ms_lara_croft: Same here. When I read the article, I checked the date to make sure it wasn't 1975.

It's Tennessee. That's where a guy introduces you to his wife and little sister, yet there's only one woman standing next to him.

Ward and June Cleaver are still alive??

FTFA: "My child is being forced to read profanity. This is not something that kids are talking about. It's an assigned assignment," said Lee.

And that's where I stopped giving a fark.

Dahnkster: It's Tennessee. That's where a guy introduces you to his wife and little sister, yet there's only one woman standing next to him.

Yep, and foul language is the problem.

Mangoose: I went to one of the most highly regarded private day schools and we were taught proper usage of expletives in english class.



We must have attended the same school. Was Mr. Grogan your English teacher by any chance?

fark = Fornication of Unlawful Carnal Knowledge, a.k.a., to sow the seed out of wedlock. So the use of fark in its slang context, would be "I'm heading out to fark the fields. The phrase "fark you" used properly could be considered a sexual proposition rather than an expletive.

fark is what would be written on the sign hanging from your neck while you were doing time in the pillory for committing the crime of fark.

Now please consider what you are saying and how silly you sound to everyone the next time you improperly use the word "fark".

Shostie: Mangoose: And, IIRC, page 117 in Diary of Anne Frank had to do with masturbation.

This explains why every copy of that book I come across is always heavily dogeared and sticky.

Well, yes. You came across them!

This poor kid is probably so embarrased by his Dads behavior, thus making entering high school, one of the hardest things a kid can do, even harder. Shame on the Dad.

Now your kid will be the only one who didn't read the book, unable to particpate in class discussions about it, or discuss it with friends. Isolation to a child can only benefit him!!! Good on ya Dad!

fusillade762: "We want our kids to be civilized citizens and be upcoming members of community..."

You live in Tennessee. Too late.

This.

Go hang out at Wal Mart when welfare checks go out.

Tennessee indeed.

downpaymentblues: I thought the term "snowflakes" was reserved for those dirty liberal parents.

I thought it was a pejorative reserved for Tyler Durden's army.

Shows what I know...

They really do believe that The Andy Griffith show was a documentary.

We had to read "The Eyes of the Dragon" by Stephen King in high school. A couple of parents demanded their snowflakes be given alternative books to read b/c of the language (which was actually very tame compared to his horror novels). They got "The Pearl", and as I recall, neither of them did well in that test.

downpaymentblues: One parent was upset that she didn't get to decide whether or not her son had to read the book. That turned into "Parents are outraged".

Fark at it's finest...

The fact that this is a "news" story makes it FARK worthy and ripe for ridicule.

Katolu: downpaymentblues: One parent was upset that she didn't get to decide whether or not her son had to read the book. That turned into "Parents are outraged".

Fark at it's finest...

The fact that this is a "news" story makes it FARK worthy and ripe for ridicule.

It's not News, it's FARK.

Also the tag is "Dumbass", not "News".

A summer reading assignment, which alarmed one student's parent, has stirred up controversy.
One parent (not both-one) of One student does not a controversy make.
A slow news day in August makes it a controversy.
Mom is hiding in the kitchen eating Vicodin like tic-tac's while her morally superior husband runs his mouth to the delight of television reporter.

Surprised it's not Vonnegut or Bukowski. Just wait until "Letters from Soledad" comes around. You know, adult reading. The Jungle, Oil, Grapes of Wrath that sort of thing.

FirstNationalBastard: david_gaithersburg: Mangoose: I went to one of the most highly regarded private day schools and we were taught proper usage of expletives in english class.



We must have attended the same school. Was Mr. Grogan your English teacher by any chance?

fark = Fornication of Unlawful Carnal Knowledge, a.k.a., to sow the seed out of wedlock. So the use of fark in its slang context, would be "I'm heading out to fark the fields. The phrase "fark you" used properly could be considered a sexual proposition rather than an expletive.

fark is what would be written on the sign hanging from your neck while you were doing time in the pillory for committing the crime of fark.

Now please consider what you are saying and how silly you sound to everyone the next time you improperly use the word "fark".

Your teacher liked teaching unproven urban legends?

Was it a religious school?

So please enlighten us oh wise one?

