Apparently one of the big issues in the Virginia governor's election is whether Toni Morrison's Beloved should be banned from high school curriculums. This is part of a decade-long campaign by a GOP activist who says her son had night terrors after reading the book in his AP English class:
“Beloved,” told from the perspective of a mother forced to kill her 2-year-old daughter to protect her from being returned to slavery in the years after the Civil War, features scenes of bestiality and rape. It is one of the most frequently assigned books for high school English classes, and is on the American Library Association’s list of the most frequently banned books.
Times sure have changed. It's been many years since I read Beloved, but I remember distinctly that it's chock full of gang rape, sexual abuse, and sexual humiliation—including its famous scene of Black slaves in a chain gang being forced to perform oral sex on their overseers. Even if it were a book with nothing but white characters, it would be a very adult read.
But I guess high school seniors are pretty close to being adults, and there's no guarantee that any book will be 100% trigger free. Complaints about the book from students seem to be pretty rare.
Still, it's easy to see why some older parents would be sort of shocked. This kind of stuff just wasn't assigned back when people our age were impressionable youths. But it's a different world today, even if lots of people continue to resist the idea.
That's right. Back in my day, in grade school, I had to read a book where not just a few people suffered and died, but all of humanity died. (Nevil Shute's On the Beach).
Not to mention Lord of the Flies. Boy is that a dark take on human nature.
And completely false,
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2020/may/09/the-real-lord-of-the-flies-what-happened-when-six-boys-were-shipwrecked-for-15-months
Yes the guy who wrote the book was mentally ill and British too. I love bringing up the reality.
Having seen only the movie, how explicitly are their deaths described in the book?
I am not a fan of the way adult books are assigned to teenagers. I understand that most people no longer read books as adults, so it is high school or never. But I dont think we do kids or the novels themselves any favors when we assign books that kids just aren't mature enough or have enough life experience to read and appreciate.
I read Their Eyes Were Watching God as a 40 year old, and I have no idea what my husband was supposed to get out of that book when he read it at age 17. No wonder he hated it. Which is sad, because it is a fantastic book that he may have actually appreciated as an adult, but will not reread due to his previous experience with it.
There are plenty of great books that are much more approachable for teenagers. Assigning those won't stop young people from finding more adult works if they want them. I discovered Toni Morrison in my late teens on my own.
I ... can't conceive of a society where adults just don't read books any more. Maybe you mean printed-on-paper books.
No. There are literally hundreds of millions of Americans who do not read anything longer than a magazine article (with lots of pics), on paper or on a screen. Why do you think all the bookstores and newspapers died and libraries had to add free internet browsing, coffee shops, Blu-ray’s, etc to stay relevant (and keep their funding)? Why do you think Twitter with its character limit is the most popular written medium, and people are switching from Facebook to Instagram?
No.
Because I can get novels for pretty much free that don't involve bookstores.
You’re already living in that world. You just don’t know it because all your family and friends are in the still-literate classes.
Has Youngkin read it and commented? Trump? Bannon? Lewandowski? Somehow I don’t think of those guys as avid readers of literary fiction.
Ha! On the Beach, Yes, what an odd memory you choked up in me...Yes, a depressing take on the world...and the failings of mankind.
I'll throw in Hiroshima by John Hersey, and since this is a memory run with undertows of sexual panic, (see Beloved), Hiroshima led me to John Hersey's The War Lover, where the bombardier would have orgiastic pleasure dropping his heavy weight of explosives on Germany.
This later was played by Steve McQueen as one of his few very unsympathetic characters....the book was more explicit in the sexual joys of killing...
Well...Best Wishes, Traveller
I'l add these to my reading list. Just finished "Peril."
Toni Morrison needed mental help.
Everyone does. That isn't indicative of the veracity of their works.
Kevin, it wasn't a high school class, it was an AP English class taken by high school seniors. That means it is essentially a college class taken by students the age of college freshmen. Nobody should be shocked that this would be signed.
And Karen is talking about her son as if he were a kindergartner, getting nightmares from a book. But he was 18 - I say *was*, this happened ten years ago when she tried to get the book banned - at the time. He was a legal adult.
I would hope that at 28 he has developed enough self-respect and autonomy to be very upset that his mother would publicly humiliate him this way.
"Assigned", not signed, there is no edit function.
