Lazy Saturday Reads
Posted: June 7, 2014 Filed under: Foreign Affairs, morning reads, U.S. Politics | Tags: A Girl of the Limberlost, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, Bode Bergdahl, Boston bombing, genre fiction, Hershey Candy Company, India, Khairullozhon Matanov, literary fiction, Mark Ames, Maureen Dowd, mental illness, Pierre Omidyar, reading for pleasure, Ruth Graham, Ukraine, YA, Young Adult novels 36 Comments
Good Morning!!
Yesterday, Slate published a piece by Ruth Graham that started a minor controversy on Twitter and various blogs. Graham argued that adults should be ashamed to be caught reading books written for the Young Adult (YA) audience. Graham writes:
The once-unseemly notion that it’s acceptable for not-young adults to read young-adult fiction is now conventional wisdom. Today, grown-ups brandish their copies of teen novels with pride. There are endless lists of YA novels that adults should read, an “I read YA” campaign for grown-up YA fans, and confessional posts by adult YA addicts. But reading YA doesn’t make for much of a confession these days: A 2012 survey by a market research firm found that 55 percent of these books are bought by people older than 18. (The definition of YA is increasingly fuzzy, but it generally refers to books written for 12- to 17-year-olds. Meanwhile, the cultural definition of “young adult” now stretches practically to age 30, which may have something to do with this whole phenomenon.)
The largest group of buyers in that survey—accounting for a whopping 28 percent of all YA sales—are between ages 30 and 44. That’s my demographic, which might be why I wasn’t surprised to hear this news. I’m surrounded by YA-loving adults, both in real life and online. Today’s YA, we are constantly reminded, is worldly and adult-worthy. That has kept me bashful about expressing my own fuddy-duddy opinion: Adults should feel embarrassed about reading literature written for children.
Graham has no problem with adolescents reading these books, but she thinks adults should focus on reading “literary fiction,” because “Life is so short, and the list of truly great books for adults is so long.”
I’m not one of the demographic that reads the new YA books, but I do love to escape into detective stories and I know many adults who enjoy reading science fiction and fantasy. In essence, what Graham’s is arguing against is so-called “genre fiction.” Her article made me want to rush out and buy a couple of Harry Potter books. The idea that anyone should be shamed for reading something that gives them pleasure really rubbed me the wrong way; and the notion that adults should avoid reading for pleasure–what Graham characterizes as “escapism, instant gratification, and nostalgia.” Her real problem with YA lit is that it is specifically designed to be give pleasure.
Of course I was not alone in my reaction to Graham’s essay. There were a number of excellent responses. Here’s Hillary Kelly from The New Republic: In Praise of Reading Whatever the Hell You Want: Don’t let Slate make you feel ashamed for reading books that you love.
One evening when I was 11 years old, lifelong friends of my parents came to our house for dinner. As the youngest child, I was the only one left at home to sulk on our living room floor and listen to adult chatter that I neither understood nor cared about. But the couple, Bob and Nancy, were thoughtful enough (and had witnessed my boredom enough) to bring me something to keep me occupied: a book, Betty Smith’s A Tree Grows in Brooklyn.
I won’t gush too long and too hard about how that novel affected me, how I felt Francie Nolan’s injustices, how romantic I found her fire escape reading perch, how I reveled in the fact that Francie was a reader like me. It’s enough to say that I loved—in fact, love—that novel. I reread it about once a year.
In the intervening years, I’ve only found about a half dozen “young adult” books that I’ve enjoyed and found fulfilling. I will reread the Harry Potter books over and over until the day I die. I haven’t come close to picking up The Fault in Our Stars. I found The Hunger Games books clumsy and absurd. Don’t get me going on The Perks of Being a Wallflower. I rarely, if ever, seek out YA lit. It just (usually) isn’t my thing. But that doesn’t mean that the Ruth Graham piece Slate published Thursday, titled “Against YA: Read whatever you want. But you should feel embarrassed when what you’re reading was written for children,” has any merit whatsoever. In fact, Graham fundamentally misunderstands and mislabels the entire genre, and sends a ridiculous message that any reader should rebel against: “Adults should feel embarrassed about reading literature written for children” (itals hers).