/Public school idiots. Why can't we bring back manufacturing to the US so they can have something to do.

downpaymentblues: I thought the term "snowflakes" was reserved for those dirty liberal parents.

I guess it's just used as a pejorative whenever it suits the narrative?

"precious snowflake"

As I've seen it used here the essence of it is an absurdly extreme belief in the individual value and vulnerability of one's children. Such a parent seems to believe that his child is entitled to special treatment regardless of its cost or practicability (the "precious" part) and that the child's unique nature and extreme fragility (the "snowflake" part) demand that he be shielded from even the most implausible dangers.

Yeah, it's a pejorative of the sort typical on Fark, such as "libtard", "basement-dweller", "Fark Independant^TM", "tinfoil hat", "sheeple", "teabagger", "neocon", "nanny-state", "redneck" and of course "troll".

Now that I've got started on that list, it occurs to me that you could fill a page with the nasty, but frequently amusing, generalizations that get tossed around here in the effort to smear people by association. It's all fair play here on Fark where a discussion is only as mature as them that choose to take part in it.

I suppose at this point it would be customary to post a picture of a weeping teenager with the caption "Welcome to Fark" but I guess that's just another on the list of pejoratives.

Mangoose: I went to one of the most highly regarded private day schools and we were taught proper usage of expletives in english class.

Also, the reason I know what pugnacious means has to do with breasts.

And, IIRC, page 117 in Diary of Anne Frank had to do with masturbation.

They taught you to use expletives?

Why didn't I get this useful, useful education?

david_gaithersburg: FirstNationalBastard: david_gaithersburg: Mangoose: I went to one of the most highly regarded private day schools and we were taught proper usage of expletives in english class.



We must have attended the same school. Was Mr. Grogan your English teacher by any chance?

fark = Fornication of Unlawful Carnal Knowledge, a.k.a., to sow the seed out of wedlock. So the use of fark in its slang context, would be "I'm heading out to fark the fields. The phrase "fark you" used properly could be considered a sexual proposition rather than an expletive.

fark is what would be written on the sign hanging from your neck while you were doing time in the pillory for committing the crime of fark.

Now please consider what you are saying and how silly you sound to everyone the next time you improperly use the word "fark".

Your teacher liked teaching unproven urban legends?

Was it a religious school?

So please enlighten us oh wise one?

/Public school idiots. Why can't we bring back manufacturing to the US so they can have something to do.

Snopes has this one covered

You might have to modify the URL if the fark filter changes it.

I think the parents are F#cking stupid and their kids will be too. On the other hand, the article equates "New York Times Best Seller" with "Good book" and "literature above reproach" which is not exactly a solid correlation. There's a bunch of scandalous crap that has made that list and just because it's popular doesn't mean that it has anything particularly insightful to say. This particular book looks like a goodie, but the blanket use of "best seller" to mean "good book" is annoying.

I mean, come on. Twilight was a best seller.

bingethinker: I'm amazed by people who can't remember their own childhood. This silly cow needs to realize that her snowflake already knows all the swear words he will read in that book.

"And I say you're full of"... ?

It says "shiat", son. "Full of shiat."

FTA: Sam Lee, the parent of a 14 year-old incomming freshmam...

Reading the book in question would expose the kids to words with which they are likely familiar. Reading the article in question would potentially suggest to kids that society no longer values proofreading. The latter is both worse, and less likely to draw the ire of the parents.

/Like they'll be reading it...

My parents are pretty conservative, but they have always been pro-education. In their mind "Reading=Good" I couldn't see R rated movies or watch certain TV shows, but I could walk into a bookstore and buy anything and they would encourage it.

I read the novels for most of the movies I wasn't allowed to watch, it did turn me into a "book was better" snob for a while.

While I do pay attention to what my daughters consume entertainment wise, I realize that even at nine my older daughter knows all the swear words and understands much more than I'd like to admit about the world, so she can watch most stuff, if she watches it with me or her mother.

We got her a kindle for Christmas and I haven't refused to download a book for her yet.

Carth: david_gaithersburg: FirstNationalBastard: david_gaithersburg: Mangoose: I went to one of the most highly regarded private day schools and we were taught proper usage of expletives in english class.



