LE for Lazy Evil

I know I come across as a huge bitch when I say this but I have very low tolerance for people talking about how they were “traumatized” by the contents of a book. Were you? Were you really? Or were you upset and disturbed by the concepts you encountered in a book that your next door neighbor experienced first hand? Cry me a river, but while you were reading a book your classmate was getting beaten or raped at home or tortured in an institution, your neighbor was watching his dad getting tazed by cops or administering narcan to his mother, your playmate from that time at the fair was getting deported to be shot at or starve or imprisoned in a detention center and forced to sleep in her own filth… because these things happen to people! To children exactly like you but for some unlucky stroke of fate! If you didn’t read about it in a book, you’d hear about it somewhere else. On the school bus, maybe, from Natalie telling you about how her dad used to get her drunk and touch her. Or maybe at the grocery store, witnessing an ICE raid or a homeless man get his teeth kicked in. Or maybe walking into a dentist’s office and watching some news anchor explaining how it’s actually fine to drop a bomb on relief workers, or about how many tweens the President may have molested and if we should care, or if that teenager who just got shot for carrying a grocery bag wrong had it coming, or or or or—

Do you know what I did? I stopped reading that series and I talked to a freaking adult about it. And then I went and read something else that didn’t involve surprise corpse mutilation

Are some concepts things that it would be better for kids not to encounter until they’re a little older? Maybe! But sometimes through chance they encounter them anyway, and tbh a book is one of the SAFEST ways that can happen because it introduces the Bad Thing to you without putting you directly in harms way.

The following three problems are ranked from least serious to most serious:

A child reads a book that disturbs them, talks to trusted adults about it, and gets context and helpful coping strategies and recommendations for other books. This is not a problem at all, in fact it's an ideal situation where the child is developing independent reading skills and resilience with help and support.

A child reads a book that disturbs them and feels that they're unable to ask for adult help, even though in general the child is looked after by responsible guardians who care about their physical and mental health. This isn't ideal, but it is probably not going to cause any serious damage.

A child grows up in a high-censorship environment, where books are treated as dangerous and forbidden and their reading choices are sharply circumscribed. As a result, the child is less likely to develop a love of books and critical thinking skills. This is a serious problem.

Our big, lovable brute and some of his biggest fans… as cats~ Just because.

Montaron: What?

Xzar: Stop tripping me.

Montaron: Stop tripping yourself!

Xzar: If you were significant enough to notice, I wouldn’t step on you.

Montaron: Yeah, well… your mom!

Xzar: …That was disappointing. I expected better from you.