Alas no the kid is still pretty messed up --
Blake Murphy is now 27 and the associate general counsel for the National Republican Congressional Committee in Washington. He formerly worked in the Trump administration.
Well shite so much for my hope for his future.
18yo kids should be sent to shoot foreigners in wars, not reading about sex.
Also yeah he’s a hardcore Republican. So I’m sure he hasn’t grown any more self respect or autonomy in the last 10 years. He might’ve actually regressed on both fronts.
& the gangrapes should be 15 year olds in Okinawa, not slaves on a Low Country indigo plantation.
Quibble... I cannot speak for all schools of course, but where my daughters have attended high-school, Juniors as well as Seniors take AP classes. And even a HS Senior would be on average one year younger than a College Freshman.
Yes, but that doesn't change that they're college-level courses.
I wasn’t contesting their being college level courses. I was contesting the same age assertion.
The isn't about Beloved per se, since the law that Miss Murphy was pushing was aimed at any book with any type of sexually explicit content in the book (with no clear definition of what would count as such), which is par for the course for conservatives. Her son was a senior in HS and in and Advanced English class, so it's not like the book was handed out to grade school kids, yet the outrage about it would make you think it was.
Murphy is why men ditch women.
And Spades with the side of misogyny for the win!
But did the parents have issues with the kids watching Game of Thrones?
That's actually a pretty good question.
Points for the Dorothy Parker reference
It simply confirms that as a group, English teachers are sex-obsessed…
No it's the GOP that is sex-obsessed. The English teacher assigned a senior AP English class a novel by Nobel Prize winning author Toni Morrison.
Clearly you didn’t meet the English teachers of my prep school 🙂
Well no - I went to a Catholic HS so my English teachers were nuns.
Lady Chatterley's Lover has entered the chat.
We read Our Town.
If I thought I had to read that again I think I'd hang myself.
Followed up with Spoon River Anthology, Sherwood Anderson and Bartleby the Scrivener.
It's a miracle anyone lived through it.
1984 and Lord of the Flies, also assigned in high school.
We read the Scarlet Letter in 10th grade. It's a wonder anyone in my class ever read anything ever again. I believe the lesson we were expected to learn was: reading sucks! It could not possibly have been anything else.
Everyone should read Orwell.
Now, as for The Canterbury Tales in the original Middle English...
Whan that Aprille with his shoures sote . . .
Without trying to memorize it, I can pretty much recite it up to “Thanne longen folk to goon on pilgrimages”. Can’t say I’ve ever found opportunity to drop it into a conversation …
We had to read "Heart of Darkness". My entire AP class *hated* it, and we all bought the Cliff Notes because the only parts we didn't hate we flat out couldn't make heads or tails of.
Really? I rather enjoyed that one. And when I saw a cetain Viet Nam war movie, I knew what was coming miles before anyone else 😉
Why people can hate the one and love the other is beyond me ... but it takes all kinds. I guess.
Heart of Darkness is like 100 pages long. It's a slog though but pretty cool. I read it in college and enjoyed it as much as it's possible to enjoy Joseph Conrad.
100 pages makes it a short story, or a novella.
Rivets! We must have rivets!
Oh, that's not a bad play. You know what leads to thoughts of suicide? Philip Roth; to be specific long form Philip Roth. Portnoy's Complaint was absolute dreck. Which was part of our assigned reading, needless to say.
I read The Catcher in the Rye when I was 15 and it was quite revelatory in a positive way. I certainly could read it, understand it and relate to it in a much more meaningful way than say Othello. Sometimes we were assigned books that I simply could not read because I was just simply uninterested in the story or the style (is Bernard Malamaud overrated?) but sometimes I would read one book by an author and devour everything he wrote (Herman Hesse), and from what I have read Beloved does not look like a good read. Any high school gems out there that many of us may have missed?
I read "Catcher" at that age, not for school but just because, and I'd say I was too young because I just didn't understand it. Or maybe it was because I was a poor kid in rural East Texas, so a northeaster prep school kid's lived experience was way beyond my ability to relate.
I found it boring and pointless, like reading a book from the point of view of the kids who bullied me in school. Without any attempt to make the protagonist empathetic.
The Virginia governor's race might come down to what you think of that and another hot button culture war issue. I'd rather die on this hill than on self-id.
