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conulyAnd every one of those recs is better than the books. Well, I've shared my opinion on the books, the problems and characterization are insufficiently balanced for dual viewpoints.
But anyway, that's not what I'm thinking about. What I'm thinking about is Fabian and his generically shitty parents who clearly don't care about him very much. And yes, it is terrible that neither one of them could be bothered to go to his concert that time. I'm not arguing that. But let's look at the implied not as terrible parts of their parenting:
1. They don't appear to be homophobic. Fabian wasn't kicked out of his home or prevented from dressing the way he wanted as a teen. That ought to be the bare minimum and not worth mentioning, but people suck, so there it is.
2. They didn't push him into hockey once it was clear he didn't want to do it.
3. They did clearly pay for his instruments and his music education. Fabian did not become a prodigy all by himself.
I mean, don't get me wrong, they still aren't great parents, but you gotta wonder if there was anything anybody could've said to them (or could say to them in the future, I suppose) that would encourage them to get their heads out of their asses and move from being "low key terrible" to "not entirely terrible".
(I also wonder if the author actually gave much thought to the cost of lessons and instruments. Like, hockey is a very expensive pastime, but that doesn't mean that music is necessarily cheap. Perhaps we should simply conclude that his family has money to burn, and therefore didn't care if he took some for himself if it just kept him out of their hair.)
But anyway, that's not what I'm thinking about. What I'm thinking about is Fabian and his generically shitty parents who clearly don't care about him very much. And yes, it is terrible that neither one of them could be bothered to go to his concert that time. I'm not arguing that. But let's look at the implied not as terrible parts of their parenting:
1. They don't appear to be homophobic. Fabian wasn't kicked out of his home or prevented from dressing the way he wanted as a teen. That ought to be the bare minimum and not worth mentioning, but people suck, so there it is.
2. They didn't push him into hockey once it was clear he didn't want to do it.
3. They did clearly pay for his instruments and his music education. Fabian did not become a prodigy all by himself.
I mean, don't get me wrong, they still aren't great parents, but you gotta wonder if there was anything anybody could've said to them (or could say to them in the future, I suppose) that would encourage them to get their heads out of their asses and move from being "low key terrible" to "not entirely terrible".
(I also wonder if the author actually gave much thought to the cost of lessons and instruments. Like, hockey is a very expensive pastime, but that doesn't mean that music is necessarily cheap. Perhaps we should simply conclude that his family has money to burn, and therefore didn't care if he took some for himself if it just kept him out of their hair.)
