tiltawhirl

the higher power of stupidity

Apparently an uproar has been set off by the use of the word "scrotum" on the first page of this year's Newbery Medal winning book "The Higher Power of Lucky".

(The Newbery Medal is an award given to children's books, and the books that win this award are generally really great, amazing books for kids.)

Anyway, it sounds like what happens is that a child overhears someone saying that a dog was bitten on the scrotum by a rattlesnake.

Apparently this is shocking to some people, who have requested that school libraries not carry the book. I can't imagine, even for a second, where someone would have a problem with this. It's a medical term, used clinically in this case. It's a part of the body. Half of the readers of the book will have a scrotum. Are they not even allowed to talk about it? If anyone wants to get all crazy about it because it's a "private" part, it's not even a sex organ. It's a sac, a piece of skin.

Most of the people who have a problem with it say that they don't relish the thought of having to explain it to a third or fourth grader. But if the kids don't know what it is, do they know it's something to be uncomfortable about unless you teach them that. Just show them a picture of a dog, point it out. Explain that humans have them too. Don't be weird about it and it won't be weird.

i want to make someone give up

I might need to stop reading, if I am to ever do any decent writing.

It's not a matter of available time, it's more a matter of self esteem.

Once at a reading, I heard David Sedaris say that when he read something really good, he liked to type it out one time himself, as if his fingers could learn what it felt like to type really good writing and start doing it on their own.

If only it were that easy.

I'd like to think I'm one of those people who reads something really good and feels inspired, ready to go out and create their own masterpiece. But, like most things that we'd LIKE to think about ourselves, it's not true.

When I read something really good that someone else wrote, I feel worthless. Not only do I feel worthless, but I feel cheated. I'll never get to be the person who wrote that. That perfect thought, that amazing insight, now it's been written already. Each time I read something like that my first thought is "Wow, that's amazing." Then I think "Damn it." Then I feel like there's no point in trying.

My fondest hope is that one day I'll manage to write something that makes everyone else feel like crap. I want to make someone give up.