Ideals

Oh, I’m loving this weather, where it’s not too hot, not too humid and enough sun and breeze to make it enjoyable!  Jerry loves this kind of weather and has been patrolling the balcony and warning off the single pigeon who tries to visit… He’s certainly barked at everyone and everything in the neighbourhood and notified all the dogs within hearing that he’s out and in charge.  Then he starts shredding his bed; I’d stopped buying for him years ago but he stole a pillow as his, then ripped a hole in it and has been pretending that he’s a wolf disemboweling a moose… Don says that he’s feeling much better today than he was, and attributes it to the birthday cake, cherries and strawberries that he’s been eating for the last few days.  Whatever works!  I’m happy that he’s got a bit more energy, which is excellent.

I am training myself to get back to a “regular” sleep pattern.  For reasons that it’s not sharing, my body insists on not falling asleep until about 1 - 2am, and then waking up after a couple of hours, and… well, vicious cycle.  I’m hoping that if I go in, turn off the light and set my ‘white noise’ by 9:30/10:00 I should be able to fall asleep earlier and hopefully stay asleep.  Don’s feeling energetic enough that he’s ordering dinner, so I’ll see what he has in mind.  I’m still trying to work out high calorie meals… every single meal delivery service designed for seniors/disabled/invalids is loaded with low calorie options that are mostly steamed vegetables and under 300 calories.  Even the “high protein” meals clock in at 350… to hit the 2500 calories that my dietitian recommends, I’d need at least 8 meals!  That’s just not feasible.  

I’ve been a little troublemaker online, stirring up vehement debate over the question of editing books.  In particular, whether it’s appropriate to edit children’s stories that are almost 100 years old to remove certain references.  Specifically to things like tobacco, use of the “n-word” (isn’t it amazing that everyone knows which word that is?), corporal punishment (spanking children, locking them in a closet and depriving them of dinner for not getting all their sums/spelling correct) and updating words to refer to more contemporary items (like “jeans” instead of “dungarees” or “bus” instead of “charabanc”)  There are a few more, like changing names to not use words that are now considered offensive (“Dick”, “Fanny”) and so on.  In my view, it’s more important that the books are still in publication and being read, instead of being allowed to fall into obscurity.  I think that some of the early changes went too far — entire character arcs were eliminated because of one act — but the publishers recanted and issued new versions (I rather think that those edited versions will be quite valuable in the future…)  Some of the books are being adapted for TV, and there is uproar because the cast is much more diverse than people expect.  I argue that as long as the changes don’t affect the plot, then I don’t see a major problem.  Unless a cigarette butt is essential to the plot, removing references to cigarettes doesn’t change the story (as compared to Sherlock Holmes whose encyclopedic knowledge of 200 types of tobacco ash was essential to solving a mystery.)  Counter arguments range from “the books are of their time”, “they’re for children”, “I wish we were still living in the 1940s” (complete with war, rationing, marriage bar, women not being able to open bank accounts independently, in some cases women not having the vote, needing a man’s permission to drive a car…?) “they’re escapism!”  I’ve also been called “part of the woke brigade” (like that’s supposed to be an insult). My argument is that even when they were written they were unrealistic; and were a vision of an idealized life where children had minimal parental supervision but few dangers, where food was cheap and plentiful and all unpleasant tasks were done by servants.  So altering some minor details of a fantasy doesn’t destroy the fantasy, but allows it to be enjoyed by a wider audience.

I cannot support censorship of books (except for “banned in Boston” labels, which practically guarantee bestsellers 😝) and the concept of Fahrenheit 451 is anathema to me.  I would happily burn all the “banned books” lists everywhere and just allow people to choose what they want to read.  Where my little online tantrums are going is that to my way of thinking, there is a difference between an adult reading a book (even one intended for children) and a child reading the same thing.  Representation matters.  I don’t think that children will suddenly become ogres just because they read about them, but I do remember having to console my young goddaughter (who was barely 8 at the time) that a stepmother would not try to have her killed after her mom died.  She sobbed that all the stepmothers in books were evil (in fact, they were often called “the evil stepmother”) and she was terrified that her dad would remarry and no longer love her, because that’s what having a stepmother meant.  I hunted around and couldn’t find stories with kind stepmothers… and it’s always stuck with me how much a young child can be affected by stories.  So am I wrong to think that perhaps modifying the books to remove the more obvious, non-plot-related, offensive terms so that they stay in publication is a good thing?

Dinner has just arrived, so I’m off for now.  I still don’t know what it is, but I’m sure it will be good.  Jerry is trying to get my attention and Don’s but I’m just ignoring him for a bit 😈  Good night!