Skip to main content

"Excuse Me, Your Religion Is Showing."

So, despite railing against YA book blogs, I do indeed read YA fiction. But I like to think of the YA I read as "not shitty," and therefore, it is different than what those blogs talk about.

Rick Riordan: Lover of '50s toys?
Last year I became a big fan of Rick Riordan. No, his prose isn't the most carefully crafted, but eh. He blends mythology into modern life really well, and he's actually much funnier than his dorky author pic would have you think (this picture makes him look like he still plays with Howdy Doody dolls).

So I bought The Throne of Fire in May (the second in The Kane Chronicles trilogy) and, as I am horrible about reading books I own, have only recently picked it up. It's Riordan's Egyptian mythology series (the other is Greek/Roman), and it's really good and I very much like it, but it's made me face some things about myself, people. Some unpleasant things. Yeah. Short sentences make better points.

The book blogger's default position on censorship is "GAHHHHHH KILL THE CENSORS!" And I mean, yeah. Sure. I guess I'm on board with that. But my background is HYPER-literal Christian. Meaning everything in the Bible is to be taken literally, and if you say otherwise, you're someone who's gone off the true path and will be dealt with on the Day of Judgment. If you have any kind of serious religious background, you're probably aware that it's reeeeally hard to completely rid yourself of those thought patterns.

I go to the most hippie-like Presbyterian church possible (no guitars, though. we have to draw the line somewhere), so I'm becoming pretty un-literal/non-literal/whatever, but it makes me squirm when I read things in Riordan's writing that basically belittle -- although that might be too strong a word -- the Bible. WHICH IS SO DISTRESSING TO MY BRAIN. I don't want to squirm! I want to be fine with it! It's a book for 10-year-olds!

So I started thinking, if I had kids, would I be one of those Christian parents who wouldn't let them read things by Riordan because he talks about Egyptian and Greek gods existing and being worshiped today? AGH. I don't think so. But with my background, I understand the thought pattern. There's this weird line between free speech, rational thought and "think of the CHILDREN." If you're talking with someone who's pro-censorship because of The Children, and you say "Well, I'd let my child read it, but I'd talk them through the parts I disagree with," they might pull out the ol "WOULD YOU WALK THEM THROUGH PORN TOO?"

Well...no.  I'm not sure why that seems the inevitable next step. "OMG this book discusses religious issues and possibly discounts Moses' parting of the Red Sea! Ok, we'll talk Susie through it, but then after that we OBVIOUSLY have to watch some latenight Cinemax and talk to her about that, because all controversial topics must be introduced at the same time. CRITICAL THINKING NOW OR NEVER, SUSIE."

This is a bit more caps-locky than normal. But religion in general makes people antsy (or, y'know, blissfully calm or something), so the beloved capslock is to ensure that no one take this TOO SERIOUSLY or starts some kind of weird blogging fight about Rick Riordan (I'm sure it's already been done anyway).

The point of this is I realized that while I would not condone censorship, I would probably be into "Mayyybe you should read this later" and generally hold off on it. I also realized I can still get squirmy about religion in a kids' book, which I was not expecting. I know this isn't the most popular of opinions, but we don't have these blogs just to sit around being self-satisfied with our universally-beloved opinions on things, yes? I mean, yeah, we want to do that most of the time because it's way awesome, but we should occasionally be like "You know what? Fuck The Help."*

It's healthy for the blogworld. I have decided that just now with no evidence to support me. Also 'blogworld' sounds like something from 1998.


*note: I did not read The Help. Do not stone me.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Harry Potter 2013 Readalong Signup Post of Amazingness and Jollity

Okay, people. Here it is. Where you sign up to read the entire Harry Potter series (or to reminisce fondly), starting January 2013, assuming we all survive the Mayan apocalypse. I don't think I'm even going to get to Tina and Bette's reunion on The L Word until after Christmas, so here's hopin'. You guys know how this works. Sign up if you want to. If you're new to the blog, know that we are mostly not going to take this seriously. And when we do take it seriously, it's going to be all Monty Python quotes when we disagree on something like the other person's opinion on Draco Malfoy. So be prepared for your parents being likened to hamsters. If you want to write lengthy, heartfelt essays, that is SWELL. But this is maybe not the readalong for you. It's gonna be more posts with this sort of thing: We're starting Sorceror's/Philosopher's Stone January 4th. Posts will be on Fridays. The first post will be some sort of hilar

Minithon: The Mini Readathon, January 11th, 2020

The minithon is upon us once more! Minithons are for the lazy. Minithons are for the uncommitted. Minithons are for us. The minithon lasts 6 hours (10 AM to 4 PM CST), therefore making it a mini readathon, as opposed to the lovely Dewey's 24 Hour Readathon and 24in48, both of which you should participate in, but both of which are a longer commitment than this, the Busy Watching Netflix person's readathon. By 'read for six hours' what's really meant in the minithon is "read a little bit and eat a lot of snacks and post pictures of your books and your snacks, but mostly your snacks." We like to keep it a mini theme here, which mainly means justifying your books and your snacks to fit that theme. Does your book have children in it? Mini people! Does it have a dog! Mini wolf! Does it have pencils? Mini versions of graphite mines! or however you get graphite, I don't really know. I just picture toiling miners. The point is, justify it or don't

How to Build a Girl Introductory Post, which is full of wonderful things you probably want to read

Acclaimed (in England mostly) lady Caitlin Moran has a novel coming out. A NOVEL. Where before she has primarily stuck to essays. Curious as we obviously were about this, I and a group of bloggers are having a READALONG of said novel, probably rife with spoilers (maybe they don't really matter for this book, though, so you should totally still read my posts). This is all hosted/cared for/lovingly nursed to health by Emily at As the Crowe Flies (and Reads) because she has a lovely fancy job at an actual bookshop ( Odyssey Books , where you can in fact pre-order this book and then feel delightful about yourself for helping an independent store). Emily and I have negotiated the wonders of Sri Lankan cuisine and wandered the Javits Center together. Would that I could drink with her more often than I have. I feel like we could get to this point, Emily INTRODUCTION-wise (I might've tipped back a little something this evening, thus the constant asides), I am Alice. I enjoy