Thanks! I am not being extremely articulate today or very, um, smooth grammatically; I'm all clunky and hopped up on some meds. But I *think* that was about what I wanted to say.
And, also, *girl cooties.* To some extent there is probably a "girl protag/popular book" ewww thing going on. I know that I gave my son loads of grief when he was making fun of Twilight, because he likes those blasted Paolini things and I can't talk him out of it. I told him those were of approximately the same quality, with the same wish fulfillment and Mary Sue yick, as the Twilight books, but he refuses to believe me. Why? Girl cooties.
But he is really liking Scott Westerfield's Uglies, and that has a female protag. So I think I can beat that out of him by providing good materials.
And you know, that's my solution. Don't tell the kid they shouldn't or can't read it. Let them read it, discuss it critically, ask questions to problematize the relationships, and then it's a learning experience that might actually get them thinking about those "Love as Violence" tropes. And then provide lots of other quality reads to add to, complicate, and vary the message.
How else will you learn to discern if you aren't allowed to read crap?
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timeasmymeasure
no subject
Date: 2008-09-24 08:53 pm (UTC)And, also, *girl cooties.* To some extent there is probably a "girl protag/popular book" ewww thing going on. I know that I gave my son loads of grief when he was making fun of Twilight, because he likes those blasted Paolini things and I can't talk him out of it. I told him those were of approximately the same quality, with the same wish fulfillment and Mary Sue yick, as the Twilight books, but he refuses to believe me. Why? Girl cooties.
But he is really liking Scott Westerfield's Uglies, and that has a female protag. So I think I can beat that out of him by providing good materials.
And you know, that's my solution. Don't tell the kid they shouldn't or can't read it. Let them read it, discuss it critically, ask questions to problematize the relationships, and then it's a learning experience that might actually get them thinking about those "Love as Violence" tropes. And then provide lots of other quality reads to add to, complicate, and vary the message.
How else will you learn to discern if you aren't allowed to read crap?