Abhiroop Das
HBO’s ‘Youth,’ a comedy-drama created by Sharon Horgan, begins with the main character, Alex, hitting 50 and feeling the complete brunt of a midlife crisis. As she struggles to balance things in her complicated family, there is also the professional front. As a lead literary agent at The Laville Agency, she realizes that contemporary tastes and audience interests are shifting fast. When deciding on how to capture everyone’s attention next, she comes across two equally provocative works, though for wildly different reasons. There’s ‘Wagon Burner’ by a famous writer named Charlotte Arbor, which is a book full of racist commentary and descriptions. Then there is ‘Goblin Seed,’ which blurs the line between romance and lust, but with an ahuman twist. As Alex tries to fit these books into the new age, chaos ensues.
Wagon Burner is a Fictional Book That Becomes Relevant Because of its Controversy
‘Wagon Burner’ is a fictional western romance novel created for the world of ‘Youth’ by Sharon Horgan and her writing team. Depicted as the newest entry by a veteran writer, Charlotte Arbor, the book particularly comes under fire for how sexually explicit it is, and more importantly, how racist it is, as the name already suggests. While that makes for many humorous subplots in the show, there is no one particular book that serves as the inspiration here. Rather than modeling the novel after a real-life counterpart, however, Horgan appears to be using it as a springboard for a larger narrative point.
In the early episodes of the show, we see Charlotte as a writer who has tasted immense success in the past, but appears to use that influence as an excuse for avoiding editorial interference in her work, even when the content in question is demonstrably problematic. ‘Wagon Burner,’ as an invented novel, fills in that narrative purpose. That said, the book does seem to partially share its name with a number of real-life titles. The short film ‘Wagon Burner’ by Blackfoot artist Terrance Houle, for instance, deals with the history of wagons, colonialism, and Indigenous communities. There is also the album ‘Wagon Burner’ by indigenous-fronted punk band Dead Pioneer, alongside other examples, though none seem to be related to the fictional novel
Goblin Seed is a Humorous Take on the Goblin Romantasy Sub-Genre
Just like ‘Wagon Burner,’ the novel ‘Goblin Seed is also a fictional construct by the writing team of ‘Youth.’ Depicted in-universe as a romance story featured around goblins, it becomes central to the plot solely because of how much youngsters seem to enjoy it. The creation of this book, as it turns out, is the result of Sharon Horgan’s actual research into contemporary literary trends, with one of them being termed romantasy. A mix between the romance and fantasy genres, these stories often bring in unconventional love stories to the forefront, and ‘Goblin Seed’ is a prime example of just that.
“We spent more time on ‘Goblin Seed’ than was healthy,” Horgan joked about the creative process in a conversation with the LA Times, noting that the crew sat down to create an entire plotline, and even sample pages to make the book feel as real as possible. Interestingly, they initially conceptualized it as a parody of a made-up genre, but only later realized that goblin romance narratives are an actual part of modern pop culture. Books like ‘How to Lose a Goblin in Ten Days’ show that there is a demand for unique romance stories among younger audiences, and the show’s fictional take on a novel captures that perfectly
Read More: Is Youth Based on a True Story? Is Alex Based on a Real Literary Agent?
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