Posted on 04/04/2006 6:29:59 AM PDT by Mr. Silverback
When writer Marcia Segelstein headed to the bookstore to scout out books for her 12-year-old, she wasn’t sure what to expect. But she certainly didn’t expect rampant drinking, drug use, profanity, and explicit descriptions of sex and nudity.
Nevertheless, that’s exactly what she found.
Segelstein’s daughter had been clamoring to read the Gossip Girl series, which “‘all’ of her friends were reading,” she said. After seeing what was in the books, Segelstein was floored. But a school librarian confirmed, “They’re very popular among sixth and seventh graders.” Even worse, the librarian added, “Some parents are so happy that their kids are reading anything, they don’t care what it is.”
The series, described by Teen People magazine as “Sex and the City for the younger set,” is set among a group of wealthy, spoiled students at an elite New York high school. And the drugs, drinking, and various kinds of sexual encounters aren’t their only problem behavior. Both teen and adult characters engage in binging and purging. Also of concern is the unfettered materialism. With the constant name-dropping of expensive stores, clothing designers, cosmetics, and other pricey name brands, some of the pages in these books read like advertisements.
Perhaps the worst part is that no moral judgments are made at all. As Segelstein put it in an article on our BreakPoint website, “The fact that the Gossip Girl books are nowhere close to being well written pales in comparison to the fact that they are utterly amoral. . . . They smoke, they drink, they have sex, they do drugs—yet they never have problems like getting AIDS or becoming pregnant or getting arrested or flunking out of school. Consequences don’t exist in the lives of these ‘chosen ones,’ as they’re called. The fictional world of the Gossip Girl books is a dangerous one, yet it is never portrayed as such.”
Gossip Girl author Cecily von Ziegesar admits that she wrote the books that way for a reason. She told Colby magazine, “It’s completely unrealistic to have a group of kids who are constantly reforming or who are being punished because they’re ‘naughty.’ And I always resented that quality in books I’d read.” She goes on, “I don’t know what it is that redeems the characters, exactly, but deep down, they’re still good kids.”
I can answer the author’s question—there’s very little redemptive about her characters. And that’s why parents of preteen girls need to do their job and keep these corrosive books out of their homes and out of their daughters’ lives. Von Ziegesar herself tipped her hand when she wrote in one of the books, “Luckily Blair and her friends came from the kind of families for whom drinking was as commonplace as blowing your nose. Their parents believed . . . that the more access kids have to alcohol, the less likely they are to abuse it. . . . The same thing went for everything else, like sex or drugs—as long as you kept up appearances, you were all right.”
There’s no justification for that kind of parenting, in fiction or in life. And there’s no excuse for putting this kind of literature into the hands of young girls who need to learn better.
There are links to further information at the source document.
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I am glad my daughter reads, and it is NOT gossip girls. She is into classics and other useful books. She loves reading the books before the movies come out and compares the two versions. My daughter is an independent thinker, not following the latest fads, she has flown ahead of many classmates and is proud of it.
BreakPoint/Chuck Colson Ping!
If anyone wants on or off my Chuck Colson/BreakPoint Ping List, please notify me here or by freepmail.
"I don't know what redeems the characters" translates "I don't care what redeems the characters". If even the author doesn't know, suffice it to say there is not a lot of redemption going on.
Cecily von Ziegesar is laughing all the way to the bank, leaving nothing but destruction in her wake.
that is the saddest thing i read today...the damage the writers are causing on dozens of fronts is huge...and all for some sleazy cash...they are worse then hustler magazine in my view..
Reminds me of the stir "Valley High Girls" caused when I was about that age (late 80s) but they were NOTHING compared to this stuff. wow.
Are they assigning these books as required reading in Public Schools yet? I wonder...
She couldn't put it down.
no
Dittos in situation and sentiment. Well said.
Isn't it great to have those extra eyes out there!
Any idea who the publisher is? This is a long way from Nancy Drew.
Absolutely. Every day I read something I would otherwise have no idea about. Where would we be without Freerepublic?
Mine too. At least that smut is nominally aimed at adults.
There are so many good books for children and young adults ..... although many of them are out of print.
You'd think some publisher could make a killing selling a series of classic children's books.
I know nothing about this stuff, my daughter is nine and likes non-fiction, and of course I wasn't reading Sweet Valley High books back in the day. :-)
Although I will admit I read every single "Little House" book, even though most kids considered them girl books.
You...are...an...AWESOME parent!
