Wednesday, October 31, 2007

Female circumsc--- what??!?


I can't believe this. Yes, I can. The web which lets us all publish whatever we like (mostly), which allows me to natter on, also allows this example of non-thinking -- non-reading, really:
"If you decide that you do not want to support something like this, I suggest you boycott the movie and the books. I googled a synopsis of THE GOLDEN COMPASS. As I skimmed it I couldn't believe that in a children's book part of the story is about castration and female circumcision." A piece "collected from email" and quoted on Scopes.com.

Huh?? I can't even call this a misreading of the book -- the protester didn't even read the book! And as for the Amazon reviews, since they're usually halfway literate, I believe the "skimming" referred to was swift as a swallow bent on picking up the small insects.


Ooh, it's juicy -- and very misled.


Well, since this is a book blog, I have to show the book, in which the word "circumcision" DOES, in fact, appear, playing a very subtle, linguistically precise, and frightening role in the action of a quite different world. The horror, if that's what a reader experiences, is on a more spiritual plane than our physical lives.