Misery Memoirs.
We've all walked past the shelves in Waterstones. Right next to the Biographies, a section entiled "Misery Memoirs"
Usually with a white cover, usually with a heartwrenching picture of a troubled child, and a title like "A Girl called nothing" or "Don't tell Mummy". And we all know they started with Dave Pelzer's "A Child Called It". I haven't read that one. I've been told from a nameless, but reliable source that the poor guy wouldn't even know if he'd made it all up. But I have flicked through one or two and I must say, I found them upsetting.
Some have happy endings. People who found love and friendship and success.
One one hand, you have the people who write these memoirs.These are real.
People who's childhoods were anything but happy, who have a right to write it down, to let it out, to tell the world that they won't be ignored, and that abused children are a reality.
I can understand why someone with a troubled past would wish to get a book published and get themselves heard.
It's probably important to read at least one in your lifetime. Or perhaps not. Like visiting Auschwitz. We know it's there, we know what it was for, and we don't want it to happen again...
But do we really need to open that gate if we know already?
One the other hand....
What about the people who buy, swap or loan ARMFULS of these books at a time?
I could go on for ages about why I'm asking, and what I think.....
But have a little think for a moment.
At the very least, it's narrowing your reading down a lot when there's a library-full to choose from, and at the most, it's just plain perverse.
I don't even think the lovely grannies and "Supermums" who borrow them even think of it that way, or realise that they are, in some way, taking their pleasures out of the suffering (and often sexual abuse) of a young child.
One back cover I saw today had a review. "I could almost smell the cinnamon buns and the sense of dread".
Now isn't that something I might say about a decent sexy vamp novel, or a racy romance? Something that got my senses tingling and exited?
Go away and have a think.
FYI, I work in a Library.
It's usually the sort of woman who is surrounded by kids, or grandkids.
And I'm NOT accusing anyone of actual peadophillia, at least not the vast majority.
Usually with a white cover, usually with a heartwrenching picture of a troubled child, and a title like "A Girl called nothing" or "Don't tell Mummy". And we all know they started with Dave Pelzer's "A Child Called It". I haven't read that one. I've been told from a nameless, but reliable source that the poor guy wouldn't even know if he'd made it all up. But I have flicked through one or two and I must say, I found them upsetting.
Some have happy endings. People who found love and friendship and success.
One one hand, you have the people who write these memoirs.These are real.
People who's childhoods were anything but happy, who have a right to write it down, to let it out, to tell the world that they won't be ignored, and that abused children are a reality.
I can understand why someone with a troubled past would wish to get a book published and get themselves heard.
It's probably important to read at least one in your lifetime. Or perhaps not. Like visiting Auschwitz. We know it's there, we know what it was for, and we don't want it to happen again...
But do we really need to open that gate if we know already?
One the other hand....
What about the people who buy, swap or loan ARMFULS of these books at a time?
I could go on for ages about why I'm asking, and what I think.....
But have a little think for a moment.
At the very least, it's narrowing your reading down a lot when there's a library-full to choose from, and at the most, it's just plain perverse.
I don't even think the lovely grannies and "Supermums" who borrow them even think of it that way, or realise that they are, in some way, taking their pleasures out of the suffering (and often sexual abuse) of a young child.
One back cover I saw today had a review. "I could almost smell the cinnamon buns and the sense of dread".
Now isn't that something I might say about a decent sexy vamp novel, or a racy romance? Something that got my senses tingling and exited?
Go away and have a think.
FYI, I work in a Library.
It's usually the sort of woman who is surrounded by kids, or grandkids.
And I'm NOT accusing anyone of actual peadophillia, at least not the vast majority.