Hilarity erupts at Kate’s
Apparently some poor children in Saskatchewan have been reading Timothy Findley’s “The Wars”. A parent writes, citing chapter and rather mild verse, of the horror of Findley’s porn being given to 17 year olds.
You know, the ones who are playing first person shooters, listening to hip hop, joining the Canadian Army, sneaking into bars, and surfing myspace. Hello, socons, the horse has bolted, the milk has spilt: the 50’s are over. Everything, and I do mean everything, is available online. Including homoerotic porn - and go and check out the selections - Tif is barely the stuff of today’s Harlequin romances.
What is even sadder are the lamers in Kate’s comments who, apparently, have not heard about the new fangled internet and the mainstreaming of the most tawdry sorts of porn. It’s over folks. There are naked boobies everywhere. Vibes are being sold over the counter in drugstores. Naughty lingerie is featured in Flare. Cosmo offers 75 sex secrets this month and I am pretty willing to bet most of them are a bit raunchier than Tif ever contemplated in his fiction. (And check out the Cosmo bedroom blog which is freely accessible to your ten year old should she choose to pop by.)
One of the reasons I am constantly amused by socons is that they seem entirely oblivious to the cultural reality that sex is no longer even a tiny bit taboo. Now it is all about technique.
Having said that, I cannot imagine why all these commentors are even sending their kids to public schools. Teach them yourselves. Now, my own homeschooled kids will be reading “The Wars” in about ten years as part of a year we will be spending on WWI. Tif, and Sabastian Faulks will be on the curriculum simply because they have written modern novels about that war. So will Ford Maddox Ford’s entirely brilliant “Parade’s End” as well as the war poets. It is possible that the boys will ask a few questions about the prostitute, and they will get a few answers. But more to the point, we will talk about Tif’s rather beautiful use of horse imagery throughout the novel.
Whoever the teacher is in this story deserves a pat on the back for introducing young adults to a challenging, rather well written, Canadian novel rather than the retarded, knee jerk socon blathering about “porn”. And, hey, if you don’t like it, pull your kids out of school? It is still a parent’s option to have their children grow up on a pure diet of the Bible or the Koran and not much else. But they have only themselves to blame if their kids turn out pig ignorant.
Written by jay on May 15th, 2007 with
4 comments.
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colino
#1. May 15th, 2007, at 7:17 AM.
Well done Jay. As a conservative with some libertarian leanings, I’ve always decried those who attempt to limit the ability of others to not be socially conservative, and those “conservative” politicians (at times, Harper, although certainly not recently) who entertain them.
To be clear: I have no problem with those who hold or promote socially conservative beliefs (I hold some - few, but some - myself). What I have a problem with is those who feel that it is their place to impose them, especially when a) there is no chance of a socon revolution in Canada (or I think, the US, in the long term); b) such efforts only serve to make conservatives unelectable.
Although not exactly the topic of your post (forgive me for moving off topic), I’ve always been amazed by those who feel that by sheer force of conviction, they’ll turn the vast majority of Canadians who are either agnostic to or vehemently against certain “progressive” and expanding societal tendencies (eg. the acceptance of gay marriage) against their personal beliefs on matters of a moral nature, especially without strong logic on their behalf.
I’ve always thought about gay marriage as our generations interracial marriage - sure, it’s weird at first and difficult to accept for some, but a generation from now, anyone who opposed it will be viewed by the general public with derision. As strong as an individuals convictions are, at times, you have to realize that the social tide is moving against you. If you want to teach your kids strict adherence to the bible or whatever moral ethos you personally hold, fine. If your views are as virtuous as you claim, such “fads” will dissipate eventually - but not by coercion.