Anybody ever read Speak?

[conuly]

It's a YA book about a girl who doesn't, in fact, speak, because (sorry for the spoiling, but it's necessary to understand the post) she was raped over the summer.

One of those books that makes high school reading lists when teachers are bored with reading the classics.

Well, this unmitigated fool has determined that the rape scene in Speak is "softcore pornography". (The link is not to him, but the post where I first read about this.)

Pornography, to my understanding, has to be stimulating, titillating, and fun. The rape in Speak is sickening. And not - let's be absolutely clear here - sickening because I think children are reading softcore porn in school, but sickening because reading it makes me feel nauseous at the very thought of what's going on.

It's well-written, and it's never once been what I've pulled off the shelf because I was bored and thought a little masturbation would help with that.

It's not pornography. Not in any sense of the word. What's very sad is that it seems like for many girls and young women this might be one of the few ways they have of dealing with their own rape. The library book with accounts of rape and assault written on the back pages parallels a scene in the book itself where the protagonist writes her rapists' name on a bathroom stall, and comes back to find whole conversations written about what else he's done.

And it's not that this book is so wonderful in and of itself. Any other well-written book would do. It's that this asshole's attitudes (which he didn't just make up out of the ether) are the same exact ones that keep these people from speaking up! This twit, this misbegotten barely-literate pest, he's part of the problem here! Oh, it makes me so mad. I could absolutely spit.

So, you know, though I don't want to give this person any more attention (let's not encourage him in his ignorance here), I feel I should spread the word so that if somebody tries giving you that line, even if you have no idea what they're talking about, you can smack them hard and tell them why they're wrong.

Comments

[mc776]

......I have an instant suspicion that it's not that he's a pea-brained repressed clod, but because he was deeply aroused by the rape to the point where he couldn't help but assume that it was meant to arouse. D:

It's always the judgmental ones.

[conuly]

We always hate what we are?

[humantales.livejournal.com]

First of all, I haven't read the full book. While making sure Max really was doing homework, I read the section he was supposed to read that day and quizzed him on it.

That's right, my (then)14-year-old son was assigned to read this book for his 9th grade English class. This was a several-week section, in which they read a chapter (or so) each day and discussed it in class.

My son is a typical teenager. If something is titillating, if he talks about it at all, it will be with snickers, etc. This book made him angry for the main character. This is the first that I've heard that the rape was actually described; he hadn't mentioned it. Instead, he discussed her alienation from her friends, her isolation and how, even when she did tell her friend, she wasn't believed.

I was actually impressed that his school would have the kids read a book about this subject matter. I wonder if the person actually believes it's erotic, or if they simply don't want kids reading it for school.

[silver-chipmunk.livejournal.com]

The thought that anyone could say that about an awesome book like Speak makes me want to puke. My daughter was the one who got me to read it, by constantly telling me how wonderful it was, and she was right. And yes, I've seen it on many, many readiong lists.

[conuly]

It's not even about how awesome the book is or isn't. If it were the same rape scene in an incredibly crappy book it'd still be disgusting to call it "porn".

[ksol1460.livejournal.com]

I know that book. Christ, this is like saying Girl 27 is pornographic.

Just because this idiot couldn't get laid in high school he thinks he gets to take it out on women for the rest of his life.

[elenbarathi.livejournal.com]

As the mother of a child who was (and still is, even as an adult) deeply distressed by violence in literature and media, and also as a teacher for over 30 years, I am absolutely opposed to the assigning of violent, distressing literature in school. Particularly depictions of rape and other kinds of sexual violence.

Yes, such books ought to be available in the libraries, and surely they may be very therapeutic for those who've suffered similar trauma. But it isn't fair to inflict trauma on those who have not, by requiring them to read, imagine, think and dream about frightening acts of violence as part of their schoolwork.

I realize a lot of children have been desensitized to every kind of media violence before they even learn to read. Mine, however, was not, and I had a number of tense little conferences with teachers who didn't see the problem with assigning violent or disturbing reading material. I say that if children and youths are not disturbed by such imagery, it's a sign that either (or both) their imagination or their capacity for empathy has been impaired.

Whether the book itself is good or bad doesn't signify. If it contains a depiction of rape, it doesn't belong on an assigned reading list. Not because depictions of rape are "pornographic", either (and calling them that is kind of sick) but because they are disturbing, and it is in itself an act of violence to force another person to bear witness to violence.

