The comments to yesterday's post about books for boys were outstanding. I'm going to have to write an entire post just about the things people had to say.
I think there is an understated bias, though, in the way we present books, literacy, the arts, and writing as a profession that discourages boys from reading, tells them they are unwelcome and should cultivate other interests, and, whether you're a blogger, a novelist, a publisher, teacher, librarian, or bookseller -- like the title of the video post said, If you're not part of the solution...
Shrugging your shoulders and saying it's not my fault or I don't have a responsibility to affect change only weakens your ability to help kids succeed and grow, and demonstrates either a lack of compassion or an overt willingness to do harm.
So suck it up and grow.
I will point fingers in the future.
Okay.
That said, my son's high school book club (which in the past 2 years has read Ghost Medicine and In the Path of Falling Objects) is now reading The Marbury Lens.
(New, young, hip librarian)
Yesterday, I found out from him and one of the other boys in the book club [oh... yeah... this book club has boys in it. Um... I think there are more boys than girls, in fact... And it's high school, for all the anecdotal pushers of the "boys don't read" lie...] that, in their discussion of The Marbury Lens, it came out that the honorary "favorite character" of the club was...
Conner.
My son was, like, I can't believe they all like Conner more than Jack.
I just shrugged and said it's not my fault. I don't have a responsibility to affect change.
No. Honestly, I think that's kind of cool. Conner is a good and heroic guy, despite all his obvious flaws and, at times, the excessive pressure with which he assails his best friend.
There have definitely been Conner detractors out there in the blogosphere, but yesterday, it was nice to see him made book club king for a day.
6 comments:
I'm not going to say I like Con better than Jack, but I can definitely see the appeal. Especially to young men. I mean he's a little crass, sure, but his motivations are simpler than Jack's, which makes him easier to understand, and his flaws really only make him that much more believable.
On top of all that writer's psych he is a fiercely loyal friend who truly cares deeply for Jack and is not afraid to love him, even when society say that's "gay."
I have the utmost respect for him, in spite of all his silly bravado, precisely because of that.
I can see how they might be able to relate more to Conner than to Jack, at least initially. They all probably know someone who by outward appearance seems similar to Conner; popular and funny, sort of a pack leader.
I really hope that the rest of the comments are just awaiting moderation, because if I'm the only one who came here today that's fucked.
A reason I am on TEAM CONNER, yes that is what we will be calling it now, he has a balancing system to this book. If it were just Jack by himself in London the entire time I would go crazy. Jacks stress built up on me, and when conner cracked a joke or tried helping jack...he helped me(the reader). That is why I will stick to TEAM CONNER, though I connected with some things Jack went through I find Conner the one thing holding this story together.
That's a damn good point Annex. With no Nickie and no Con this novel would have been one bad trip.
I actually liked Connor much more than I was expecting to at the beginning of the book. I kept waiting for him to turn into a jerk, so I was surprised that he was always so good to Jack, and he grew on me.
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