“Vicious forms of communication and the holding of grudges are at the heart of Jay Asher’s award-winning and best-selling 2007 young adult novel, Thirteen Reasons Why, recently made into a television series and released on Netflix.”
“Both novel and series focus on Clay, a high school student, who has received a box of tapes — old-school cassette tapes — that narrate the 13 reasons why Hannah Baker committed suicide.”
“Instead of leaving a note, Hannah creates these tapes that are then passed from one person to another, each one implicated somehow in her decision.”
“I won’t spoil the plot by revealing too much, but suffice it to say that much of Hannah’s decision to kill herself revolved around incessant bullying and shaming.”
“as a story of teen bullying, Thirteen Reasons Why strikes a poignant and cautionary note, raising an issue important to student readers, parents, educators, and school districts”
“Bullying is all too real — and lethal — for many young people.”
“The cumulative effect of such “old” media — handwritten notes, photographs, graffiti —and their vectoring of gossip is a stark materializing of the circulation of damaging talk.”
“Hannah’s choice to use cassette tapes to explain herself seems like a clever narrative ploy to remind us of the material reality of language and its consequences for those who are victimized by it. Hannah even has the recipients of the tapes use a paper map to travel to various locales around town to see some of the places associated with her bullying and shaming. In this way, she is herself seizing the means of the circulation of damaging discourse, even as this intervention is too late to save her own life.”
“We have become acutely aware of the very real non-ephemerality of our networked communications.”
“Thirteen Reasons Why takes the emphasis off digital technologies and instead places it on the creative capacities of teen bullies and gossips (i.e., most teens at some point in their adolescent years) to use a variety of communication tools to circulate viciousness.”
“The tools aren’t the problem. Old media is just as good as new media at turning words into sticks and stones that break spirits and bodies.”
“The moral of this tale might be that we are always watching, following, stalking. We’re looking, but are we really seeing? Are we using our creative capacities to truly connect with others, as opposed to merely observing and assessing?”
“Perhaps what’s ultimately most surprising about Thirteen Reasons Why is that the kids keep the tapes secret for so long, passing them around without adults finding out. This aspect of the narrative, in both book and teleplay, stretches credibility. Surely the secret would get out much sooner.”
“But this fantastical covertness does gesture at the palpable desire to keep at least some things secret. Not everything needs to be known about everybody. And starting with that notion might be the first way to interrupt the circulation of damaging words — both online and off, through old and new media.”
“Jonathan Alexander is Chancellor’s Professor of English and Director of the Center for Excellence in Writing & Communication at the University of California, Irvine. His most recent book is Writing Youth: Young Adult Fiction as Literacy Sponsorship.”