Validated

In receiving, yesterday, my copy of Hillsdale College’s monthly publication Imprimis I was gratified to read an article by Meghan Cox Gurdon titled ‘The Case for Good Taste in Children’s Books.’ Mrs. Gurdon is a mother, a journalist, and has been a book reviewer for the Wall Street Journal for nearly a decade. 

I was gratified not only for the defense of her subject matter, good taste in children’s books, but for the larger issue she addressed.  It was essentially the same issue that I addressed in my last weblog essay, ‘Glorifying the Inglorious.’  She even ended by using the same, very-to-the-point scriptural citation by the ancient Christian apostle, Paul—and one that is an article of my own Christian faith. 

From her in-depth experience with children’s, young adult, and so-called ‘chick-lit’ literature she made the case that there is “an increasingly dark current that runs through [these] books.”They have become, “increasingly lurid, grotesque, profane, sexual, and ugly. . . reflecting hideously distorted portrayals of life.” 

In yet another way the adults in our society—parents,  teachers, librarians, book authors, social media hosts or other, hopefully,  responsible  trendsetters who should stand as gatekeepers, those who should screen and protect the most vulnerable of our race—have  abdicated their roles and even abetted the destroyers of our once fairly-enlightened culture by contaminating our children.  ‘Freedom of expression,’ as part of our veneration for ‘freedom of speech,’ whereby flag-burning, vulgar San Francisco ‘gay-rights’ parades, profane lyrics and actions by rap-music and other ‘performers’ over our air-waves and television sets—and popular books—has as trumped good taste, common sense, and moral responsibility. 

I have long considered it an irony that so-called ‘adult movies,’ ‘adult literature,’ ‘adult entertainment,’ is somehow okay for adults, but is (or now was) rightly recognized as not okay for children.  What hypocrisy from adults who children, at least for all too brief period of their lives, look up to as their role models in all things. 

   

Degradation engulfs us from all sides.  And we give our tacit approval to it. 

I end with this well-said summation from  Mrs. Gurdon’s speech:

            “This is why good taste matters so much when it comes to books for children and young adults.  Books tell children what to expect, what life is, what culture is, how we are expected to behave…. Books don’t just cater to tastes.  They form tastes.  They create norms.”  

If I haven’t made the point yet in these essays I probably never will make it.  But if you choose, instead, to see it for yourself just check out the Miley Cyrus antics of the past week, or the Brittany Spears behaviors of the past few years, or the costumes of the women on Dancing With the Stars, or a few of the books cited by Meghan Cox Gurdon in her critique that I have credited today.  Be prepared to be shocked. 

And then (and this is most important), ask yourself what you are going to do about it.  I would hope you, too, will raise the warning voice in your own sphere of influence.  You will not be a lone voice crying in the wilderness.  You will get validation—at least from me.