Author Decries Parents Who Decried His Short Story.
Apparently, my little autobiographical diddy, HOW TO KILL A BOY THAT NOBODY LIKES, has upset some parents and gotten some intrepid high school educators into hot water. Click here to read one of the top news stories in Pawtucket, Rhode Island. Be sure to check the comments. They're priceless. I can smell the books burning from here.
Heaven forbid an 11th grader read a dirty word. Lord knows teenagers don't cuss or think about sex. As a matter of fact, I am sure 11th graders don't have access to cable or the Internets. So by all means burn any book that might address teenage angst in any real or authentic way. String up that teacher and the principal, too. They're just trying to get them kids to love reading and who needs that? That might actually get them to thinking, and we all know where thinking leads you....straight to hell or Harvard.
Thanks be to fellow WHEN I WAS A LOSER contributor, Maud Newton, for tipping me off to this.
whoa. that was seriously priceless: straight out of a South Park episode. except it's funnier, 'cause it's true.
i will laugh now so that i won't cry.
Posted by: lucy | October 15, 2007 at 10:23 AM
If you're lucky, they'll ban all of your books. Think about the publicity! I can only hope somewhere there's a child reading LOSER under his covers at night, learning all of the important life lessons that book has to impart. (I'm just a little sad they didn't use my essay on oral sex and Zsa Zsa Gabor.)
Posted by: tod goldberg | October 15, 2007 at 02:23 PM
Maybe I can talk Free Press into sending us to Pawtucket for a signing. You game?
Posted by: John McNally | October 15, 2007 at 06:54 PM
Wow. Scary comments from Rhode Islanders. I've got a weird feeling this story may actually get some "legs." Especially if Bill O'Reilly "heres" about it. Maybe someone should make sure John Stewart picks it up. I would love so see his "Senior Smut Correspondent" interveiw one of the parents.
Posted by: Frank | October 15, 2007 at 07:50 PM