You should never be embarrassed by any book you enjoy. And you certainly shouldn’t let some woman you’ve never met make you feel inferior for reading beneath your grade level.
As a young girl, I also read and loved A Tree Grows in Brooklyn. I’ve never been tempted to go back and reread it, but I have reread other children’s books over the years–even books written for younger children. I’ve reread and cried over The Wind in the Willows, and I’ve often thought about rereading A Girl of the Limberlost and Laura Igalls Wilder’s “Little House” books, which I adored. I’ve reread Huckleberry Finn numerous times, each time getting more adult insights from it. Another book that I’ve reread several times with pleasure is The Hobbit.
There’s actually an even more practical argument against Graham’s premise that *real* reading should be a *very serious* endeavor. It’s very important for young children to develop a joy in reading–to learn to read for pleasure (pdf). Apparently this is something that is more recognized in the UK at the moment then here, where the focus is on testing and “Common Core standards.”
From the Guardian: How to encourage students to read for pleasure: teachers share their top tips.
The big challenge for teachers is not simply getting students to read – it’s getting them to enjoy it too. It’s one thing for students to trudge through set texts in a lesson, but will they open another book when they get home at the end of the day?
The National Literacy Trust has noted that becoming a lifetime reader is based on developing a deep love of reading.
“Research has repeatedly shown that motivation to read decreases with age, especially if pupils’ attitudes towards reading become less positive,” it said. “If children do not enjoy reading when they are young, then they are unlikely to do so when they get older.”
For younger readers in particular, their home environment is critically important.
“Home is a massive influence,” says Eleanor Webster, a primary school teacher in Nottinghamshire. “Supportive and understanding parents are key to developing their child’s reading.”
Here are a few more responses to the Graham piece if you’re interested:
Rachel Carter at The New Republic: I Write Young Adult Novels, and I Refuse to Apologize for It.
Alyssa Rosenberg at The Washington Post: No, you do not have to be ashamed of reading young adult fiction.
Kat Kinsman at CNN: Grownups: Don’t be ashamed of your YA habit.
Mark Shrayber at Jezebel: Hey, Everyone! Read Whatever the Fuck You Want.
Now a few newsy reads:
Have you heard about the edible pot controversy in Colorado? A few days ago Maureen Dowd wrote about the bad trip she took on a pot-infused candy bar, and the discussion went viral. Poor MoDo didn’t heed the warnings about not eating the whole thing at one sitting. From The Boston Globe: Maureen Dowd Eats Pot Candy in Denver, Breaks Internet.
As Dowd tells it, she legally purchased a caramel-chocolate flavored edible, ate it in her Denver hotel room, washed it down with some chardonnay, and then waited. About an hour later, the effects of THC set in, and the result was not good:
I strained to remember where I was or even what I was wearing, touching my green corduroy jeans and staring at the exposed-brick wall. As my paranoia deepened, I became convinced that I had died and no one was telling me.
The high lasted eight hours. EIGHT.
Dowd’s conclusion is that pot candy needs to be better labelled. Newbies to the drug should only eat about 1/16 of the kind of bar she ate, according to a medical consultant at an edibles plant she interviewed. Her candy wrapper had no mention of recommended servings, she wrote.
The tour guide who escorted Dowd around said she was warned. It’s not clear if she was told the recommended serving size.
According to The Cannabis, Matt Brown, co-founder of tourism company My 420 Tours, accompanied Dowd as she purchased the edibles at a Denver dispensary. He said she “got the warning” about how edibles affect everyone differently.