Kevin you needed to have dug further to get the fact on this one before posting. First off it's NOT a huge issue, it's a sudden Hail Mary pass by Youngkin who thinks he can scare parents into getting his vote by making it seem like forth graders are reading salacious novel. The ad never mentioned that the book that got Ms Murphy clutching her pearls was Noble Prize winning author Toni Morrison's Beloved. The also didn't mention that her "kid" was a senior in an AP English class.
Also the "poor kid" is a lawyer who clerked in the Trump White house and now is assistant counsel for the RNCC.
The name of the book was revealed when many people did ten second Google searches of Mommy, and discovered that she told the same story ten years ago when she tried to get the book banned. And such sudden Hail Mary passes get a *lot* of publicity for a candidate, especially a candidate whose probably voters will not do that search and will take at face value that this just happened. It is a big issue because it could galvanize his likely voters to turn out just that much more to swing the election his way.
So far the early voting stats are favoring Democrats - turnout is as high as it was in 2017 when Northam won overwhelmingly over Ed Gilespie and the turnout is primarily Democratic according to an analysis by TargetSmart. Turnout is higher in Northern Virginia and turnout is lower in Trumpian areas like SW VA. Unfortunately though turnout is also strong in the Valley areas traditionally GOP as well as Richmond 'burbs that are also traditional GOP and a bit weaker in Tidewater areas.
Per many VA pols the data is hinting at possible Democratic victories but it hinges on whether or not the early voting rates keep high in the Democratic area and if GOP voters are simply waiting for November 2nd to show up to vote in person.
The polls have been abysmal in Virginia since the mid-late suburban switch. This is a large test on whether the Republican party has any life left in the state. Eventually the state house will eventually fall as well if they do not.
You should read more - the statehouse fell in 2019, VA is currently all blue but for the VA Supreme Court and four house seats out of 11.
He obviously was damaged beyond repair growing up if he voluntarily went to work for the Trump admin.
Thank you.
I guess Kevin chose this kulture war topic after I bigfooted him on the Yale Federalist Traphouse foofaraw.
Yeah if that were assigned I'd be okay with an alternate option to avoid that. I would read it if assigned, but I wouldn't want to force someone to do that for a grade.
The thing is that for many years the AP history test had an essay question related to Beloved so many, many AP History classes nationwide assigned it for reading.
Mildy curious, what was the questiom?
I think it is time that the public woke up to reality and history. Reading "Beloved" and other great novels with "real life experiences" that can be read and discussed in a safe and teachable setting. It is also an opportunity for parents to actually have real discussions with their children about real life and history. This is about learning folks. It's not about reading porn. Time for this country and its citizenry to grow up and be open to learning for a change. Maybe actually partake in this country's history.
It's really awful when we make high school kids who signed up for a college-level AP course read material that describes sex, rape, sexual abuse and sexual humiliation. Not awful enough to actually reduce or get rid of sex, rape, sexual abuse and sexual humiliation in real life, mind you. The kids will just randomly get exposed to that through their interactions with other kids as well as adults they encounter throughout their lives. No, the real pearl-clutching problem is letting kids sign up for a voluntary class in which they will read about those issues in a safe environment and possibly discuss/contemplate in a safe environment how awful it is that some of their peers (and possibly themselves one day!) encounter similar things as they are merely trying to go about their day-to-day activities. The horror!
Well, clearly the young man's life was destroyed, DESTROYED! by Ms Morrison's book, given that he's currently serving as a lawyer with the RNC. It's truly a tragedy.
How long til he's exposed in a Ted Haggard-meets-Andrew Gillum interracial gay sex ring?
Oh, my mistake. It's the NRCC, not the RNC. Thanks, HokieAnnie!
And this reminds me of one of my favorite English teachers back in high school, who frequently commented on parents visiting him to complain about the assigned reading material. He told us his standard response was to let them know that his job was dealing with their children's reading problems, not theirs.
I don't recall any of the assigned books from back in those days, but "Huckleberry Finn" was probably one of them. Now banned everywhere, apparently, for using verboten terms.
This reminds me of the Republican pol (I forget which one) back in the 90's who claimed to get the vapors from the scene in Schindler's List that briefly shows concentration camp prisoners stripped naked being herded into the gas chambers. Was seeing that shocking and unsettling? Yes? Good. It should be. That was the point.
