“Books are entertainment. They should delight, and they can delight in serious and comical ways.” – A. Natasha Joukovsky
Is it possible to encapsulate a cultural phenomenon into a literary work that can withstand the test of time? Last month, the WLT’s May Third Thursday focused on answering this question. Program Manager Lore Arnold moderated a conversation between writers Jaime Formato (Roll for Initiative), A. Natasha Joukovsky (Medium Rare), Jenny Tinghui Zhang (Superfan) on how to explore complex topics structured around pop culture moments.
Growing up, Jenny Tinghui Zhang developed a fondness for K-pop and boy bands. It was a relationship that inspired Superfan, a dual perspective novel that follows a pop idol and his obsessed fan. While developing her work, Zhang understood that many people might write off the concept as unserious and focused for adolescents. However, being a K-pop fan herself, Zhang felt very close to the topic and wanted to explore the why: “Why [do] we feel these pulls towards people we don’t know.” To understand the root of people’s attraction, Zhang would pull from not just music, but films. During the panel, she mentioned a movie called Perfect Blue by Satoshi Khan, a psychological thriller that follows a retired Japanese pop idol and her obsessive fan. The film explores society’s obsession with idealized personas and the pressure associated with conforming to others’ expectations, themes also explored in Superfan. Originally, Zhang timed the release of her novel to coincide with BTS’s return from mandatory military service. Eventually, she thought against it, realizing the themes explored in her novel could remain relevant publishing at any timeline. Despite the novel’s contribution to the now popular bandwagon that is K-pop, Zhang’s central themes remain grounded in isolationism, a timeless topic that has withstood the test of time.
Jaime Formato’s approach while writing and assembling her novel required her to pay extra attention to her surroundings. Being a third-grade teacher gave Formato the perfect opportunity to create Roll for Initiative, a coming-of-age novel that incorporates the collaborative game Dungeons & Dragons, while discussing topics of identity and self-discovery. To construct her novel, Formato played close attention to “what were kids worried about, what are they thinking, and what were their concerns and struggles,” because she felt it important to understand the audience she catered to. Her primary goal while constructing Roll for Initiative was to “tackle coming-of-age in a safe manner,” and D&D was the perfect way to do so. In the game, players collaborate with one another to create a shared storyline. Each person creates a unique character with specific skills, characteristics, and a backstory—offering individuals full creative freedom when stepping into these new roles. Using her observations and the premise of the game, Formato created a novel that allowed her to explore themes of identity while incorporating a game she enjoys. At the same time, season four of Stranger Things massed over 1.4 billion views one month after its premier, making it the first English-language series on Netflix to surpass 1.35 billion views in its first month. The premier reignited viewers’ fascination with Dungeons and Dragons, making Roll for Initiative a hot commodity. However, despite the perfect timeframe, Formato’s book didn’t plan for the novel’s debut to coincide with the new season premier. As she described, “D&D is forever,” and its ability to remain timeless allowed for a perfect vessel to explore the concerns of kids in a classroom.
A. Natasha Joukovsky wasn’t particularly fond of basketball prior to writing her latest novel, Medium Rare. It wasn’t until her husband suggested the premise that she developed a space where she could foster her curiosity for the sport. When she connected her topic to the story of Icarus, her novel truly materialized into a tale that combines Greek mythology, basketball, and Joukovsky’s love for mathematics. In her words, she states that the book is a “great way to examine unlikely probabilities in black swan events.” In the novel, the protagonist gains fame by predicting a perfect NCAA March Madness bracket in the 2019 tournament where The University of Virginia won the National Championship, the probability of which is near impossible. Like the tale of Icarus, the protagonist metaphorically flies too close to the sun causing him to wilt under the pressure. However, despite basing her book on a popular pop culture phenomenon, Joukovsky remained grounded in her vision. She wanted to attract basketball fans and surprise them with a “story of female friendship,” because she wanted a “feminine novel inside a masculine coded novel” ultimately showing the “similarity between something that might code as hyper masculine and sporty versus feminine and literary.” Joukovsky saw an opportunity to tie in these themes to a compelling story that’ll attract readers regardless of when they engage.
I highly enjoyed tuning into last month’s Third Thursday segment. Regardless of the calendar date, there’s always a new pop culture phenomenon that captures the attention of today’s readers, making it easy to understand why authors gravitate toward these topics in their books. However, each author didn’t concern themselves with missing the deadline attached to the transience of pop culture. They each understood that the references were merely vessels meant to hold the weight of their true intention: exploring the central theme within their work.
I’ve always believed that the most impactful books originate from a personal connection. I love how Zhang drew from her relationship with K-pop while writing her novel, Superfan and how Formato was able to explore themes that were present in her classroom. Even Joukovsky, who didn’t particularly care for basketball prior to writing her novel, chose to indulge with a more personal obsession, Greek mythology, while writing. Even so, despite their story’s real-world connections to pop culture, each novelist took care when drafting their work to make sure their novels were capable of withstanding the test of time.
Continue to support our authors by purchasing their recent releases. You can check out Jaime Formato’s Roll for Initiative, A. Natasha Joukovsky’s Medium Rare, and Jenny Tinghui Zhnag’s Superfan here
For more insight into writing and publishing, please join the Writers’ League of Texas today, June 18, for June’s Third Thursday: “Never Too Late: Debuting After 50”