I have to admit, I’m a little concerned about pot-infused candy. What if kids get ahold of it? — and inevitably they will. There’s also the man who killed his wife after eating some of the candy and smoking a joint. The Hershey Candy Company is also perturbed and they’re suing: From Boston.com:
DENVER (AP) — The Hershey Co. has sued a Colorado marijuana edibles maker, claiming it makes four pot-infused candies that too closely resemble iconic products of the chocolate maker.
The trademark infringement lawsuit was filed in U.S. District Court in Denver this week against TinctureBelle LLC and TinctureBelle Marijuanka LLC.
It alleges TinctureBelle’s Ganja Joy, Hasheath, Hashees and Dabby Patty mimic Hershey’s Almond Joy, Heath, Reese’s peanut butter cups and York peppermint patty candies, respectively.
At Pando Daily, Mark Ames is continuing to follow the international adventures of Glenn Greenwald’s boss Pierre Omidyar. Two weeks ago, he revealed Omidyar’s role in supporting and profiting from the election of India’s new fascist government: REVEALED: The head of Omidyar Network in India had a secret second job… Helping elect Narendra Modi. He followed up last week with this: eBay Shrugged: Pierre Omidyar believes there should be no philanthropy without profit.
The role of Omidyar Network in so many major events of the past week — helping elect India’s ultranationalist leader Narendra Modi; co-funding Ukraine regime-change NGOswith USAID, resulting in a deadly civil war and Monday’s election of Ukrainian billionaireoligarch Petro Poroshenko; and now, this week’s first-ever sit-down TV interview with Edward Snowden, through an arrangement between NBC News and Pierre Omidyar’s First Look Media — shows how these contradictions are coming to the fore, and shaping our world.
Omidyar’s central role in the US national security state’s global agenda may still come as a shock to outsiders and fans of First Look media’s roster of once-independent journalists. But to White House foreign policy hawks, Pierre Omidyar represents the new face of an old imperial tradition.
And this week, Ames wrote: Just as we predicted, India’s new leader is about to make Pierre Omidyar a lot richer.
Well that was fast. Two weeks ago, we reported that eBay founder Pierre Omidyar’s top man in India had secretly helped elect controversial ultranationalist Narendra Modi, implicated by Human Rights Watch and others in the gruesome mass killings and cleansing of minority Muslims. As we also revealed, shortly after Omidyar’s man publicly joined the Modi campaign in February, Modi suddenly began warming up to the idea of letting global e-commerce companies into the world’s third largest economy. Omidyar’s eBay, which draws the majority of its revenues from overseas operations, has been champing at the bit to get into India.
Now, just weeks after Modi’s election, it seems their prayers have been answered.
Today, Reuters is reporting that Modi is planning to open India up to global e-commerce firms like eBay next month, and that Modi’s industry minister has been drawing up the new guidelines with input from top eBay officials, along with their e-commerce counterparts from Google, Amazon, Wal-Mart and others.
I wonder how all this ties in to Omidyar’s purchase of the Snowden data through Greenwald and Laura Poitras?
In a recent post, I mentioned that there has been a new arrest in the Boston bombing case. A friend of the Tsarnaev brothers, Khairullozhon Matanov, was arrested in Quincy, MA, last week and charged with obstruction of the bombing investigation. AP reported recently that Matanov had wired large amounts of money to people overseas. AP via The Daily Mail: Revealed: Boston bombing suspect’s friend wired $71,000 to people in six countries, as judge rules he should remain in jail.
A friend of Boston Marathon bomber Tamerlan Tsarnaev wired more than $71,000 to people in six countries and used fake names several times for the transactions – including while Tsarnaev was on a pilgrimage in Russia, according to prosecutors.
Khairullozhon Matanov, 23, is accused of deleting computer files and lying to agents investigating the 2013 bombings, which killed three and injured more than 260.
Prosecutors accuse the immigrant from Kyrgyzstan of a ‘pattern of deceit’ in dealing with authorities as they investigated the bomb attacks.
