aka YA Literature

Saturday, June 16, 2007

John Green is dead to me.

Or maybe the ALA. Or both. I'm not sure. All I know is that, apparently, John Green is writing "hard core pornography" and the ALA is promoting it. Why wasn't I aware of this? Why didn't anyone tell me?


Okay, there are so many things wrong with this organization's "arguments" that it's hard to know where to begin. I will just say this. John Green is at once both "clearly quite talented" and a writer of "hardcore pornography." So he is a "clearly quite talented" author of hardcore pornography? One to whom Safe Libraries wishes "further success in the future?" It would seem that if JG actually does write hardcore pornography, I'm not sure why they think he's talented or why they wish him all the best. Would you say the same thing of Ron Jeremy (I realize he's an actor not a producer, but I don't know enough about the porn film industry to make a correct parallel)?

4 comments:

Texasholly said...

I don't know how I missed this post of yours, but I do remember you talking about the article. So funny to think that "our boyfriend" is such a hardcore pornographer!

SafeLibraries® said...

No, no, no. John Green is not a hard core pornography writer, and I don't say he is. I said his book "contains" hard core porn, and that is accurate. Indeed John Green said he would not even give his own book to his own child until the child, if he had one, was 14.

John Green is an excellent writer. He can write whatever he wants. That's not the issue.

The issue is when librarians award a book containing hard core porn as the best book of the year for 12 year olds.

"Lara unbuttoned my pants and pulled my boxers down a little and pulled out my penis. .... She looked up at me, but didn't move, her face nanometers away from my penis. .... And then she wrapped her hand around it and put it into her mouth."

Now is that not hard core porn? Is that the best book of the year for 12 year olds, particularly where the author thinks it's for 14 year olds and up?

Think, ladies, ... think.

Cody said...

Does this person not realize that 12 and up is a wide range? Does every book ALA pick have to be for a 6th grader? YA Literature covers a wide age range, and an older teen should by no means be shielded from these concepts.

Now, I'll admit that I haven't actually read Looking for Alaska, but I have read one of this other book...and I can honestly say that I know of no 12 year old wanting to pick it up and read it.

SafeLibraries® said...

Dear Children's Librarian Extraordinaire,

Yes, I know it is a range. But the ALA provides no heads up whatsoever about the contents of the book. On the other hand, the ALA speaks very highly of such books.

Go to a Barnes and Noble store. Go to the YA books for sale. See the asterisk on the sign for the YA books. Read that Barnes and Noble provides an asterisk that warns, in the text associated with the asterisk, that content of YA books may be of concern to some parents.

Go to the ALA web site. Nowhere will you see such a warning. In fact, books are highly recommended, including those containing rape of children in diapers by their own grandfathers.

Is it not unreasonable for a book with explicit oral sex recommended for 12 year olds as the best book of the year to at least have an asterisk about the oral sex material contained in the book?

Look, Children's Librarian Extraordinaire, the ALA claims it is the responsibility of parents to ensure material is right for their own children. At the very same time, the ALA misleads parents about the contents of such books. Informed consent is therefore inpossible.

Honestly, do you think that is fair?