Interesting bit of censorship

British farmers want 'couch potato' removed from dictionary

People have, on occasion, challenged libraries because there are "obscene" words in the dictionary, but I can't remember anyone actually protesting to the dictionary people. And never have I seen a "no couches" sign.

In other news
In an article interviewing Judy Blume about the 30th anniversay of forever the writer mentions some authors who wouldn't exist unless Judy Blume broke ground for them. So I decided to look them up.

Forever is really good, honest fiction. And Judy Blume is a fantastic author (for the children and YA set. Don't get my started on how disappointing her adult fiction is). Melvin Burgess, on the other hand, is just a smut peddaler.

Granted, I did get the most obviously titled book, hoping to run into my librarian (alas, no), and strike up a conversation about casual teenage sex. Anyway, Burgess' Doing It was about 300 pages of smut and 23 pages of halfway decent content. if you have any doubt about the content of this book based on the title, take a look at amazons SIP's--SIPs i may blog about later

I'm not against smut, but I would like it to be better labeled. I generally don't turn to the YA section for amatuer erotica. I try to give the book a fair shot, but along with being distractingly racy, the author is male, so he mostly writes from the boys point of view. And he's British, and the characters all live in England, and they say funny things. Some of the slang I'm not familiar with, and the use of the phrase (and SIP) "doing sex" is really distracting. And I have to start thinking about the connotations of "doing" vs "having." Doing is much more active, possibly more controling I conclude. Definitely a boy thing, and those retarded Brits...

The first third of the book I get through relatively easily. It's very sexually charged, yet the boys aren't quite having sex yet. Lots of fooling around. It's all in good fun. then the middle third problems start to surface. But they boys are such jerks (mostly) that I don't care. But at least they've mostly lost their virginities. I barely make it through to the last third, where they have the least sex, and the resolutions to the problems are less than satisfying.

The many 4 characters aren't developed much. Which makes the parade of disposable characters all the more annoying. And the student-teacher extended affair makes me pretty uncomfortable in my old age.

There's one character, the "fat girl" who got branded somehow early in her life and could never shake the label, even though many girls are fatter than her, who I really like. Even though we don't hear much from her, she's the best, most well rounded of the bunch. Her and the sensitive boy/long time friend/ new romance, finally end up together, finally in the end.

If you want smut, there's plenty free on the internet. If you want a story that brings back your angsty adolescence and makes you glad you're old now, read Forever. But maybe I'm just jealous, because I was not doing that stuff in high school.

I've heard of this (YA) book called Rainbow Party which is about teenage sex parties or something. Sex parties! The library doesn't own a copy, so I guess I'll never confirm how dirty it is. There is a lot of public outcry though.

Really though, I'm curious about male reactions to this book. Almost curious enough to take a YA class. Even though it will mean having to read and review 50 of these pieces of crap, all in the name of library science.