meghan rose allen

Cracked War and Peace. Read thirty-seven pages. Fell asleep.

This does not bode well.

Sometimes I am just sitting there, reading a book, thinking “Okay, this is a good book. Maybe I’ll buy it for some people.” When bam, sexism comes along and ruins the day (sometimes it isn’t sexism – sometimes it’s poor writing or a stupid dénouement or suddenly ridiculous characters but the last piece of ruining came from sexism).

Somewhere (the internet?) told me that The Day the Crayons Quit was worth checking out. So I did, from the library. The crayons revolt and write letters of complaint to their owner Duncan. I read it to Tesfa and she enjoyed it and I enjoyed it until we got to the dreaded pink page. And what does this pink page have on it?

It’s because you think I am a GIRLS’ color, isn’t it.

And there you go, book ruined. It went from being a book that I was considering buying for my nephews for Christmas to a book that I am ready to return to the library today so that I never have to see it ever again.

Of my small readership, I know some of you are thinking Wow. Meghan overreacts to really odd stuff, to which I answer, This is not an overreaction. I don’t need to have some freaking children’s book enforcing gender roles for no good reason. Yes, maybe the book is pointing out how idiotic assigning certain colours to certain genders is, or at least trying to, but whenever I read books that are trying to point out subtle societal influences on children, I think:

1. Nurture Shock reports that generally books written for kids to enlighten them about societal issues actually backfires for kids under the ages of 7-8, i.e. a book about bullying geared to an audience that young doesn’t prevent them from bullying. Rather it teaches them words and phrases that are useful for bullying. So explicitly labeling a crayon a girls’ crayon, even mockingly, does nothing other than reinforce in a little kid’s mind that there are girl and boy colours.
2. What the fucking hell? Why is it okay to have off-handed gender comments? It sure wouldn’t for other marginalized communities. Find me a well-reviewed, contemporary book geared for the kindergarten set with the following sort of comment: It’s because you think fried chicken is food for black people, isn’t it. No Stormfront or KKK books accepted. See. You can’t. They don’t exist because that isn’t appropriate but somehow gender essentialism is? Fuck this shit.

The second point is basically my test for sexism – if you replace whatever the male/female commentary is with some commentary about black people and think to yourself “Damn, that’s some racist shit,” then the initial male/female commentary wasn’t appropriate to have in the first place. This is a test I used frequently with all the misogynistic comments and treatment I got in my undergrad and it works pretty damn well.

So until I return the book to the library, I’ll replace that line with:

Don’t you realise how versatile pink can be?

In any case, fuck The Day the Crayons Quit for raising my hopes only to dash them against the rock of sexism like a toy dinghy in a typhoon.

Sometimes the books stack up so high that Tesfa tells me she’ll reorganise them so they don’t fall over and crush me in my sleep.

Sometimes my RSS feed gets so backed up that feedly (I miss you google reader) just says 500+ for the number of articles I haven’t read yet.

Sometimes there is just too much.

They picked number four.

Can I argue how they “randomly” picked this number? True random? Pseudo-random? random.org? Some degree of random which means I don’t have to pick number four?

I will be reading War and Peace. Off to find Geoff’s copy.

So I got this from here, which in turn got it from here. Since I have time, why not?

It’s time for another Classics Spin for any who are interested. What is the spin?

It’s easy. At your blog, by next Monday, Aug 19, list your choice of any twenty books you’ve left to read from your Classics Club list.

You have to read one of these twenty books in August & September. So, try to challenge yourself. For example, you could list five Classics Club books you are dreading/hesitant to read, five you can’t WAIT to read, five you are neutral about, and five free choice (favorite author, rereads, ancients — whatever you choose.)

Next Monday, we’ll post a number from 1 through 20. The challenge is to read whatever book falls under that number on your Spin List, by October 1. We’ll have a check in when October arrives, to see who made it the whole way and finished the spin book.

Five I’m Dreading
1. Jane Austen. I have never read a thing by Jane Austen because it always seems so inanely dull. So I don’t know. I should pick something I don’t really know the plot to. Or maybe I should pick something I do know the plot to so that I won’t get annoyed because at least I know what’s coming. I’ll choose later if this is the number picked.
2. Collected Stories of Anton Chekov by Anton Chekov.
3. That big Mavis Gallant collection at the library that taunts me whenever I walk past it on the shelf and leave it there for another week.
4. War and Peace by Lev Tolstoy. Yes Geoff, I know it is your favourite book, but it is long and full of terrors.
5. Mrs Dalloway by Virginia Wolfe.
    

Five I’m Neutral About

6. The Metamorphosis and Other Stories by Kafka, the copy that Geoff keeps handing over to me to read and that I never do.
7. Within A Budding Grove by Marcel Proust. So I did Swann’s Way. On to the next one.
8. Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë. Supposed to read this in Grade Twelve English, but managed to not have to take Grade Twelve English and go straight to OAC instead. Huzzah!
9. The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood.
10. The House of Mirth by Edith Warton.
     

Five Can’t Wait to Read

11. Beautiful Losers by Leonard Cohen. I actually read this a long time ago in high school but should probably read again.
12. Les Misérables by Victor Hugo. I’ll go for reading it in English though. My French is too rusty.
13. What We Talk About When We Talk About Love by Raymond Carver
14. The Turn of the Screw by Henry James
15. Some Hope: Trilogy by Edward St. Aubyn.
     

Free Choice

16. A Grain of Wheat by Ngugi Wa Thiong’O.
17. Sozaboy by Ken Saro-Wiwa
18. 84 Charing Cross Road by Helene Hanff
19. 2666 by Roberto Bolaño.
20. Eichmann in Jerusalem by Hannah Arendt.

So check back on Monday to see what I must read.