thebratqueen | Catch her, Inda Ri! (Reply)

You know, stuff like this annoys me. (link c/o

twistedchick) I don't mind if this woman wants to make the decision that her own son isn't mature enough to handle a book like Catcher in the Rye, but her knee-jerk assumption that all the other parents should agree with her frosts my shorts.

First off, if you want to object to a book you actually do have to read it. I know the usual response here is "I don't have to witness a murder to know that murder is wrong" but the catch there is that you know it's a murder. Condeming a book without reading it is like calling a dead body a murder victim without knowing what happened. Maybe it was murder, maybe they died peacefully in old age. You just don't know.

Plus, what a classic example of how people in these situations really do come off as being reluctant to teach children to think for themselves. This woman didn't read the book, she trusted the word of somebody else, who she doesn't even know, to read it and explain it to her. I'm sorry, but is informing yourself and making your own opinions directly that damn hard? Hell, it's not like Catcher in the Rye is even that big a book! Take an afternoon, skim it if you have to.

What gets me too is that naturally it's not just enough to say her kid can't read it. Oh no, the entire freshmen class shouldn't read it as well. Gee, thanks for complimenting your fellow parents by assuming they were neglectful assholes who just hadn't gotten around to condeming the book like you did. Did it never occur to her that, unlike her, maybe some of those other parents had already read it and approved of their kids reading it too?

Grr. Argh. At least the school in question is treating it as a matter for discussion and conversation, rather than something to have a knee-jerk reaction to. Maybe some good debate will come out of it, and people will learn things.

In unrelated news: happy Christmas Eve Eve! I'm at work, for my sins (note to self: really take time off next year). But on the plus side I'll be getting out an hour early tonight, which, combined with no dance class, leaves me with plenty of time for present wrapping and cookie baking. I might even have time for super sekrit insane-o project that has taken over my brain. (note to