No, no, not "eat it"!

[tahnan]

In the category of things that just make me sad: ClassKC, "Citizens for Literary Standards in Schools", is out to ban books from high school curricula. Well, of course, I suppose; though as Jon Carroll points out, it's so terribly kind of them to put the offensive parts on a website where any schoolchild can find it, without all that needless and annoying context.

I do love their overcapitalized warning: "IN NO EVENT WILL ClassKC.org BE LIABLE TO YOU FOR ANY DAMAGES OF ANY KIND resulting from viewing or any other use of this material." I wonder, really, what sort of damages can be caused by all this evil, evil reading.

But you know. Books like Beloved are bad because they deal with ghosts: "Anything dead coming back to life hurts" is one of the cited offensive lines. And Ender's Game contains strong language, like: "Eat it Ender, I'm coming with you." Needless to say, they ask of Lord of the Flies, "Does this sound like the type of book that would inspire your freshman?"

Fortunately, they make quite clear that comparing these works to Shakespeare is ridiculous: "Shakespeare's works contain neither a pervasive nor gratuitous amount of sex, violence, or vulgarity as do many of the other required reading assignments." Bear that in mind: Shakespeare's works never contain ghosts. And never have off-color allusions or contain the word "hell". And never end with an unhappy, dark tone in which everyone's dead.

That, really, is the sad part.

Comments

[tablesaw]

This is why Titus Andronicus needs to be taught in high schools.

[bookishfellow.livejournal.com]

Um, yeah. Gang violence, underage sex, extramarital affairs, lying to a priest, off-color humor, and murder-suicide. And that's all in one play.

[qaqaq.livejournal.com]

On the other hand, it does include a nice recipe for pie.

[lilisonna.livejournal.com]

And uses 'thee' and 'thou' even! It can't be bad if it's Olde!

[bumblepudding.livejournal.com]

Sampson: A dog of that house shall move me to stand. I will take the wall of any man or maid of Montague's.

Gregory: That shows thee a weak slave; for the weakest goes to the wall.

Sampson: 'Tis true; and therefore women, being the weaker vessels, are ever thrust to the wall; therefore I will push Montague's men from the wall and thrust his maids to the wall.

--Romeo and Juliet, Act I, Scene 1

Right off the bat. And this is arguably the most produced play in secondary school drama programs. Let's not even get into the "open-arse" and the "poppering pear."

Thank God that prudes have no ear for innuendo.

[42itous.livejournal.com]

Yeah, and MSND! On the first page, Theseus tells Hippolyta, "I wooed thee with my sword, and won thy love doing thee injuries." I can't imagine a more violent and sexual opening for a play.

Just because I have to link it every so often.

[speaks.livejournal.com]

http://www.cord.edu/faculty/sprunger/e315/hamlet.html

Re: Just because I have to link it every so often.

[eyelessgame.livejournal.com]

Every time I read that -- it's up on my cubicle wall at work -- I think anew that it absolutely *has* to be made into a film short -- and performed on stage. Has anyone ever done so?

Re: Just because I have to link it every so often.

[siderea]

I'd not seen that before! Wonderful!

[navrins]

Yeah, but Shakespeare is written in Shakespearean English, so kids won't understand it, so it's safe for them to read it because it'll make them cultured without exposing them to any actual thoughts.

[lauradi7.livejournal.com]

Even little kids have a pretty good idea what's going on. My daughter was in a musical production of Hamlet during a kids' summer theater workshop when she was in about the 4th grade. The songs were new but the words that were said were from the original text. There were some interesting accommodations to suit their limitations (there were 4 separate kids playing Hamlet sequentially, so that one child didn't have to do all the memorizing) and lots of cuts ("Can you believe the cuts Tom?" "I cannot believe the cuts!") but the essence and the language were there.

[eyelessgame.livejournal.com]

My lit prof in college: (rant about how no fantasy stories in the 20th century will ever be considered 'great literature')

Me: "Um, Tolkien, maybe?"

Him: "I don't think stories about (voice drips with sarcasm) hobbits are going to be great literature, no."

Me: "Because stories about druids and air spirits, and fairy queens having sex with donkeys, are so much more literary?"

Him: "Let's move on."

[tayefeth.livejournal.com]

It does beg the question: have they actually read Shakespeare?