We must have attended the same school. Was Mr. Grogan your English teacher by any chance?

fark = Fornication of Unlawful Carnal Knowledge, a.k.a., to sow the seed out of wedlock. So the use of fark in its slang context, would be "I'm heading out to fark the fields. The phrase "fark you" used properly could be considered a sexual proposition rather than an expletive.

fark is what would be written on the sign hanging from your neck while you were doing time in the pillory for committing the crime of fark.

Now please consider what you are saying and how silly you sound to everyone the next time you improperly use the word "fark".

Your teacher liked teaching unproven urban legends?

Was it a religious school?

So please enlighten us oh wise one?

/Public school idiots. Why can't we bring back manufacturing to the US so they can have something to do.

Snopes has this one covered

You might have to modify the URL if the fark filter changes it.

.
.
Hmm. Still not sure about this one. the definition of fark has been around for hundreds of years, then a few years ago an internet dictionary declares it to be different. Did you know that according to the Bill Gates Dictionary "cant" is a word, along with hundreds of other words he invented. I would be curious to see and official source such as Webster's on the topic.

I'm more outraged that the linked site hogtied my browser than I am about profanity in high school kids' reading assignments.

david_gaithersburg: Carth: david_gaithersburg: FirstNationalBastard: david_gaithersburg: Mangoose: I went to one of the most highly regarded private day schools and we were taught proper usage of expletives in english class.



We must have attended the same school. Was Mr. Grogan your English teacher by any chance?

fark = Fornication of Unlawful Carnal Knowledge, a.k.a., to sow the seed out of wedlock. So the use of fark in its slang context, would be "I'm heading out to fark the fields. The phrase "fark you" used properly could be considered a sexual proposition rather than an expletive.

fark is what would be written on the sign hanging from your neck while you were doing time in the pillory for committing the crime of fark.

Now please consider what you are saying and how silly you sound to everyone the next time you improperly use the word "fark".

Your teacher liked teaching unproven urban legends?

Was it a religious school?

So please enlighten us oh wise one?

/Public school idiots. Why can't we bring back manufacturing to the US so they can have something to do.

Snopes has this one covered

You might have to modify the URL if the fark filter changes it.

.
.
Hmm. Still not sure about this one. the definition of fark has been around for hundreds of years, then a few years ago an internet dictionary declares it to be different. Did you know that according to the Bill Gates Dictionary "cant" is a word, along with hundreds of other words he invented. I would be curious to see and official source such as Webster's on the topic.

OED has an entry on fark as well. It dates back to middle english and was never meant to be an acronym. However, it is a good example of a backronym

Link to etymology dictionary if you can't read the official OED page.

Anyone find it ironic everyone on here is complaining about censorship of the book, but at the same time you can't type the words from the book on the site that you are complaining about the book on?

"We want our kids to be civilized citizens and be upcoming members of community, and this does not serve that purpose"

Boy, did they ever miss that boat. None of today's kids will be civilized citizens.

david_gaithersburg

Did you know that according to the Bill Gates Dictionary "cant" is a word, along with hundreds of other words he invented. I would be curious to see and official source such as Webster's on the topic.


Mr. Gates is getting old, but I'm pretty sure the idea of a "cant hook" is even older.

(It's a metal hook device on the end of a long handle, and it's used to give a person enough leverage to roll a log.)

Some kid is procrastinating his reading assignment.

"Look dad it says "fark" in the first chapter, ALERT the local news media this is an outrage"

I lived in a very rural community with VERY Catholic parents. However, they encouraged me to read and never siad a word about my choices..

We went to the "big city" to have my braces checked every 3 weeks, and on one trip, I bought the new Steven King novel, Salem's Lot. I was probably 14.

I read it, cover to cover, right in front of them. Nary a word was said.

///Scared the living crap out of me, BTW.

I wonder if their parents have paid attention to what's in their kids' playlists -- they probably have more expletive words in their ipod than all modern literature combined.

Ugh. I was going to comment in the original article, but after reading what some of those morons had to say, I figured I'd be better off here.

