t the most complex story or have the most eloquent prose, that doesn’t make it bad. Because Percy Jackson wasn’t written to explore complicated themes or demonstrate complex and poetic prose. Rick Riordian originally wrote the series for his young son to enjoy, and in turn for other kids like his son to enjoy. And it accomplished its goal. I know many people who grew up loving those books, and I know a lot of people who still enjoy and get excited about them now. It would be foolish to dismiss the power of the Percy Jackson series because it doesn’t meet some superficial qualifications of high art. Not every story is meant to break all the boundaries and make you question everything about everything. Some stories are meant to be read on a crummy day when you need a pick-me-up. Some stories are meant to be read out loud with your family. Some stories are meant to be laughed over with your friends. Some stories are meant to guide you to sleep. Some stories are meant to remind you of the best parts of your childhood. And no one of these purposes is more important than the others; they all have their place.
Final Thoughts
Mark Twain once said “My works are like water. The works of the great masters are like wine. But everyone drinks water.” Too much or too little of one or the other will leave you drunk and dehydrated or bloated with a lack of enrichment. To have a healthy reading life it’s important to have some of both to enrich and challenge you, but also to clear your head and give you a chance to breathe. And to have a healthy relationship with your writing it’s important to validate the importance of your enjoyment of the creative process and the significance of fun stories.
See you next week for the start of our next series, and in the meantime, bee brilliant.
Comments