School Library Book Raises Porn Questions

Fort Worth Star Telegram ^ | October 5, 2005

[tuffydoodle]

I'm also having trouble with required reading books in my kids school. My 16 year old daughter has a book list including: Bastard Out of Carolina, Deliverance, One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest and many others containing very adult material. In the private Christian school she used to attend, she got to read, at age 15, about Mapplethorpe's photos of men urinating into the mouths of other men and Annie Sprinkle's performance art consisting of masturbating onstage then inviting the patrons to come up and view her genitalia with a flashlight.

[Clemenza]

Please don't show this woman a copy of "Lady Chatterly's Lover" or "The Decameron," both of which I read in my (Catholic) high school.

[Clemenza]

In the private Christian school she used to attend, she got to read, at age 15, about Mapplethorpe's photos of men urinating into the mouths of other men and Annie Sprinkle's performance art consisting of masturbating onstage then inviting the patrons to come up and view her genitalia with a flashlight.

Could you provide some context?

[Borges]

Isn't 16 old enough for 'adult material'? What books would be appropriate for that age then? Even stuff like Chaucer and Shakespeare can get pretty racy.

[tuffydoodle]

The book is "The State of the Arts: From Bezalel to Mapplethorpe." It's an art history book and the context was just describing the type of art which is not viewed as "Christian" art. I am of the belief that any idiot could figure that out.

[clee1]

I got news for you Grandma. At 10 and 13, your grandkids know all there is to know about the mechanics of sex, and far more graphically than any book could describe.

Not saying that that is cright, or the way it should be, but b**ching about it now is tantamount to shutting the barn door after the horse got out.

This is another reason, among many, that my child(ren) will be homeschooled.

[fooblier]

Is the point of the book to arouse you sexually? If not, it's not porn. It might be lewd. It almost certainly shouldn't be read by young children. But it's not pornography.

[Clemenza]

I seem to remember giggling with some friends about a passage in a classic book that advised not to engage in bestiality, lesbianism, and gay sex. To say nothing of a passage in the same book that talked about a guy named Balaam who kept beating his ass.

[tuffydoodle]

And people wonder why we have rampant teen pregnancies, abortions, STD's and AIDS when kids are being bombarded with sex at every opportunity. Commercials, tv shows, movies, the internet, required reading at school, etc. Why can't we just let kids be kids? Why must sex (and in alot of cases, deviant sex) be constantly shoved in their faces? I just don't get it.

[buccaneer81]

"It's something that I don't like reading myself. It's just too sexual. It goes into great details of having sex," she said

Bet she's great fun in bed.

[El Conservador]

Then I think this woman will REALLY hate the Bible's Song of Solomon...

[proxy_user]

Well, if the book is just text, only a few highly-educated teenagers will be able to read it anyway, and they come from stable, upper-class families.

The ones who might be corrupted would have trouble with what we used to read in the second grade.

[Juana la Loca]

I read Deliverance when I was in high school. After reading it, I wondered how that ever made it onto a high school reading list. It was quite disturbing.

I read Bastard Out of Carolina as an adult in a Women's Literature class. It was also quite disturbing. I would never let my teenager read it, and I wouldn't recommend it to any adult either. The sad thing is that much of the book is excellent, but when it takes a detour, it REALLY takes a detour.

[Borges]

What would you have a 16 year old read though?

[Borges]

BOOC was based on the author's childhood experience so it couldn't really have gone any other way. Sometimes great Art disturbs to some extent (The Sound and the Fury, Lolita).

[Clemenza]

Hey, long time no see! Happy to see you are still posting.

[Grammy]

I have a friend whose son brought home a book from the school library that was so graphic the PTA president wouldn't let him read it from the podium to the adults present. That tells me it was too graphic for teenagers.

[manwiththehands]

... the Bible's Song of Solomon ...

I'm sorry, but I've read Song of Solomon. It's quite poetic in it's expression of love, but nothing pornographic or erotic to me about a guy comparing his beloveds breasts to goats (or was it gazelles?). :)

[grey_whiskers]

"The Decameron," both of which I read in my (Catholic) high school.

Yes, aint' Bocaccio grand? The Italian Chaucer.

Full Disclosure: At least in the Decameron, you got to read about putting the Devil back into Hell. :-)