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conuly
and look up Amazon reviews for the Little House books!
Specifically, commentary to negative reviews. No, I'm not sure why I do this to myself either.
Now, typically when mocking Amazon reviews I add my own snarky commentary, but I'm not sure I'll bother this time. Many of these comments, I'm afraid, just kinda speak for themselves.
(Still not sure what I'm going to do with my boxed set of the LH books. Reading them to the nieces is out. Giving the books to them to read sans adult input is definitely out. And I'm not tossing them either. They were a special Christmas present. So... yeah, I don't know.)
So, on to the... uh, the fun!
For some inexplicable reason, I never read this series when I was young, in spite of watching the series regularly. Now I wish that I had. As a child I think it'd be a bit easier to be oblivious to the obvious racism against "Indians" that detracts from an otherwise excellent book. Don't get me wrong. I'm glad that settlers homesteaded the land (all but one of my great-grandparents were homesteaders in McIntosh County, ND). And although I'm saddened about the mistreatment of Indians at the hands of the American government, I'm glad that things have turned out as they have for descendants of those who came after the Native Americans. I just wish it had gone down differently.
She then goes on to quote some of the troubling text from Little House on the Prairie, but you know, she'd rather have read the book as a kid when she wouldn't've known better. Because there's nothing better to do to a kid than to give them a book with racist subtext (and text-text) they're going to accept because they don't know enough to notice it. *headdesk*
Also, you know, there's the bolded text right there. That's my emphasis.
I recommend this book only to kids under the age of eight and kids who have not read the Harry Potter or Artemis Fowl series. For lovers of fantasy, mystery, magic or science-fiction, you must turn elsewhere for a good read.
Yes, this is a kid's review. For the love of God I wish Amazon would stop allowing those. "If you like books totally different from this book, you might not like this book!" Well, no duh. Moving along now.
This next one is in comment to a review saying "Look, this book? It's racist!" Do me a favor, go upvote that review. I suspect it's getting low votes because it dared to take on the popular classic. And that's not fair.
Wow ... I'm amazed and almost disgusted at the agenda based review from 'quickhappy' ... the reviewer must be the kind of person that simply cannot live in a colorblind world and has to view every action, every word written or said, every motive, in form of race or color. I almost feel sympathy for the child spoken of in the review as they seem to be growing up in one of those ideological 'cages' much like the religious crazies! Good heavens, enjoy the books and life without creating racism out of things it's not. Only serves to let the remaining racist elements slide through.
There's really nothing to say to this. NOTHING.
Another comment to that review:
You may dislike Mrs. Wilder's writing if you like. She's not everyone's cup of tea. But actually saying that this book shouldn't be read to or by children? How are children ever going to learn history unless they read of episodes that are uncomfortable? Should we deny them access to "Huckleberry Finn" or "The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman," because they present a less than flattering view of race relations?
1. I've never read Huck Finn, nor heard of the other one at all. I think I'm a pretty well-rounded individual despite that.
2. How are children going to learn history? Well, maybe by being taught history instead of being given books with a lot of racism at a young age (third grade reading level!) and encourage to read them alone with limited adult input and little to no encouragement to read critically. I mean, I don't know, is this a difficult concept?
From the other books we have the comments here, which I'm not even going to bother quoting. They range from "Well, if you'd been scalped (?) you wouldn't complain about a little racism!" to "You should read every single book with your child so as to make good out of bad" to "Well, I kinda think I'm 1/16 real Native American, and I think you're being silly, so there!" (Well, that last is unfair. I'm not qualified to judge this person's statement that she's "proud of her Native American and Pilgrim heritage" because she's "extensively studied her genealogy", I guess.)
And that is pretty much it for "replies to negative comments". There's a handful of them for all nine or so books. (And you may not realize it, but these books have already been slightly edited.)
Well, that's depressing. Really, it is.
On that note, we're halfway through The Penderwicks. Maybe we'll do Owlboy next.
Specifically, commentary to negative reviews. No, I'm not sure why I do this to myself either.
