Father condemns East Penn's 'filthy' reading list

The Morning Call ^ | 15 August 2007 | Randy Kraft

[napscoordinator]

An angry parent has blasted the East Penn School District for requiring its students to read books he said are "full of filthy vulgarity."

Richard Jones of Upper Milford confronted the school board Monday about some of the books on his 15-year-old son's 10th-grade summer reading list at Emmaus High School, saying they're trash.

Following its standard practice, the board limited Jones to three minutes and didn't respond to his criticism during the meeting. But later, board President Ann Thompson said, "We listened carefully and it is being investigated carefully."

[Oberon]

Dunno. Some “classics” are d@mn boring.

Or even worse, just plain painful to read.

If I ever force my children to suffer through Hawthorne's The House of the Seven Gables, you can be certain it will be because they've done something heinous and terrible, and must atone.

[carton253]

What you owe me is the rewrite of your screenplay. I can’t wait to read the next draft. LOL!

[mathluv]

He loves to read - that is not a problem. He does not like to read liberal propaganda with no facts to support it. I may not have remembered the name correctly.

[Lurker]

I wish Ayn Rand were on the list.

"Anthem" was on my required reading list in 7th grade.

L

[Oberon]

[chuckle]

Trygve is rather different the second time around. He and Gunnar are best friends.

[Brujo]

Antonio Banderas rocked in that movie! He played a totally believable “good Muslim” before it was PC.

For me, Antonio Banderas was one of the few things that was good about that movie. I did like the way they portrayed how his character learned the language of the northerners.

[art_rocks]

Now why do you want to bring facts into this discussion.

Next you’ll tell us you actually read the article.

[carton253]

Can’t wait to read it. Still have my email address?

[wtc911]

You write screenplays? I’ve sold three...wanna swap?

[napscoordinator]

I agree with you 100 percent. It is kinda sad that they are even having an article like this with so many good choices out there. I think eventually (not our generation) education is going to go back to traditional education. I believe we are going to have to because students are not being educated as they once were and although business are complaining right now, there are not enough that are demanding changes in education.

[Lurking Libertarian]

Tom Wolfe is usually pretty even-handed in portraying the reality of all kinds of situations. I have not read the Electric Kool-Aid acid Test, but I would be interested to see if Wolfe actually glamorizes drug use as the aggrieved father states.

Hardly. Unless you think depicting people becoming psychotic from LSD is "glamorizing" it.

[Huck]

Tolkein’s books are a waste of time.

[Oberon]

Tolkein’s books are a waste of time.

Heh. If you're gonna troll, you should do so less transparently.

[Oberon]

You write screenplays? I’ve sold three...wanna swap?

I'd love to, but at present I'm between drafts on the only one I've brought near completion, and consequently I have nothing I'd be happy to send you. When I get through the current rewrite I'll be glad to send you a PDF.

[wtc911]

What software are you using? Have you registered the first draft with WGAE? I get paid to analyze and ‘doctor’ scripts, when you’re ready I’d be glad to give it a thorough and candid read.

[Oberon]

My early drafts I put together in an MS Word template I built myself...it helps to have career background in editing and layout, I was able to duplicate the format well enough to get a script consultant's approval.

This most recent rewrite is going into FinalDraft, however. As soon as I found I could afford it, I bought a copy. And as soon as I had a hundred-page working draft I registered it with the Writer's Guild.

[Oberon]

As someone of Irish heritage, I think you’ll like my story. It’s set on Iona during the time of the first Viking raids, 795 through 802 AD.

[wtc911]

Future ideas should be registered as soon as you have a one page treatment. That's what I do. It frees you up somewhat to discuss it with a level of protection.

One real-world piece of guidance, resist the temptation to insert any direction such as camera movement. That's the director's job and having any in there raises red-flags concerning the writer's ability to let go. The only acceptable exceptions are POV and fade.

Also be absolutely religious about making sure that everything the audience needs to know is shown in action or dialogue. I can't tell you how many first time writers I've seen who tell the reader in narrative why the character is doing what he is doing or what he is thinking, eg...

'Larry snuck in late, wondering if the door would be locked. He knew he'd be screwed if he were caught again.'

Remember, there is no internal dialogue in film (with rare exception like an old time PI flick) and if it doesn't happen on screen the audience cannot possibly know about it.

[wtc911]

My roots are in the wild NorthWest, Donegal. I’m pretty damn Viking myself.

[Oberon]

With regard to the mechanics, that's all excellent advice that I have already taken to heart. Early on, my one concession to "directing from the writer's chair" was overuse of wrylies, which I have since declared jihad against.

I was trained early in working within the constraints of the medium by writing several radio plays. I highly recommend them as training for a screenwriter, because in a radio play if you can't say it with dialogue or sound effects, you can't say it...period.

Writing for film differs only in that you get a visual to go with your dialogue and sound effects. It's a huge difference for the director, of course, but a fairly small one for the writer.