A Letter to the (Terribly Misguided) Parents Who Want a Book Banned; Some Other Thoughts
So, this is minor news, but when I'm not writing smutty fic for fans of Bones and Doctor Who, I write novels for young adults. I write for teenagers. Most of my post-high-school education is in how to educate teenagers. And most of the thinking I do (relating to writing) is about how my dystopian urban fantasy novels or cyberpunk retellings of
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1) If you want them to do something, forbid it. They will feel obligated as teenagers to get right out there and see what your damage is this time.
This is one people always seem to forget, and it's always been a mystery to me, because I was a teenager a million years ago and I can STILL remember doing stupid stuff simply because my mother would not approve.
2) You get to make this wild-eyed dream creature into a person. No matter what the media and their friends and their schools and their internet connections are pushing at them, deep down inside they take from you more than you will ever know. You can teach defiance and intolerance in one breath if you try as hard as this woman obviously has.
I really love your advice to sit down with the child, because that is truly the only way this is going to work. Those whose parents truly try with them can teach them faith that no amount of church-belief is ever going to give them. They can teach hope that no kind of media scandal can truly destroy. They can teach love that is real, is worthy, is patient. As for the ones whose parents just don't care? Banning the book won't help them: those children already know good and damn well what "fucked" is.
I'm so glad you're in a fighting trim, dear. :-)
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And yes to the second, too. I think parenting's one of the hardest jobs on the planet, but I can't imagine coming at it from a viewpoint where you have to shut them up from the world -- they're already living in the world.
Thanks for reading and commenting, dear! How's life been for you lately?
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