Friday, March 21, 2008
Sunday, March 2, 2008
Saturday, March 1, 2008
Reading Books
I am oh-so-taken with the Jezebel feature Fine Lines, in which Jezebel writers review 70's & 80's children's & young adult books for girls. (I was particularly elated by the Little House in the Big Woods review, Little House in the Big Woods being the first book I ever read on my own. Alas, when I went home for Christmas I could no longer find my copy of it to reread. I did, however, hit some Baby-Sitters' Club.)
Anyone know anything about current Young Adult lit? I have a suspicion that class difference was represented more in popular culture in the 80's than it is now. And that there were all sorts of working-class characters running around my childhood reading. Actually, even the Baby-Sitters Club book I read while at home pointed out which of its characters were rich and which were kind of poor. And there seemed to be more stigma attached to wealth. Also, lots of single parents and discussion of raising kids alone. AND, I'm quite curious if kids' books now do the same thing. I just sort of doubt it.
This is not a class thing exactly, but just have a look at what 'they' have done to Paula Danziger's The Cat Ate My Gymsuit, recounted on Jezebel a few weeks ago.
The 1974 cover:
The 2008 cover:
Fuck.
Jezebel writers and commenters have pointed out that a lot of the books reviewed there have feminist characters or some sort of feminist bent. And I feel quite lucky to have been learning to read in the decades directly following 2nd wave feminism. Maybe all these books are still read by kids; I hope so.
Also, though, there's a lot of comment about the pioneer/stranded on an island/roughing it sort of strain in that lit. (The Little House books, Island of the Blue Dolphins, Caddie Woodlawn, etc.--not all necessarily written when I was a kid, but definitely popular then.) In hindsight, this inducing of fantasies of independence, isolation, living off the land, Jeffersonian democracy seems merely to have been ushering in acceptance of neoliberal economic policy. The model of class is 'ancient,' in Marxian terms--no one appropriates your surplus labor. That 'ancient' model as used to manipulate people into thinking that having no government controls on things is somehow good for them. Or that it allows for freedom, and that 'freedom' means anything and is desirable. So that Pa in Little House is free to hunt in the woods, be a real man, feed his family with very little abstraction of labor (supposedly), and people are free to exploit one another, and 'corporate citizens' are free to do whatever the fuck they want too.
This mini-analysis is totally painful, in that I really spent most of my childhood reading books about being stranded on an island, watching movies about being stranded on an island, or pretending that I was, in fact, stranded on an island.
Also, also, speaking of YA novels. There are a lot of still-more terrifying ones. E.g, this:
A few summers ago I tried to work for the Institute of Reading Development, the worst organization in the world. It's a corporation that rents out space in public schools and university campuses in the summer (which makes it look more legit) and teaches kids (& adults too) to read faster, more effectively, and with greater pleasure. I went through a few weeks of training and then quit because I didn't so much want to teach little kids to be racist and sexist. No kidding, all the materials they handed out to parents referred to students only as he. Because "she/he" etc. is "too awkward" and they didn't want to be confusing. Additionally, they hadn't updated their materials in a very long time and the examples of high school textbooks that they taught from actually referred to nations as she. Like, for example, Her people number 1 million. That kind of thing. Also, this book:
But the worst was the A Day No Pigs Would Die, which is about rural Quakers in Vermont and falls into the neoliberal/ancient rubric sketched above. It also is all nature-y and naturalizes rape and the idea that women's purpose is to bear children. It is very sucky. Perhaps I will write a more detailed description later.
The classes at IRD are taught by guilt-ridden grad students who are very hard up for money. I assume most of them work around the texts in some way, but there also seemed to be very intense surveillance of teachers.
I am glad that company paid me a lot for training and that I then left them with no employee, thus wasting their money. But I rather wish I'd gone through with it and just taught the texts in totally insurrectionary ways until I was fired.
I shall leave you with Cyndi Lauper, representing non-bourgie people in the eighties.
