Posted on 07/21/2004 4:58:49 AM PDT by snopercod
A few days ago my daughter related how she took my ten-year-old Grandson to the Eau Gallie, FL (near Melbourne) public library to check out some books. She turned him loose in the kids' section while she looked for some books for herself.
A while later, they each took their stack of books to the counter, checked them out, and went home. My daughter didn't inspect his choices any farther than the covers - big mistake. This is one of the books he chose (cool cover, right?):
"Meet Rally and Minnie-May -- The Gunsmith Cats -- two of the most fun-loving, well-armed, bounty-hunting women in Chicago! Whether they're chasing bail jumpers or fending off the mob, you can bet on a healthy supply of guns, bombs, car chases, and more guns! In this 176-page trade paperback -- collecting issues 1 through 6 of the series -- the pair run afoul of Bonnie and Clyde, a couple of hired guns working mob jobs in the Windy City. With their business interests running on opposite sides of the law, it's no surprise that the net result is gunfire and mayhem!"
Later in the day, Grandson shows Mom what's inside the book. Her eyes got big and her jaw dropped. Splattered across an entire page was a lewd sex act of the monica kind in graphic detail captioned with "OOOH, yeah!", "Oh Babe...!", MMPH!, etc.
My daughter turned some more pages and found episodes of cop killing, cocaine sniffing, drug dealing, prostitution, and normal, head-banging sex ("Twenty friggin' times" to quote the John) - all punctuated with assorted gutter language. There's a frame in there that even I can't figure out. Some guy is apparently performing fallatio on his gun barrel. His tongue is licking the side of it with the caption, "hahh...ahhh...huhh".
It turns out that "fun loving" character Minnie-May Hopkins portrays an underaged prostitute. Nice.
You know, I'm not a prude and not a "social conservative". But what the heck is a book like this doing in a public library at all, let alone in the childrens' section?
My daughter went back and talked to the woman at the desk, who thought this book was completely suitable, apparently. When asked why it was in the childrens' section, she said, "Oh this was probably misfiled. It should have been in the teenage section". When asked why it was in the library at all, the woman responded, "Because it's popular with the kids". Well hell, why not throw in a couple of beers with each book; That's popular with the kids, too.
I hope my daughter follows up on this. I recommended that she write a letter (with copies of the offending pages) to the Brevard County Supervisors and ask them why her tax dollars were being used to purchase this crap and push it on her children.
But what's the solution? Keep kids out of the adult fiction of non-fiction sections of the library? What if the kid wants to read Orwell or Tolkien? Is it the librarian's job to oversee what a kid is reading or is it the parent's? These are hard questions.
And by the way, the historical romances that many women devour on a regular basis - we call them "fat juicies". Talk about sex!
Not true, actually. It just doesn't qualify as kiddie porn if no real children are portrayed.
Maybe you should be.
Ultimate X-Men, right? I'm not a huge fan of that series- they've basically made the X-Men a bunch of angsty nihilists.
The new Captain America in the Ultimates is pretty cool, though.
I don't recall that the 10 Commandments come in 'Flavors' of stealing. I seem to recall the book saying "Thou shall not Steal" period. No ifs, buts, or 'Its ok if I don't agree with it' Stealing is stealing. If you don't like the book, work with the library to get it removed, don't teach your child to do something evil to fight evil.
Or maybe you just think morals are for somepeople and not for others? Perhaps you think Bill Clintoon was right, 'Its ok to lie as long as you are lying about sex'
As for me, lies, like stealling, don't come in 'Flavors' its just wrong.
There are plenty of such torn books for sale in the annual library clearance sale.
At times, the culprits are caught. These are censorship fiends destroying books.
No, teaching your kids that stealing somebody else's property is acceptable is not something that a moral person does.
Good job on your Austin case.
As I say, I actually see a place for the works of Robert Crumb in a library collection. I don't see the need to have comics tarnished as a bad influence on kids because inappropriate materials are made available to children.
I thought the "Fritz the Cat" comics were funny when I was in college. But you know, if we wanted that stuff, we went to the "dirty books store" and bought it.
According to the authors, The Ultimate Spiderman book was a rewrite of the first 50 issues of Spiderman aimed at "updating" them to appeal to 15 year old. There were some very subtle references in the Ultimate Spiderman book about someone being "gay", drugs were always painted in a bad light and Aunt May told Peter and MJ that if they're "going to do it just be safe". Of course there were lots of negative references to Nixon during history class. It wouldn't surprise me at all to see these companies promoting a homosexual agenda although it was difficult to see it in this book since a lot of the story line centered around Peter Parker's relationship to MJ.
While we screen as much material as possible and try to focus our son's attention on good moral values, kids today know more than we think. I told my son it was a good thing Peter Parker wasn't biten by a radioactive lady-bug. My son responded that he would probably be confused about his gender.
How does Marvel reconcile "Captain America" with their own anti-Americanism?
They paint Cap in a pretty sympathetic light, actually. He's still a guy with a 1940's view of the world so, as he himself says, he has a tough time getting the irony that everyone is into these days. He's not a wimp, and unlike his previous incarnation, he has no problems killing bad guys.
They re-worked the other Avengers, too. Most notably, Thor is sort of an anti-globalization protestor who may be the Norse giod of thunder or he might be an escaped mental patient with super-powers.
I think the Ultimates is probably the best of the various "Ultimate Marvel" line of comics.
The naughty anime thing... ;~D
Good point, Larry. I might add that Gunsmith Cats features many of the firearms that are on the Feinstein-Brady "naughty" list - including (*gasp*!) - "Assault Weapons".
When the Marxist Moms find out about *that*, well, we know what the scene will look like:
Ping...
Why didn't your daughter check what was being checked out before she took the offensive books home. When either my wife or I took our sons to the library we always helped our boys in theior search for books & knew what they were before we checked them out. A little parental involvement & oversight goes a long way. Don't put the blame on the librarian - it belongs with the parent.
Sigh... stupid librarians. For the record, the manga I read tends to be weird or violent, but not dirty.
It's a great format - something halfway between a book and television - but it can of course be abused...
Yeah - I have gathered that from your discussions. I knew you knew this stuff existed, but didn't think it was your style.
It exists. They sell it at big bookstores, sometimes, in shrink-wrap, which is a pretty good indication that it's hentai - "perverted". And ksen was complaining the other day that it's hard to find an anime series that isn't, well, disgusting. Anime's actually harder than manga, unless you've got a nice store in your area because it's just not carried in stores as much as manga is.
My style is action/fighting, usually - "Rurouni Kenshin" or "Fullmetal Alchemist", though I love "Fruits Basket" which is a gentle coming-of-age story. There's as much variety in anime/manga as in American novels or tv shows.
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