Hurrah. Ed Miliband is urging the media to be 'grown up' in its political reporting. He illustrated his point by saying: "Red Ed? Come off it".
Media soundbite - check.
Grown up politics - er...
Tuesday 28 September 2010
Monday 27 September 2010
Won't Someone Think Of The Children?
Apparently To Kill A Mockingbird is one of the most objected-to novels on US curriculae, due largely to the language used.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-11417672
As one 'commenter' points out, use of the word "nigger" reflects in part the era in which the book was set. However, we can make a broader statement. In order to excuse particular forms of language in novels, it is enough to recognise that reported speech is just that. If we want authors to write honestly and meaningfully, we need to accept that characters in novels will sometimes use language that we do not approve of. If parents object to that, they are in effect saying they want their children to be sheltered from certain aspects of reality. That is OK to a point, of course, but it sounds as though there are an awful lot of censorious parents out there who cannot tolerate any version of reality that doesn't look and sound a lot like Disneyland.
Catcher In The Rye is also on the list for similar reasons. A shame. It should be on the list because it's rubbish.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-11417672
As one 'commenter' points out, use of the word "nigger" reflects in part the era in which the book was set. However, we can make a broader statement. In order to excuse particular forms of language in novels, it is enough to recognise that reported speech is just that. If we want authors to write honestly and meaningfully, we need to accept that characters in novels will sometimes use language that we do not approve of. If parents object to that, they are in effect saying they want their children to be sheltered from certain aspects of reality. That is OK to a point, of course, but it sounds as though there are an awful lot of censorious parents out there who cannot tolerate any version of reality that doesn't look and sound a lot like Disneyland.
Catcher In The Rye is also on the list for similar reasons. A shame. It should be on the list because it's rubbish.
Wednesday 15 September 2010
Dope
The Pope is coming, lock up your children!
Alright, I admit it, I'm not a fan. After all, the Pope apparently believes in 'God', so it would be somewhat difficult for me to be an admirer. I don't generally hero worship the mentally ill.
I could go on about how El Papa's visit to the UK is going to cost me and my fellow taxpayers £10m plus all the policing costs. But so what? We frequently host vile heads of state (although I note that Joe Ratzinger's status as such is highly debateable - something to do with an illegal agreement signed by Mussolini). Anyway, £10m is nothing in the scheme of things. What is it compared to, say, the molestation of nine boys by a priest in one case in one diocese in one country (the scale of paedophilia in the Catholic church is such that Wikipedia lists 10 separate cases involving hundreds of children in the UK alone - not even a catholic country. I refer specifically to the case of Father Michael Hill, jailed for abusing nine boys over 20 years, so take your own guess at the true number he abused.)
Actually, most of the things worth saying were summed up slightly obliquely by Ben Goldacre a few days ago in The Guardian (http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/sep/11/bad-science-pope-anti-condom), so I leave it to him:
"You will have your own views on the discrimination against women, the homophobia, and the international criminal conspiracy to cover up for mass child rape. My special interest is his role in the 2 million people who die of Aids each year."
Alright, I admit it, I'm not a fan. After all, the Pope apparently believes in 'God', so it would be somewhat difficult for me to be an admirer. I don't generally hero worship the mentally ill.
I could go on about how El Papa's visit to the UK is going to cost me and my fellow taxpayers £10m plus all the policing costs. But so what? We frequently host vile heads of state (although I note that Joe Ratzinger's status as such is highly debateable - something to do with an illegal agreement signed by Mussolini). Anyway, £10m is nothing in the scheme of things. What is it compared to, say, the molestation of nine boys by a priest in one case in one diocese in one country (the scale of paedophilia in the Catholic church is such that Wikipedia lists 10 separate cases involving hundreds of children in the UK alone - not even a catholic country. I refer specifically to the case of Father Michael Hill, jailed for abusing nine boys over 20 years, so take your own guess at the true number he abused.)
Actually, most of the things worth saying were summed up slightly obliquely by Ben Goldacre a few days ago in The Guardian (http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/sep/11/bad-science-pope-anti-condom), so I leave it to him:
"You will have your own views on the discrimination against women, the homophobia, and the international criminal conspiracy to cover up for mass child rape. My special interest is his role in the 2 million people who die of Aids each year."
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)