Here in Ireland we banned James Joyce for a while. To have the US put one of its greatest novels* on some kind of youth protectec staus will be an international joke.
* Met two Englisg academics who claimed Beloved was not just a great American novel, but the GOAT.
You should check out the Pre-Joycean Fellowship sometime.
Everything changes... on Bloomsday.
The argument that this is about anything but racial resentment and white backlash to teaching about the horrors of slavery and racism in this country seems pretty suspect. And of course that fact that's it's a hot button political topic in the VA governor's race makes that perry clear. Given that basis, in general I can understand a parent who wanted their child to be exempt from reading certain books that contained graphic violence or other content. Fine. But banning it? Because your child didn't react well? What happened to freedom and individual choice etc that republicans are constantly going into histrionics about? It is frustrating that complete, obvious, public hypocrisy no longer has any price in republican political circles. Freedom for me but not for thee is the true GOP mantra.
since i can't edit comments, i forgot to add that i have not read beloved and am depending on what i know of it from news descriptions.
It would be more reasonable to think it is overboard to object to having Beloved on a mandatory reading list in a high school ap class , if so many on the left were not so into being hypersensitive and offended about anything that might challenge their beliefs. From huckleberry Finn being banned , to a college professor fired for showing his class Othello where olivier was in blackface , to all these triggers needing to be avoided to create a " safe space " , horrible if someone does not use " right " pronoun, to cancel culture for any little thing .
If those on the left feel the need to be shielded from anything that could possibly offend their tastes , but then decry some parent not wanting their high schooler to be forced to read beloved, is extreme hypocrisy.
I would say that many commenters here, while on the left , are less enamored of all the cancel culture hypersensitivity than many in academia and the media .
But I do think there should be more consideration for sensitivity and preferences in regard to mandatory reading in a public school paid for with general tax dollars . Having simply a choice of alternative novels seems an easy compromise .
This one's thoughts are wildly irrational. And long-winded. Very long-winded. Pay it no mind.
Sounds just like the left wing type I was talking about who cannot handle having any of their ideas challenged.
So just tries to pay it no mind.
I will maybe accept the long winded characterization though .
There is nothing "Left" about what your talking about. Murphy is just a cancel culture advocate on a dust filled crappy books, which don't get read.
Chuckle. I'm not a liberal, you deeply stupid little git. So much for your powers of observation. and yet more proof -- not that we needed any -- that nothing you say merits the slightest bit of thought.
SoV, we can do without the name-calling. I often disagree with rt, but rt is not a troll, so I generally read rt’s comments. And the point raised here by rt is a valid one, and deserves some thought. Excluding certain novels, stories, plays etc. from school reading lists because some students or parents might take offense is problematic whatever the political stance of those trying to have them excluded.
Disclosure: Some time ago, SoV and I had an extended exchange on the effect of survivor bias on income vs. age plots. I thought SoV did not understand the underlying statistical mechanism, did not try to understand, and quickly resorted to name-calling, while I continued try to explain the math. I don’t know why someone so thin-skinned hangs around blogs where lively discussion is common, but there it is.
You would have more credibility if you did more showing and less telling. Which is what got you into trouble last time, IIRC, but I'm not all butt hurt like you, neither do I bookmark conversations and brood over them, so I can't say for sure.
In any event, the Rash has been trolling for some time now, and I don't need you tell me whether he is or isn't. 'Those on the left' indeed. Or -- in case you missed it -- calling me a 'liberal' ... as if that were some sort of insult. Grow up, dear.
I think you are engaging i nutpicking to attempt to bothsides the issue. The GOP want to ban books, as in not even have them in the school library, whereas you see isolated cases of Democrats objecting to assigned books but wanting opt outs not outright banning.
Were you referring to the case of Bright Sheng at the University of Michigan? He was not fired, in fact the investigation was dropped. He was pressured by the dean to withdraw from teaching the course, and apparently has not returned to teaching it as of this time.
I lean strongly toward the freedom-of-expression side and think the dean was in the wrong. Context, intent, historical significance and artistic merit are important, and above all, the preservation of the ‘marketplace of ideas’.
Wow. My school banned One Day In The Life of Ivan Denisovich solely because it contained the word "damn."
That was life in 1976 Georgia.
Damn, I was not going to comment again but yes I was also required to read Ivan Denisovich the same year. Can a book be more boring? I honestly think that was the point. Damn wall.