Amen!

[neadods]

daemonnoire has been doing a series of reviews of banned books (Good stuff, go read it.) Today she's nailed Anne Rice's "Sleeping Beauty" dead to rights:

I know I said that I would read all of the books in the Banned Book List, but I'm sorry, I just couldn't force myself to read the whole of this drivel. I was embarrased to be seen reading it. This is not

Comments

[acroyear70]

of course, i could say the same thing about many books that aren't banned.

"Scarlet Letter" is soap opera drivel, and only is "important" (and forced down high schoolers throats) because there are so few other American works worth anything at all from that time and because it presents a supposed cultural perspective and history of puritan colonial america.

and even in that, it often exagerates to the point of charicature and insult.

[acroyear70]

Hey, we could argue the literary merits of literary classics for the next five years. I dislike quite a few of 'em

[acroyear70]

and teachers should be more clear on such matters. I was aware of both, but only in hindsight, not at the time. the flaws are in the overall presentation; it was not being "taught", it was presented as "reading for its own sake".

a fallen women as a heroine - She wasn't a heroine except in that she managed to prevent a hanging. She was a victim of an oppressive (and bluntly hypocritical) society, but there are better examples and kids are rarely presented with modern, more applicable, ones because the obvious moral judgements it would be presenting would arouse the anger of social-conservative parents. better to try to say "they were different then" (even when it should be noticed that in conservative circles, nothing has changed in 400 years) than to face one's own hypocracy in such matters.

if presented properly, including the 2 sentiments you mention and the example of an unnecessarilly oppressive society, fine...

...but in that, i'd sarcastically say that the cliff notes are just as good reading as the book itself.

[neadods]

She wasn't a heroine except in that she managed to prevent a hanging

Not Hester, Sister Carrie. She ruined everyone who came in contact with her, but was the first lit heroine not to have a downfall because of it. Even whatsherface from Vanity Fair had problems, IIRC. (I confess, I cliffnoted that one.)

there are better examples and kids are rarely presented with modern, more applicable, ones because the obvious moral judgements it would be presenting would arouse the anger of social-conservative parents.Well, yes. Or use another text - Hawthorne only had one theme really, and he hammered it home; you can get "hypcritical society ruining lives" out of Young Goodman Brown in significantly less pages

[neadods]

BWA! Oh, that's hilarious!

Alas, my original introduction to the books was a guy who thought they were the hottest thing EVAR and wanted to have a relationship like that.

Needless to say, we broke up...

[vito_excalibur]

'kay, at this point I feel like I have to put in a good word for the BDSM crowd. BDSM is not something that is, by & large, presented in the culture as a good thing to have in a relationship, or even as a thing to have in the relationship at all unless you are one of those freaky possibly mentally damaged Others who will probably end up a serial killer by the end of the book. So when someone whose twig is bent that way runs into, for the first time, a portrayal of the things they want, some acknowledgement that other, real, people want these things too...they may simply not be able to see the flaws, or not care about the flaws, in the joy of finally seeing themselves represented. This is not in any way only about BDSM: lesbians will go see crappy movies if they're about lesbians, & cheer; Hispanics will go see movies in which Hispanic actors get to play non-drug-dealers, almost no matter how bad they are. Just because we're so invisible in the rest of the culture. So it's possible that your boy was all "omg! Someone has a vague idea

[neadods]

Thing is, it wasn't *about* BDSM with that guy - I kept pointing out to him that there were whole clubs and groups for people who were kinked that way. He kept insisting that he wasn't "like that." And indeed he wasn't - as far as I can tell, one of the things that attracted him to the Beauty series was the total lack of safewords, negotiations, or any other acknowledgement that your partner was an actual human being with opinions of their own. Things that the BDSM crew tends to insist upon.

His other "hot hot hot read THIS" book was about a lolita-style relationship. There's kinky, and then there's EEEEEEWWWWWWW!!!!!!!!