At a detention hearing, Matanov waived his right to seek release on bail. His lawyer said Matanov has no family here, lost his job as a cab driver after his indictment last week and has nowhere to go if he were released.
Curiouser and curiouser.
I’ll end with three links to interesting and helpful reads on the Bowe Bergdahl controversy.
Think Progress: Did Sergeant Bergdahl Desert The Army Or Did The Army Desert Him?
Reuters: Bergdahl reveals the impossible choices faced by hostages’ families.
NYT Editorial Board: The Rush to Demonize Sgt. Bergdahlgen
peej
Carissa
bostonboomer
ecocatwoman
grayslady
mablue2
NW Luna
peggysue22
skydancingguestblogger
Mona (aka Wonk the Vote)
Sky Dancing 
Have a great weekend everyone! The weather in East Center Indiana is gorgeous, and I wish you all the same.
I’m a big fan of letting people read what they enjoy. I was embarrassed as a teen that my mom went on a harlequin romance novel binge but, hey, it kept her attention off me. Reading preferences are personal. Whatever floats your boat.
I think the woman at TNR was arguing that not all genre fiction is trash. I wouldn’t read romance novels, but If someone enjoys it great. But there is plenty of very well written literature in “genre fiction,” and not a lot of fantasy (for example) in “literary fiction.” You can find fantasy in the YA genre. It’s this notion that adults should never enjoy themselves but should constantly read “challenging” works that is silly, IMO.
Personally, I have always felt that my reading habits are private. I think it’s incredibly inappropriate for bookstore clerks or librarians to remark on what books people choose. But that’s probably just a weird thing about me because I have spent so much time in bookstores and libraries during my lifetime.
I read a variety of genres and just look for good reads. I sometimes need something trashy and easy to read after doing a lot of research or going through a bad semester of students. I tend to read a lot of nonfiction and classics but I don’t feel the need to see that as being above any one else’s choice. I always thought high school English classes and some teachers worked hard to take away the enjoyment of some books and I don’t like to see that happening to any one. I frankly enjoyed going back to childhood classics and reading them to my girls and watching my oldest read them to my youngest. You regain something by revisiting old friends. I was so excited to start reading The Hobbit to Jean and I remember how much I loved it when I first read it in 4th grade. I did the same thing with A wrinkle in Time and the Narnia books.
As a child I read every Nancy Drew mystery I could get my hands on. I’ve re-read many as an adult. I enjoyed re-reading them but it made me nostalgic for the childhood treasure of being a bit naïve.
One of my daughters is a PhD and she loves the trashy romance novels. She says they’re a great diversion. For many years I sent her a trashy romance novel on her birthday and at Xmas.
This Marian the Librarian says read whatever you like! Just read!
One of my favorite books is “Things Invisible to See” by children’s book author Nancy Willard. ( The book’s title comes from a poem by John Donne. ) It is a wonderfully-written magical tale about baseball, hope, love, and triumph over death. I get chills just thinking about it. It’s a book both older children and adults can enjoy. I highly recommend it.
I’ll look for it.
BB, thank you for mentioning “A Girl of the Limberlost” by Gene Stratton Porter. I enjoyed it as a child and again when I reread it as an adult. I wonder how many people outside Indiana have ever heard of it? It seems like a lost classic, which is a pity. Porter was an early environmentalist as I’m sure you know.
I also enjoy rereading the Anne of Green Gables books. I’m so embarrassed. /s
I loved A Girl of the Limberlost so much! I really should try reading it again. I liked Anne of Green Gables too, but I don’t remember that much about it now.
Beata, thanks for the suggestions! I will look for them.
Good morning. Not to long ago I had a marijuana cookie, fairly late in the evening. I slept like a baby and woke up high. I got a laugh out of it when my husband found the other half I didn’t eat, and wondered what was that. I told him it was a brownie flashback.
