Our society is so sick that it pathologizes quirkiness, eccentricity, and giftedness, treating them as illnesses that ought to be fixed by the embrace of deviancy. Both individuals and society as a whole lose as a result.
So well said. Even innocent playfulness has to be viewed through a perverse lens. I am old enough to remember the humor of Flip Wilson, Milton Berle and Tim Conway, who left us laughing so hard at their "female" characters or a Sandy Duncan playing Peter Pan without even a fleeting thought as to some deeper "repressed" sexuality. These talents brought out humor and appreciation for their characters. Now we have drag queens and transgender "athletes" who insist it all is part of a new debauchery we must necessarily embrace.
Interesting commentary. I take it you liked the book. I knew you would come up with something interesting. Kids who have 'best friends' are told these days they are gay. Children are always developing--all the way into their 20s, and even then, beyond that. People used to know that. People either don't know that, or deliberately misrepresent reality because it benefits them to confuse children... to take advantage...
Today, just about anything that isn't stoic male conservative heterosexuality is called 'queer.' There is an article for just about every celebrity or famous person, author, actor, politician, etc, in history postulating that they were really gay. This pope was gay. That saint was gay. This leader was gay, that author was gay...etc...etc...etc. Because they had a friend. Liked the color pink. Wrote a poem. So on, and so forth. Unfortunately, for them, not everyone is gay, and not everyone will be. If there's one thing this all reveals is an insecurity no matter how much society 'accepts' them. Why do they need everybody and everything to be 'gay?' I don't have the answers. But none of these speculations offer any real proof, which people have a real problem looking up these days, before they believe the latest 'guess who was gay' article. It's fashionable.
15 years ago, the actor Thomas Dekker who played John Connor in the Terminator TV Series complained he couldn't get jobs after because 'he wasn't androgynous enough.' So he 'became' gay. Molested as a child actor, (appearing in Star Trek Generations and John Carpenter's Village of the Damned) he grew up heterosexual, having relationships with women until finally, in 2017 he decided he was 'gay.' Is he? Was he? Hollywood happened to him. Today, kids who don't even work in Hollywood will follow his path. Anne Heche ended up driving her car into a house and allegedly being burned to death in her final breakdown after years of sexual abuse and mental problems. She was on again off again lesbian. It cannot be healthy to offer to such fashionable status to those who have suffered traumas, I have no answers, but I suspect there is a weakness involved which is taken advantage of... and lest we forget there are always those who take advantage out there...
Well said and written. It reminded me that my aunt in Ireland used to send me Famous Five and Secret Seven books when I was just starting to read. We cannot loose quirkiness (gosh, even the spell check didn’t know that word!) And quirkiness comes naturally out of a person, and is not applied (1. Dye hair purple, 2. pierce your face, 3. become non-binary and then change your pronouns a month later to she/they) If you look at someone like Enid Blyton her appearance, at least in dress and manner, is typical of a woman of her time. The energy is in the writing, in her talent and in giving that gift to others. In her day, you had to wear your wool and tweed a few days in a row and you had to hand wash it. When you can’t just waltz down to the corner tattoo parlor or to the gender affirming clinic to create yourself, you are left with what God gave you: brains, spirit, humor, hard work, and love.
Those halcyon days are long gone and have been substited with degradation, perversion and evil. Walt Disney would be appalled with what his company has become and what it supports today.
Willa Cather had the opposite situation (and at about the same time). She grew up in the Great Plains, in small town Nebraska. Her book "My Antonia" is an exquisite, lyrical work; probably my favorite (best language) American book. The book is based closely on Cather's experiences. Almost everything in the book happened in real life. But as a literary device, Cather writes from a male perspective. The story is about the life of a girl, Antonia, as seen through the eyes of a neighboring boy. Reading it through modern eyes, you can see her (the writer) looking at this girl but writing about her from a boy's perspective. Cather was a lesbian. Exquisitely beautiful language.
So true. Just let kids be Kids.
