Failing Social Stories

In the days since Cho Seung-Hui’s rampage at Virginia Tech, gallons of ink have been spilled trying to figure out how it could have been prevented. I’ve seen articles arguing for more gun control, less gun control, stricter immigration laws, harsher penalties for inappropriate behavior, and more. The only thing these ’solutions’ have in common is that they treat the symptoms and not the cause.

Of course, there have been plenty of articles written about the cause as well. Depending on the news sources you read, Cho was under the influence of drugs, a diseased mind, a mental illness, rock and roll, and video games. I think the answer is a little broader. Cho was simply under the influence of society. In particular, Cho was under the influence of the Columbine school murderers, whom he called “martyrs.”

Post from the Road - St. Marys, PA

I spend a lot of time traveling on business. Sometimes I go to large cities such as Los Angeles or Boston, but mostly I go to smaller cities and towns. This week I’m in St. Marys, Pennsylvania, population 13,873 (2005 data). Since many people may never have heard of St. Marys, I thought I’d fill you in while I’m here.

The first but least important note is that I haven’t misspelled the name of the town. There’s no apostrophe. (No one yet has been able to explain that to me.) The town’s original name was Sancta Marienstadt, and it was founded in 1842 on December 8 (the date on which the Feast of the Virgin Mary is celebrated) by a group of German Roman Catholic settlers from Baltimore and Philadelphia. Many of the people who live in St. Marys today are descendents of those original settlers. One of my clients here represents the fifth generation in his family to live on the farm his ancestors started in 1856.

St. Marys sits in a lovely valley surrounded by the Allegheny Mountains. On one of the many routes I’ve traveled to get here, I believe you cross the Eastern Continental Divide (or maybe it’s another famous geographic feature like the Cumberland Plateau– it was late at night when I took this route and I was too preoccupied with driving up the curvy road and watching out for deer and elk stumbling into my headlights to read the roadside marker carefully). The town seems somewhat remote at first but actually it’s only about 30 miles from an airport and interstate highway.

The Pleasures of Guilty Reading

I have to admit that when the ALA released their list of the most banned books for 2006, I was surprised to see the Gossip Girl series. Really? Gossip Girl?

I had read all sorts of adults decrying it as trash, especially Naomi Wolf in the New York Times and the resulting discussion on the Horn Book Blog, but I was still surprised. Gossip Girl?

So, I did what any banned book aficionado would do–I read it. I hadn’t read it previously, for the same reason I never watched the OC–stories about spoiled, rich teenagers shopping and sleeping with each other bore me. When I want to read or watch TV about people spending $500 on a pair of shoes and sleeping with their best friend’s boyfriend, I prefer it to be about adults.

But I picked up Gossip Girl and guess what? I loved it. It’s trashy. It’s fun. Yes, these people are horrible people– but the book knows they’re horrible and is in no way holding them up as possible role models. You don’t like these people, but you’re not supposed to.

When I thought about why it was banned there are the usual instances of sex, drugs, drinking, and swearing. There’s probably also the nebulous “anti-family content” but do you know why I think it really gets banned? Because kids like it and you could never make the argument for it being Literature.  It’s chick-lit, it’s Danielle Steele, it’s Sex and the City it’s harmless and it’s fun. WON’T SOMEONE PLEASE THINK OF THE CHILDREN?!