Now, typically when mocking Amazon reviews I add my own snarky commentary, but I'm not sure I'll bother this time. Many of these comments, I'm afraid, just kinda speak for themselves.
(Still not sure what I'm going to do with my boxed set of the LH books. Reading them to the nieces is out. Giving the books to them to read sans adult input is definitely out. And I'm not tossing them either. They were a special Christmas present. So... yeah, I don't know.)
So, on to the... uh, the fun!
For some inexplicable reason, I never read this series when I was young, in spite of watching the series regularly. Now I wish that I had. As a child I think it'd be a bit easier to be oblivious to the obvious racism against "Indians" that detracts from an otherwise excellent book. Don't get me wrong. I'm glad that settlers homesteaded the land (all but one of my great-grandparents were homesteaders in McIntosh County, ND). And although I'm saddened about the mistreatment of Indians at the hands of the American government, I'm glad that things have turned out as they have for descendants of those who came after the Native Americans. I just wish it had gone down differently.
She then goes on to quote some of the troubling text from Little House on the Prairie, but you know, she'd rather have read the book as a kid when she wouldn't've known better. Because there's nothing better to do to a kid than to give them a book with racist subtext (and text-text) they're going to accept because they don't know enough to notice it. *headdesk*
Also, you know, there's the bolded text right there. That's my emphasis.
I recommend this book only to kids under the age of eight and kids who have not read the Harry Potter or Artemis Fowl series. For lovers of fantasy, mystery, magic or science-fiction, you must turn elsewhere for a good read.
Yes, this is a kid's review. For the love of God I wish Amazon would stop allowing those. "If you like books totally different from this book, you might not like this book!" Well, no duh. Moving along now.
This next one is in comment to a review saying "Look, this book? It's racist!" Do me a favor, go upvote that review. I suspect it's getting low votes because it dared to take on the popular classic. And that's not fair.
Wow ... I'm amazed and almost disgusted at the agenda based review from 'quickhappy' ... the reviewer must be the kind of person that simply cannot live in a colorblind world and has to view every action, every word written or said, every motive, in form of race or color. I almost feel sympathy for the child spoken of in the review as they seem to be growing up in one of those ideological 'cages' much like the religious crazies! Good heavens, enjoy the books and life without creating racism out of things it's not. Only serves to let the remaining racist elements slide through.
There's really nothing to say to this. NOTHING.
Another comment to that review:
You may dislike Mrs. Wilder's writing if you like. She's not everyone's cup of tea. But actually saying that this book shouldn't be read to or by children? How are children ever going to learn history unless they read of episodes that are uncomfortable? Should we deny them access to "Huckleberry Finn" or "The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman," because they present a less than flattering view of race relations?
1. I've never read Huck Finn, nor heard of the other one at all. I think I'm a pretty well-rounded individual despite that.
2. How are children going to learn history? Well, maybe by being taught history instead of being given books with a lot of racism at a young age (third grade reading level!) and encourage to read them alone with limited adult input and little to no encouragement to read critically. I mean, I don't know, is this a difficult concept?
From the other books we have the comments here, which I'm not even going to bother quoting. They range from "Well, if you'd been scalped (?) you wouldn't complain about a little racism!" to "You should read every single book with your child so as to make good out of bad" to "Well, I kinda think I'm 1/16 real Native American, and I think you're being silly, so there!" (Well, that last is unfair. I'm not qualified to judge this person's statement that she's "proud of her Native American and Pilgrim heritage" because she's "extensively studied her genealogy", I guess.)
And that is pretty much it for "replies to negative comments". There's a handful of them for all nine or so books. (And you may not realize it, but these books have already been slightly edited.)
Well, that's depressing. Really, it is.
On that note, we're halfway through The Penderwicks. Maybe we'll do Owlboy next.
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no subject
Date: 2011-04-12 05:05 pm (UTC)And in general, this. (http://oyate.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=135&Itemid=108)
I never could get into those books and I never knew what the big attraction was.