Speaking of flashback, went to local book sale yesterday, and had tables after tables of books. $5 a bag, and I loaded up them too. I’ve given lots of books away to museums, to people, etc. Then I see it at a sale and buy it again, thinking I will read it. I loved a Tree Grows in Brooklyn. Just recently I gave my granddaughter (10 years) To Kill a Mocking Bird. And my other granddaughter, took best honors at school for “reading” she’s a born reader. I have been collecting LP’s 1950’s and 60’s: Picked up 4 excellent records, very good condition: Redd Foxx, Laff of the Party; All in the Family (loved God is Black); Moms Mabley at Geneva Conference , recorded 1961 at the Regal Theater in Chicago, and Jerry Clower, More Good Uns. Like reading, you need your own little space to listen to comedy, and then turn it up loud, and laugh your ass off. Oh, and I love southern cookbooks, several from New Orleans, and San Antonio, Texas. I was happy to tell the younger women looking over the cookbooks which ones they might want to have in their collections, that I had, or still have in my collection. My garden is growing, and I’m weeding. Another 8 or 9 days, and I should be able to slack off. Finding items that will be used in my canning sessions in July/Aug. I’ll reach out on a small scale just to let them know it’s not hard thing to do.
I’ll be back to read up on Bergdahl. Only the Tea Party could pick Clivin Bundy as their hero, and Bowe Bergdahl as the traitor. Jansus.
On my first vacation as a child free woman a friend offered me a joint and I smoked an entire joint and a half like a cigarette. OH NO!!!!! First time pot smokers/users should never do that. Also first time users don’t react as quickly to the drug as casual users. My friends tried to warn me what it could do to me, but I was determined to do it my way. I was smoking a strain called Acapulco Gold and as I learned later it was likely laced with another drug. It took it a while to hit me but when it did WHAM, I slipped the surly bonds of earth. That stuff opened doors in my mind that I didn’t know existed. I felt extreme paranoia and a disconnect with reality. It took me 24 hours to begin to get back to normal, My friends wanted to take me to the ER, but I resisted. I think I spent 22 hours in the fetal position with a cold rag on my head and my partner talking to me telling me “everything will be ok”. My imagination was running wild. It took me several months to shake off the fear and anxiety from the experience. I have a friend who’s a psychotherapist and she counseled me and put me on anti-anxiety medication for a couple of months. Of course I got over it and I swore I would never do pot again, but I was later convinced that I had overdosed and that if I had used It in the traditional way it wouldn’t have affected me that way. I don’t see much difference in alcohol and marijuana. My dad was an alcoholic and he was crazy, literally, when he was drunk. I’ve had friends who’ve had experiences of paranoia and separation from reality by overdosing on alcohol. Stupidity is stupidity and I reaped the whirlwind of mine, but I also learned a very valuable lesson.
The pot grown and sold in CO has usage instructions/directions but obviously some people either don’t listen or are as stupid as I was and think they know better than the folks with experience. I think that’s what happened with Dowd.
For the record I fully support the legalization of MJ. There is evidence that if the THC level is regulated it can help with psychosis, epilepsy and other seizure disorders. There’s some evidence that it helps patients with glaucoma, dementia and many cancer patients swear by it as a treatment for the side-effects from chemo. SET POT FREE!!!!! 🙂
I support legalization too, but I have some problems with the candy bar aspect of it. It’s also very important to understand that heavy marijuana use can trigger schizophrenia in people who are vulnerable to it. I had a friend that that happened to.
A certain percentage of the population will also become addicted, as happens with alcohol and other drugs. Pot isn’t harmless, and it’s not good for children whose brains are still developing.
Very rarely do I indulge in pot, whether smoking or eating it. A friend had shared the cookie she made. I thought it was rather moldy, at least it smell that well. I don’t think they ought to sell it as candy, or make it look like candy. That reminds me of the guns they are making, like Barbie Guns, etc.