Anyone know anything about current Young Adult lit? I have a suspicion that class difference was represented more in popular culture in the 80's than it is now. And that there were all sorts of working-class characters running around my childhood reading. Actually, even the Baby-Sitters Club book I read while at home pointed out which of its characters were rich and which were kind of poor. And there seemed to be more stigma attached to wealth. Also, lots of single parents and discussion of raising kids alone. AND, I'm quite curious if kids' books now do the same thing. I just sort of doubt it.
This is not a class thing exactly, but just have a look at what 'they' have done to Paula Danziger's The Cat Ate My Gymsuit, recounted on Jezebel a few weeks ago.
The 1974 cover:
The 2008 cover:
Fuck.
Jezebel writers and commenters have pointed out that a lot of the books reviewed there have feminist characters or some sort of feminist bent. And I feel quite lucky to have been learning to read in the decades directly following 2nd wave feminism. Maybe all these books are still read by kids; I hope so.
Also, though, there's a lot of comment about the pioneer/stranded on an island/roughing it sort of strain in that lit. (The Little House books, Island of the Blue Dolphins, Caddie Woodlawn, etc.--not all necessarily written when I was a kid, but definitely popular then.) In hindsight, this inducing of fantasies of independence, isolation, living off the land, Jeffersonian democracy seems merely to have been ushering in acceptance of neoliberal economic policy. The model of class is 'ancient,' in Marxian terms--no one appropriates your surplus labor. That 'ancient' model as used to manipulate people into thinking that having no government controls on things is somehow good for them. Or that it allows for freedom, and that 'freedom' means anything and is desirable. So that Pa in Little House is free to hunt in the woods, be a real man, feed his family with very little abstraction of labor (supposedly), and people are free to exploit one another, and 'corporate citizens' are free to do whatever the fuck they want too.
This mini-analysis is totally painful, in that I really spent most of my childhood reading books about being stranded on an island, watching movies about being stranded on an island, or pretending that I was, in fact, stranded on an island.
Also, also, speaking of YA novels. There are a lot of still-more terrifying ones. E.g, this:
A few summers ago I tried to work for the Institute of Reading Development, the worst organization in the world. It's a corporation that rents out space in public schools and university campuses in the summer (which makes it look more legit) and teaches kids (& adults too) to read faster, more effectively, and with greater pleasure. I went through a few weeks of training and then quit because I didn't so much want to teach little kids to be racist and sexist. No kidding, all the materials they handed out to parents referred to students only as he. Because "she/he" etc. is "too awkward" and they didn't want to be confusing. Additionally, they hadn't updated their materials in a very long time and the examples of high school textbooks that they taught from actually referred to nations as she. Like, for example, Her people number 1 million. That kind of thing. Also, this book:
But the worst was the A Day No Pigs Would Die, which is about rural Quakers in Vermont and falls into the neoliberal/ancient rubric sketched above. It also is all nature-y and naturalizes rape and the idea that women's purpose is to bear children. It is very sucky. Perhaps I will write a more detailed description later.
The classes at IRD are taught by guilt-ridden grad students who are very hard up for money. I assume most of them work around the texts in some way, but there also seemed to be very intense surveillance of teachers.
I am glad that company paid me a lot for training and that I then left them with no employee, thus wasting their money. But I rather wish I'd gone through with it and just taught the texts in totally insurrectionary ways until I was fired.
I shall leave you with Cyndi Lauper, representing non-bourgie people in the eighties.
Pleasure Yourself With This-Here Lasagna Cat
yes, and there are many more of these on the U-Toob.
I have a special and sentimental loathing for Jimmy Buffett, 'cause I used to live just a few blocks from the Jimmy Buffett store, called Margaritaville of course. People who vacation in Charleston, SC love that shit. Actually, for that matter, many people who attend school in Charleston, SC also love that shit. The posturing of down-to-earth, just-love-havin'-a-good-timeness is one of the more nefarious things about South Carolina. I am glad we have Lasagna Cat to make it all better.
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