We discussed books as media in my media class this week. What struck me particularly was that books can get away with what movie media cannot without being giving warning ratings, including dropping a massive amount of swear words and having really steamy content. Those have ruined many a book for me that seemed innocent and intriguing at the onset.
We also discussed aggression found in books and how there is above and beyond far more relational aggression than any other form. Lately I've taken to re-reading several of my favorite books from childhood and after this discussion I was alerted to just how accurate that is. Who would have thought that two cats that are best friends and eat spaghetti and meatballs could be so mean? I just found this interesting because we encourage children to read like their lives depend on it, but unlike movies where we are clearly warned of potentially objectionable material, we don't realize just how much books have in them. This is not to say that books are evil and we shouldn't encourage reading, reading is wonderful and amazing and everyone should do it more often. It's just interesting what we can overlook.
I was also really intrigued by the comments in class. I realized how much material I was exposed to while reading books--some graphic and explicit-- however because I was "reading" my parents thought it was such a great idea! This caused me to reflect on how I want to be more involved with my children's literature choices, and other media choices too!
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