Back in the 70’s I smoked pot, it was laced with something, and my ears starting ringing. It was months before I got rid of the ringing, and that kept me from smoking. I did purchase pot for couple women who had cancer. They both passed on. I think treatment might be different now than back in 70’s and 80’s. If people can benefit from it, they should be allowed to use it.
Today’s pot is definitely a lot stronger than the stuff we smoked back in the 1960s.
I’ve never had the occasion to eat a pot brownie but I understand why pot dispensed as food can be particularly dangerous for children. I raised a few of them so I know there’s no way, especially small children, can pass on a brownie or candy bar if they have a chance at either.
We can only hope that adults take special precaution with those items to make sure their children or the children of others don’t have access. I know from experience that adults are careless with alcohol and tobacco around children , I drank my first beer before the age of 10 and I began smoking at 6 years old because my parents as well as my aunts and uncles were careless with their alcohol and tobacco. I dodged the alcohol addiction bullet, but I had a major nicotine addiction by 13, before the dangers were well known. I didn’t stop smoking until I was 30 and I did that because my children begged me to stop. Since both of my parents had emphysema and both died of lung cancer, I’m doubly glad I stopped when I did. .
All edible of whatever kind should have portion sizes on the label. And should say accurately what % for ingredients. Just because it’s a pot candy bar doesn’t mean it should be exempt from what has to get labeled on a regular candy bar. Anything that can make you anxious, paranoid, and cognitively dumber is not harmless. Sure, it has some useful qualities — most of the serious research has been done in Europe — but there’s a lot of hoopla just because it’s pot.
A Seattle paper recently had an article (will try to find and post the link) about the same named strain of MJ testing our with different levels of THC and CBD depending on where it was bought. Apparently there’s some mislabeling going on, surprise. So you can’t know if you’re getting what’s advertised. I hope our state gets some system of quality control and independent, reliable 3rd party testing.
tpm: Obama: I’d Make The Bergdahl Prisoner Swap Again (VIDEO)
Part of an interview with Brian Williams. Obama isn’t giving an inch, nor should he.
I’m glad he isn’t.
ditto
So much for the dudebro contingent. This should shut them up now,
Salon: Rand Paul knocked off his high horse: How he lost moral high ground in attack on Bergdahl
They’ll find some convoluted reason to excuse him from being a walking/talking contradiction. They always do.
Jindal signs a bill guaranteed to kill us down here. http://www.nola.com/politics/index.ssf/2014/06/bobby_jindal_signs_bill_to_kil.html#incart_m-rpt-1
He should change his name to Pawn Jindal.
Even their pathetic excuses for doing these stupid things don’t make sense. If their costs of doing business should rise a little, the oil companies are just gonna pass that on. They’re certainly not going to leave all the infrastructure and abandon Louisiana, until the oil and gas runs out. Then they’ll leave the damage for someone else to clean up anyway.
He’s coming off badly in the national media too:
http://www.usnews.com/news/articles/2014/06/06/bobby-jindal-signs-bill-to-block-lawsuits-against-oil-and-gas-companies?src=usn_fb
Did I mention Jindal’s brother is a lawyer and he and his firm work for BP among others?
So Pawn Jindal has what amounts to a DNA relationship with BP? Who woulda-thunk-it????
Swindel jindal.
that ought to stick. Swindel Jindal has a ring to it.
I like it
Maybe it was the non-existent Cessna 150 heavy bomber that frightened the children.
tpm: U.S. Capitol Briefly Evacuated After Plane Enters Airspace
Perhaps Feinstein just feels personally dissed. I read somewhere yesterday that Harry Reid said he was told about it on Friday.
Daily Beast: Obama Shut Out Congress for 2 Years About Bergdahl Deal, Key Senator Says
That is nice! 🙂
A few nouns thrown in with a few adjectives summed up the Teaparty nicely