[books] Quality Literature vs Conversation
With One Word, Children’s Book Sets Off Uproar
Julie Bosmanhttp://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/18/books/18newb.htmlRead more... )
Julie Bosmanhttp://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/18/books/18newb.htmlRead more... )
The above sentence, coming from a girl of ten, after overhearing the word scrotum smacks of female penis worship and envy. Medical in this sentence is akin to "sacred" because doctors are the priests of science - of the medical profession. So lets see, we have sacred, secret and important. Something to be worshiped. That which is worshiped by someone who does not have said object brings about envy. Blech. Great message to give to elementary shcool level kids.
Scrotum sounded to Lucky like something green that comes up when you have the flu and cough too much.
That this is the sentence previous to the one I just dissected is like an attempt to bait and switch in advertising. Yeah, it may be something green that comes up when you have the flu and cough too much... but it is still sacred, secret, and important.
*shrug* I guess I would have to have a more indepth look at the book and give it a read-through to really assess it. However, off the cuff, my reaction to it is negative. It isn't the inclusion of the word scrotum, it is the symbolic meaning given to the word represented by Lucky's first impression of it that bothers me.
Hell, the author herself describes the word as delicious... and even if the incident really happened, as she claims, her symbolic interpretation of the word is the crux of the matter.
I wouldn't stock it either, in an elementary school library anyways. I don't have any problem with it in a public municipal library, where an elementary school-aged child would have to get their selections past their parents, who have the right to censor what they expose their children to.
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"Sammy told of the day when he had drunk half a gallon of rum listening to Johnny Cash all morning in his parked '62 Cadillac, then fallen out of the car when he saw a rattlesnake on the passenger seat biting his dog, Roy, on the scrotum."
"The question of Short Sammy's dog's scrotum settled into one certain brain crevice as she picked her way among the weedy bushes of the dry wash. Even though Lucky could ask Short Sammy almost anything and he wouldn't mind, she could never ask about the story of Roy, since she had overheard it. If she asked about Roy, then he would know that she'd been eavesdropping at the anonymous twelve-step meetings.
Scrotum sounded to Lucky like something green that comes up when you have the flu and cough too much. It sounded medical and secret, but also important, and Lucky was glad she was a girl and would never have such an aspect as a scrotum to her own body. Deep inside she thought she would be interested in seeing an actual scrotum. But at the same time -- and this is where Lucky's brain was very complicated -- she definitely did not want to see one."
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I think the passage just means she doesn't know the word, recognizes it's a word she's not really supposed to know, gets from context it's a part of the body, and is curious about it.
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