My kids like to watch Animal Planet and Discovery Channel stuff. I try to keep the TV watching to a minimum despite the fact that most of it is of good quality. That said, I'd rather park them in front of cartoons all day every day for years than have them reading one page of this smut. Some people are just freakin' insane and have no business raising children.
My granddaughter is devouring the Chronicles of Narnia after seeing the movie. She already read the series once.
Her parents don't care what she reads, as long as it is good literature! The family is big on Tolkien, too.
Nope. That's what we should be expecting. It's a matter of feeding them from the time they are two. Once the fundamentals are there, stand back and guide. I spend less time teaching these kids than I did when they were in private school.
I'll ping you when FReepers NattieShea and PowerBaby publish their term paper: Liberty Follows Virtue: How Personal Values Ordained the Rise & Fall of Rome. 14,000 words, 163 footnotes.
Stand by, will check.
Publisher is Little, Brown.
Even good TV can be a problem, especially for kids under the age of ten. It teaches passivity in learning and induces a physical dependence upon rapid visual stimulation of powerful neurotransmitters. Once hooked upon their own chemistry, it's hard to get them to focus upon a long and complex learning task. IMO such is often the genesis of ADHD.
The essence of creativity is found in recognizing what is fascinating about seemingly dull things.
I read the series out loud to my kids last year. They loved it. DVD comes out today, BTW.
My daughter read those too. She went from in fifth grade, third grade reading level to in sixth grade a tenth grade reading level in 6 months. I am proud of her....
She overcame a difficult situation...
Please do ping me. I consider it required reading. How old are they?
Concur. We are phasing it out. Frankly, the only reason I have cable is Fox News and Packer games.
My kids are being read the Scriptures, Shakespeare, Dickens, etc. from an early age.
By the time they are 12, they will consider semiliterate garbage like these "novels" an insult to their intelligence.
my daughter laughs at these silly girls who fall prey to fads and such.
Chuck Colson/BreakPoint Ping List please. Thank you.
A normal 12 year old wants their parents to be proud of them.
When you read Narnia, you definitely have to "do" all the voices...but it's all about Aslan, baby.
You'd think some publisher could make a killing selling a series of classic children's books.
Try Applewood Books. They reprint original Hardy Boys, Tom Swift, etc.:
http://www.applewoodbooks.com/
so Gossip Girl books are basicall written pornography for girls who have not reach puberty.
Are there not already laws with regards to selling sexual materials to minors?
At the very least should they not be behind the register and only sold to adults?
You're added!
There is the occasional witch, but always shown to be a bad guy right away. Lots of creatures out of classical mythology, because Lewis was a classical fellow, but in Narnia it is classicism tamed and subject to Christ. Only once, IIRC, does a good character attempt a "spell". It is immediately shown to be a Bad Thing, and she repents very sincerely within a page or two.
They are relatively short novels, entertaining and well written. I think it would be worth your time to read them yourself to make sure if you think they're appropriate for your children. It has magic, but it's definitely not a Harry Potter type of DIY "if only you had the secret" type of magic. Lewis always portrays any attempt at the supernatural without going through God as evil and not to be done.
Carolyn
Narnia is not bad, just the opposite.
It is an alligory of christianity.
It has been around for decades.
The magic is no big deal...in the books, the source of all supernatural power used for good is Aslan (the Christ figure), and only those who are definitely evil use any other "magic." In fact, IIRC, I don't think that the supernatural things Aslan does for his allies are ever called magic, but simply are in effect because he has the power to do them.
C.S. Lewis did a very good job.
Graham Greene's children's books are out of print, as far as I can tell. Pearl S. Buck's children's classic The Chinese Children Next Door is out of print.
Their primary sources for the paper were Titus Livius (whom they found absolutely enthralling to read), Tacitus, Juvenal, Plutarch, Cicero, and Julius Caesar.
The secondary sources were A History of the Romans, by Frank Bourne, Chronicle of the Roman Republic, by Philip Matyszak, Roman Homosexuality, by Craig A. Williams (a scholarly work not in the least a perjorative, but nevertheless it was more than graphic), and Roman Religions, by Mary Beard, John North, and Simon Price. Finally, they did include an abridged version of Gibbon's The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. Needless to say, there is also a collection of online sources.
I would call this paper probably equivalent in quality and extent to an upper division undergraduate humanities thesis (although it took them nearly a year to assemble). Sadly, IMO it's what we should be expecting out of high schools.
you are not suggesting we ban these books are you??? parents need to be the parent and keep their kids away from this stuff, government should not get involved.
We'll get there. Thanks for the recommendation.
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