So well said. Even innocent playfulness has to be viewed through a perverse lens. I am old enough to remember the humor of Flip Wilson, Milton Berle and Tim Conway, who left us laughing so hard at their "female" characters or a Sandy Duncan playing Peter Pan without even a fleeting thought as to some deeper "repressed" sexuality. These talents brought out humor and appreciation for their characters. Now we have drag queens and transgender "athletes" who insist it all is part of a new debauchery we must necessarily embrace.
Well said!
Interesting commentary. I take it you liked the book. I knew you would come up with something interesting. Kids who have 'best friends' are told these days they are gay. Children are always developing--all the way into their 20s, and even then, beyond that. People used to know that. People either don't know that, or deliberately misrepresent reality because it benefits them to confuse children... to take advantage...
Today, just about anything that isn't stoic male conservative heterosexuality is called 'queer.' There is an article for just about every celebrity or famous person, author, actor, politician, etc, in history postulating that they were really gay. This pope was gay. That saint was gay. This leader was gay, that author was gay...etc...etc...etc. Because they had a friend. Liked the color pink. Wrote a poem. So on, and so forth. Unfortunately, for them, not everyone is gay, and not everyone will be. If there's one thing this all reveals is an insecurity no matter how much society 'accepts' them. Why do they need everybody and everything to be 'gay?' I don't have the answers. But none of these speculations offer any real proof, which people have a real problem looking up these days, before they believe the latest 'guess who was gay' article. It's fashionable.
15 years ago, the actor Thomas Dekker who played John Connor in the Terminator TV Series complained he couldn't get jobs after because 'he wasn't androgynous enough.' So he 'became' gay. Molested as a child actor, (appearing in Star Trek Generations and John Carpenter's Village of the Damned) he grew up heterosexual, having relationships with women until finally, in 2017 he decided he was 'gay.' Is he? Was he? Hollywood happened to him. Today, kids who don't even work in Hollywood will follow his path. Anne Heche ended up driving her car into a house and allegedly being burned to death in her final breakdown after years of sexual abuse and mental problems. She was on again off again lesbian. It cannot be healthy to offer to such fashionable status to those who have suffered traumas, I have no answers, but I suspect there is a weakness involved which is taken advantage of... and lest we forget there are always those who take advantage out there...
Well said and written. It reminded me that my aunt in Ireland used to send me Famous Five and Secret Seven books when I was just starting to read. We cannot loose quirkiness (gosh, even the spell check didn’t know that word!) And quirkiness comes naturally out of a person, and is not applied (1. Dye hair purple, 2. pierce your face, 3. become non-binary and then change your pronouns a month later to she/they) If you look at someone like Enid Blyton her appearance, at least in dress and manner, is typical of a woman of her time. The energy is in the writing, in her talent and in giving that gift to others. In her day, you had to wear your wool and tweed a few days in a row and you had to hand wash it. When you can’t just waltz down to the corner tattoo parlor or to the gender affirming clinic to create yourself, you are left with what God gave you: brains, spirit, humor, hard work, and love.
Amen!
Bleeding heart liberals are running amok.
I loved the story about Enid Blyton (and her two girl children). How much pleasure she gave to so many youngsters. delightful.
How new is this? You can’t get to where we are without coming from somewhere. How are the false paths terminated?
Thank you for bringing your slice of reality into an other wise perverse world.
How long will it take to denigrate, The Walton's or House on the Prairie , or have they already attacked American literature?
As always Sarah you are right over the target.
Those halcyon days are long gone and have been substited with degradation, perversion and evil. Walt Disney would be appalled with what his company has become and what it supports today.
Willa Cather had the opposite situation (and at about the same time). She grew up in the Great Plains, in small town Nebraska. Her book "My Antonia" is an exquisite, lyrical work; probably my favorite (best language) American book. The book is based closely on Cather's experiences. Almost everything in the book happened in real life. But as a literary device, Cather writes from a male perspective. The story is about the life of a girl, Antonia, as seen through the eyes of a neighboring boy. Reading it through modern eyes, you can see her (the writer) looking at this girl but writing about her from a boy's perspective. Cather was a lesbian. Exquisitely beautiful language.
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