Posted on 06/14/2011 10:22:10 AM PDT by Responsibility2nd
NEW YORK (Reuters) – Adam Mansbach has had three novels and a book of poems published but it was a brief Facebook update wishing his two-year-old daughter would "Go the F--- to Sleep" which helped him hit publishing gold.
Now a year later, the resulting parody of a children's book may be the unlikeliest hit book of the summer.
Ahead of U.S. publication on Tuesday, the expletive-laced book of rhyming verse has advance sales of over 100,000 copies and is in its fifth printing, which takes copies in print to over 400,000.
The movie rights have been bought by Fox 2000.
"After a particularly difficult time putting my two-year-old daughter Vivien to bed, I posted on Facebook ... 'Be on the lookout for my forthcoming children's book, Go the F--- to Sleep,'" Mansbach recalls of the unlikely night which changed his professional life. "It was a joke. It was not a book I had any intention of writing at the time."
Mansbach got a good response and in the coming weeks retold his joke again and again, winning positive reactions from fellow bleary-eyed parents who urged him to write the book.
Eventually he did, aiming to voice the love a parent has for a child while capturing the inner frustration of a parent who, however loving, also hears a darker inner narrative as the task of bedtime drags on and on.
Among the verses are:
"The eagles who soar though the sky are at rest
And the creatures who crawl, run, and creep.
I know you're not thirsty. That's bullsh--. Stop lying.
Lie the f--- down, my darling, and sleep."
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
You don’t think using vulgar language regarding your babies is abusive?
Or maybe you don’t think there is anything wrong with jacking off to porn photo’s with your daughter’s face ‘shoppped’ on them?
Those photo’s weren’t for kids either, so WHO exactly needs “HELP” here??
OK. I get it. No child is harmed by adults reading this vulgar book.
And... by your reasoning - the 13 year old daughter also was not harmed by her father photo-shopping her face on porn photo’s.
No laws were broken. No one was harmed.
Got it. Y’all made yourselves very clear on this matters.
I see absolutely ZERO connection between the two. The thought of linking the two never even occurred to me, while it came somewhat immediately to you. Hmmm. If you see some type of connection, correlation or even a remote similarity, you’re head is FUBAR’d.
You seem to have some guy’s incestual, pederastic insanity rattling around in your head. You’re right in that it was disgusting as hell. But it’s not even in the same universe as a baudy “children’s book”. I hope you can scrub those images from your mind.
Technically the 13 year old wasn’t harmed by her father’s F’d up acts, at least not the one that got him dragged to court. But he’s got deep issues that are going to mess her up.
But there’s no comparison between him and this book. This book is just expression the frustration that every single parent has felt at some point. Show me a parent who got through all of their child’s infancy without once thinking “go the $%^& to sleep” I’ll show you a parent that hired a nanny from day one and was never in the same wing as their kid.
It’s one thing to think about such things. But for this guy to actually go through with expressing this idea as he’s done is too much.
Abusive language is abusive. And this opens an already open door to using and abusing our children with hate-speech.
It’s not abusive language, he’s not saying it TO his kid. It’s in a book, that the kid won’t read. This doesn’t open any doors, and “hate-speech” is a liberal construct used to destroy white men.
So far you’re 0-fer, wrong on all counts.
There ya go. Someone takes a moral high-minded view of things, and you get insulting.
Here ya go. This is the site you should be on....
http://www.democraticunderground.com/
“hate-speech”
Aaaaaaaaand there we go.
I got insulting?
Who was it that brought pedophilia and “jacking off” into this and tried to link those, a pervert, and people who find a book to be funny?
It’s not abusive language, he’s not saying it TO his kid...
____________________________________
Hoo boy. Ok, sport. I’ll tell ya what. YOU post the phrase “Go the f— to sleep” as you think it should be written.
Go ahead. There are no children here. Except for those childish moderators who will delete your post as abusive.
“It’s not abusive language”.
Really? And if someone tells you to eff off or to eff yourself or whatever... THAT’s not abusive?
Oh. I see. Because you got your feelings hurt by a reply that was not directed at you... You felt the need to get insulting directly to me.
OK. If that makes you feel better....
There’s a separate no profanity rule here. While much abusive language includes profanity most profanity is not abusive.
What you’re failing to understand is the difference between undirected talk and directed. Saying in a book “go the $$%% to sleep” is undirected, it’s not aimed at anyone, which is why it’s not abusive. If I said to you “only an ignorant #$%^ weasel wouldn’t be able to understand that” (which I’m not) that would be directed and therefore abusive. In fact I could ditch the expletive entirely and it would still be abusive because it’s aimed. But, if after I post this I say to myself “I don’t know what kind of putz can’t figure this #$%% out” that again is undirected, non-abusive.
See it’s all about aim. Stuff with no target can’t be abusive because abuse needs a target.
Hurt? No.
Confused and concerned for your well-being? Yes.
I understand that you’re disturbed as hell by the actions of that “father”. Really, I understand. When I heard it, I was disgusted as well. But I didn’t internalize the level of anger you seem to be feeling. I just think you’re fixated on that when you try to link something that’s funny and HARMLESS and completely unrelated.
Directed and undirected.
Got it.
Now tell me. Was the 13 year old daughter/porn photo’s directed or undirected?
Based on your logic and reasoning - it was undirected. There is no evidence the perv meant for his daughter to find out. It was not meant to harm her.
But guess what? It did harm her. It eventually destroyed him and his daughter.
Now. Is thinking vulgar thoughts “Go the f— to sleep” directly harming that baby now? No. It’s not. But keep that up, and guess what.....
FANTASTIC episode.
Puts “Catcher in the Rye” into a more critical perspective.
The 13 year old is a completely different 100% unrelated situation and only a serious freak with deep emotional issues would continue to draw parallels between the two.
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