Hmmm. Now if Poland were to introduce mandatory censorware (which is unlikely under Kwasniewski - yay), the eager young students of the new filtered regime would sadly be unable to write projects on this wonderful groundbreaking bill.
It would be filtered by their school censorware, because "cipa" is Polish for "cunt".
Well, everyone who got to this article before me has mentioned just about all the greats, with the curious exception of Brian Aldiss and Cordwainer Smith.
Brian Aldiss has written tonnes of stuff which varies greatly in style and subject matter. I recommend the Helliconia trilogy. The first book may be a bit difficult to get into, but once you've gotten into it, it will blow you away.
Cordwainer Smith produced SF regularly but sparsely, and left the world one novel and a lot of short stories set in the same fascinating universe. A number of the short stories were recently re-published.
>In this case, a kid wrote an essay that was genuinely disturbing. While throwing him in jail may have been a bit much, I think >asking him about it, counseling him for it, etc. were entirely appropriate! I'm sorry, but any kid who writes something this >graphic (have you read it?) is very likely to have a problem. The school system would be derelict to not inquire -- and yes, >this/is/ profiling. But there I'm not aware of any legal or moral reason that it shouldn't be done.
I definitely do not think that the content of a horror story is an accurate insight into the psyche of its author.
I consider myself to be a happy and well-balanced person, but if I were asked to write a scary horror story (as this boy was asked by his teacher), I could make it drip with the most repulsive, disturbing imagery known to mankind.
Why? Because I know a lot about things that happen to people entirely unlike me. Because I have a good imagination and I can easily imagine what it would feel like to be somebody entirely unlike me.
If I were to write a horror story about a crazy woman who kills and dismembers babies and kittens and then eats them, it would certainly not be because I have any desire to do anything like this myself.
Is it any surprise that the subject matter of the story in question was the shooting of a teacher and some students, considering the post-Columbine media hysteria? It was supposed to be a scary story, and wow, did some people get scared.
Is the inclusion of real people in the story cause for concern? Why? The boy wrote it as a school assignment. It was intended for a limited audience consisting of his classmates and his teacher. Perhaps he thought it would amuse them to appear as characters in a horror and didn't even suspect that anyone would read this far into what actually happens to them. Perhapshe did, and it was intended as a subtle form of dark humour, or maybe he wanted the story to be more realistic and relevant. I think that the *least probable* hypothesis is that he is a deeply disturbed potential killer who genuinely wished to whack his teacher and some of his friends, and used the assignment to tell them about it.
A lot of people are questioning the detailed descriptions of drug use featured throughout the story. It is entirely possible to know this much about something you don't do yourself, *especially if people around you do it*. Drug use is prevalent in today's youth culture, and unless a teenager leads a very sheltered life, he or she will inevitably learn a lot about it. Although it is possible that the writer has actually had personal experience of the activities mentioned in the story, he may simply have obtained all his information from colourful anecdotes spread by his friends.
As for the story being gory rather than scary, after two Screams and two I Know What You Did Last Summers, what did you expect? Movies like this have, unfortunately, redefined the horror genre for the mainstream public.
It goes without saying that I think each of the people responsible for the kid's arrest should be tarred and feathered and run out of town (I hope I don't get arrested for saying that).
I don't think that there would have been any reason whatsoever to send him to a school counsellor. If the teacher was concerned about some of the content of the essay and wanted to know why it was included or how he knew about certain things he described, she should have talked to him about it after class.
If that led her to believe that there was a problem, *then* she should have taken further action.
> If I were a parent, I would want to know if a product contained what I judge as inappropriate content for my children to view.
So would I, if I were a parent. The thing is, I can't know if a movie or video game contains what *I* judge as inappropriate content unless I watch it myself. An official rating reflects *somebody else's* opinion, based on somebody else's value system.
Considering their track record, I really don't think that the people who set the standards for official ratings are qualified to decide what my (as yet hypothetical) kids should watch.
