From the MetroWest Daily News:
Q: I was thinking of letting my grandchildren pick out several books for summer reading to improve their minds. But then a friend told me that her granddaughter's crowd was reading books containing stuff about binge drinking, teenage eating disorders -- and much more!
That's exactly the sort of yuck that kids see on TV all the time. I thought books were still wholesome, but maybe I'm naive. After all, it's been a long time since I bought books written to appeal to the minds of a 13-year-old boy and a l5-year-old girl. What's going on? -- Ocala, Fla.
Your friend is totally and completely right. There are actually only twelve books for teenagers available in stores: Rainbow Party, Doing It, Gossip Girl: Vol. 1-9, and Go Ask Alice: Uncensored, Unrepentant and Undead.
Sheesh. At least the letter writer asked for a second opinion.
They've been saying this since Plato (in his later years he thought Homer was too immoral for the Republic--though he does have a point). I think it's funny to think of an entire category of human endeavor as wholesome. "Visual arts are wholesome." "Drama is unwholesome." Whee!
I had this sudden visual flash of Byron hanging out with Algernon Swinburne going, "Hey, did you know we're still wholesome?"
Posted by: c.c. | 09 May 2006 at 08:19 AM
I had to count on my fingers and make sure that actually added up to twelve. Good work.
Posted by: Lauren | 09 May 2006 at 11:18 AM
I did, too. Thanks for noticing.
Posted by: Leila | 09 May 2006 at 11:21 AM