[erisiansaint]

I'm sorry, but I have to disagree. Violence is a part of our world and part of how children are socialized to understand it and condemn it is through literature. Should Dickens's "A Tale of Two Cities" be taken off reading lists because people get beheaded in it? Or Tess of the D'Urbervilles? That has a rape in it. Grimm's Fairy Tales, (and Andersen's Fairy Tales,) are plenty violent. Just look at the original Snow White, where the evil stepmother was forced to dance in iron shoes on a red hot floor until she died, at the end of that tale, or the way the Little Mermaid, when she walked, felt like she was walking on knives with every step.

If one removes all reference to anything disturbing from a child's view, then what tools do they have to deal with it, later, if they see it, or God forbid, it happens to them? Especially given the horrors one can read about daily in the newspaper, that I still don't seem to get immune to.

Obviously, this is my personal opinion.

[conuly]

Let's not say what hasn't been said. elenbarathi said she didn't want books like this to be required, not that she didn't want them to be available. That's a huge distinction.

(And it's certainly true that for whatever reason high school reading lists are FULL of depressing or "uplifting" (aka "depressing except for the last three pages") books. There ARE classics that are happy, but nobody thinks teenagers should read them I guess.)

[marveen.livejournal.com]

Well, first off, I haven't read the book either. However, the one you linked to kindly provided the excerpt in question.

No, that's not porn, not even for the subset of BDSM who find pain exciting. It's not even very graphic, as such things go, or very violent.

The most benefit-of-the-doubt I can give the idiot referenced above is to say that perhaps he's dumb enough that he lumps "anything that really disturbs me" into the same category.

Because even though it's neither graphic, nor violent, nor sexual, it was disturbing, and only partly because it reminded me of mister "I just want to be your friend" in 1990. (Yes, I have been raped.) I don't know if I'd want a fourteen-year-old to read it either, depends on the 14-yr-old. Later in high school as assigned reading? By then, yes, they should be able to handle it.

You know, I don't recall ever hearing anyone even say the word "rape" when I was in school, come to think of it. (Mind you, it didn't happen until I was in college, but the principle applies.)

[lizziey.livejournal.com]

Except that there are entire sections of erotica websites (literotica.com for example, has a section for it) expressly for that type of written stuff. To some, it is porn. To you it may not be, because it is not what you are turned on by. It is like saying child porn isn't porn, because it is sick and disturbing, and doesn't turn you on at all. BUT, for some, it still IS exciting, titillating, fun.

Porn for one person may not be porn for another. That does not make it "not porn".

[conuly]

Except that in this case there's the matter of intent.

If there's some creepy guy who's turned on by a picture of your fully-clothed kid holding a teddy bear, it's not porn just because he likes it that way. You didn't intend the picture to be used that way, and most reasonable people wouldn't see it that way either.

[conuly]

http://www.salon.com/life/feature/2010/09/20/the_meaning_of_porn/index.html

[queenlyzard.livejournal.com]

Oh dear gods what a creepy asshole. Does he think "13 Reasons Why" was pornographic, too?

BTW, feel free to come post/x-post about stuff like this in bookaddiction. I'd love us to have some more serious content over there along with all the book memes.

[conuly]

Sure, I will later. There's a LOT of posts about it now, so I'll pick and choose some.

[queenlyzard.livejournal.com]

I'm actually going to respectfully disagree with this as well. I think one of the most important things a school can do, especially for teenagers, is to teach them how to think about and cope with the trauma of the real world.... not just the things that they will experience, but what those around them are dealing with.

Not only might this book help someone who has been raped, but more importantly, it will help those who have not experienced such things to have empathy towards those who have. It may help a girl understand why her best friend has become so withdrawn. It may serve as an introduction to discuss "victim-blaming," and teach kids to check themselves for making such harmful assumptions. Who knows, it may even really bring home to the boys in the class just how serious a crime rape is, and make them think more carefully about how they treat women in the future.

These lessons are invaluable, and everyone needs to learn them... even if doing so is emotionally stressful. The alternative, remaining in ignorance, is likely to lead to worse problems.

[queenlyzard.livejournal.com]

Thank you!