Slashdot Mirror
Hmmm. Now if Poland were to introduce mandatory censorware (which is unlikely under Kwasniewski - yay), the eager young students of the new filtered regime would sadly be unable to write projects on this wonderful groundbreaking bill.
It would be filtered by their school censorware, because "cipa" is Polish for "cunt".
Well, everyone who got to this article before me has mentioned just about all the greats, with the curious exception of Brian Aldiss and Cordwainer Smith.
:)
Brian Aldiss has written tonnes of stuff which varies greatly in style and subject matter. I recommend the Helliconia trilogy. The first book may be a bit difficult to get into, but once you've gotten into it, it will blow you away.
Cordwainer Smith produced SF regularly but sparsely, and left the world one novel and a lot of short stories set in the same fascinating universe. A number of the short stories were recently re-published.
Have fun!
>In this case, a kid wrote an essay that was genuinely disturbing. While throwing him in jail may have been a bit much, I think /is/ profiling. But there I'm not aware of any legal or moral reason that it shouldn't be done.
>asking him about it, counseling him for it, etc. were entirely appropriate! I'm sorry, but any kid who writes something this
>graphic (have you read it?) is very likely to have a problem. The school system would be derelict to not inquire -- and yes,
>this
I definitely do not think that the content of a horror story is an accurate insight into the psyche of its author.
I consider myself to be a happy and well-balanced person, but if I were asked to write a scary horror story (as this boy was asked by his teacher), I could make it drip with the most repulsive, disturbing imagery known to mankind.
Why? Because I know a lot about things that happen to people entirely unlike me. Because I have a good imagination and I can easily imagine what it would feel like to be somebody entirely unlike me.
If I were to write a horror story about a crazy woman who kills and dismembers babies and kittens and then eats them, it would certainly not be because I have any desire to do anything like this myself.
Is it any surprise that the subject matter of the story in question was the shooting of a teacher and some students, considering the post-Columbine media hysteria? It was supposed to be a scary story, and wow, did some people get scared.
Is the inclusion of real people in the story cause for concern? Why? The boy wrote it as a school assignment. It was intended for a limited audience consisting of his classmates and his teacher. Perhaps he thought it would amuse them to appear as characters in a horror and didn't even suspect that anyone would read this far into what actually happens to them. Perhapshe did, and it was intended as a subtle form of dark humour, or maybe he wanted the story to be more realistic and relevant. I think that the *least probable* hypothesis is that he is a deeply disturbed potential killer who genuinely wished to whack his teacher and some of his friends, and used the assignment to tell them about it.
A lot of people are questioning the detailed descriptions of drug use featured throughout the story. It is entirely possible to know this much about something you don't do yourself, *especially if people around you do it*. Drug use is prevalent in today's youth culture, and unless a teenager leads a very sheltered life, he or she will inevitably learn a lot about it. Although it is possible that the writer has actually had personal experience of the activities mentioned in the story, he may simply have obtained all his information from colourful anecdotes spread by his friends.
As for the story being gory rather than scary, after two Screams and two I Know What You Did Last Summers, what did you expect? Movies like this have, unfortunately, redefined the horror genre for the mainstream public.
It goes without saying that I think each of the people responsible for the kid's arrest should be tarred and feathered and run out of town (I hope I don't get arrested for saying that).
I don't think that there would have been any reason whatsoever to send him to a school counsellor. If the teacher was concerned about some of the content of the essay and wanted to know why it was included or how he knew about certain things he described, she should have talked to him about it after class.
If that led her to believe that there was a problem, *then* she should have taken further action.
Arrrgh. It's 4 AM here. I'm going to bed.
> If I were a parent, I would want to know if a product contained what I judge as inappropriate content for my children to view.
So would I, if I were a parent. The thing is, I can't know if a movie or video game contains what *I* judge as inappropriate content unless I watch it myself. An official rating reflects *somebody else's* opinion, based on somebody else's value system.
Considering their track record, I really don't think that the people who set the standards for official ratings are qualified to decide what my (as yet hypothetical) kids should watch.