I just wanted to say that this guy has his head up his ass and he's a complete fool if he thinks that his 14 year old isn't being flooded with profanity, violence, and sexuality on a daily basis by not only his peers, but everyday life and movies, games, and TV as well. By freshman year of high school, more than half of the kids I went to school with had already lost their virginities. And even more than that swore like sailors, smoked like chimneys, and acted more like a whore than your average stripper. These people may want to believe that their child isn't "one of them" but in all likelihood, yes, yes they probably are. And even if they aren't, getting up in arms about a few "f" words or some other "obscene" words is ridiculous, and what kind of lesson does that teach their child? That it's ok to skip out on work if you have a "moral" conflict with it? That it's ok to buck your superiors if there's something in the work that you don't agree with? That if you biatch and moan loud enough, everything will work out the way you want it to?

So according to this parent's logic, all books that contain any hint of profanity should be BANNED until these kids are 18? Hell, it's not like they couldn't ALREADY get those books on their own if they wanted to. It's not like there's someone at the book store making sure that kids get ID'd before they buy a certain book. Sure, there are "adult" sections, but that's mostly relegated to erotica and the like. And honestly, profanity is just, totally out of the question...but the violence and rape and graphically detailed horror that occurs in most Greek and Roman mythology and the bible itself is perfectly fine? It's ok to talk about a woman getting raped by a bull, or a man's daughters being raped, or angels being gang raped, or hell, babies being thrown into pits, men's heads being severed, needlessly detailed accounts of how the blood looked when it pooled or how the brains littered the ground, and that's all just a-ok. THAT is truly shaping our children to be "upright" citizens...but hear a few errant "farks" or "shiats"...that's what's going to ruin our children's perception of morality?

Give me a farking break...

llort dam eht:
While I do pay attention to what my daughters consume entertainment wise, I realize that even at nine my older daughter knows all the swear words and understands much more than I'd like to admit about the world, so she can watch most stuff, if she watches it with me or her mother.

We got her a kindle for Christmas and I haven't refused to download a book for her yet.

Read "The Gap Cycle".

Give it to your 9 year old daughter. But, wait until she's 15 or so... dammit how's this work with girls? They're easy to scar.

Seriously, "The Real Story" is swift and brutal and disgusting; and then "Forbidden Knowledge" is boring unless you pick up quick on the subtler plot elements being exposed (politics are boring until they're well understood, somehow; it gets to be just a bunch of shiat of no particular note UNTIL it's suddenly of obvious significance). by the time you're 100 pages into book 3 you won't be able to stop reading, thankfully the Kindle can grab new books all the time.

The Kindle versions have errors, by the way. Donaldson doesn't like the publisher he used and claims they had the books OCR'd and proofread by people in India who don't speak English--not even as a tertiary language! I did come across an entire out-of-place paragraph in the most recent version of ... was it A Dark And Hungry God Arises? Dunno, but all I can say is Chaos and Order is worth having in hard cover if you find any errors in the ebook.

The Gap Cycle is one series worth reading, though, in respect to topic. Besides being an amazing piece of literature, it's also a hard liner for the problems with partial knowledge: into the second book, you'll probably be well convinced it's a pile of trash not fit for consumption by anyone; finish the series and you'll realize it's truly awesome; go back and reread, and you'll realize the first book actually has literary value, despite looking like an exercise in brutal smut. How many parents do you think would get 15-20 pages into book 1 and decide the whole series needs to be burned and holds no literary value?

I can see this from 2 sides and they are mentioned in this thread. There are those who use profanity that isn't really needed but just used because they can. Then there are the ones used for actual purpose. Showing how a character is or reacts to a certain stimulus by swearing can be used as a character development. But if you just have someone swearing because they can. It looses all meaning of the word.

Case in point, South Park's Sh-t episode. They swore in that episode's story so much that they lost meaning of the word.

kmmontandon: Oh, FFS.

Our High School English teacher was a complete stick (besides the pot smoking), but he had us read all the way through Catch-22 aloud, in class, taking individual turns to read parts, over the course of about a month. Then we watched the movie in class.

Words are just words.

That sounds like a lazy teacher who just didn't want to do any lesson planning.

RKade: Showering your kids in ignorance ...

I wish I could blame lack of coffee for reading that has "Showering with your kids is ignorant...." I was totally interested in finding out where you were going with that line of thought, you know, preparing to be outraged and all.

Unobtanium: When I was 14 or 15, we had to read The Catcher in the Rye, The Scarlet Letter, and a couple of Hemingway works. By that age I already knew (and had heard several times) George Carlin's take on "dirty" words, plus thanks to Monty Python's Flying Circus, I could curse in British.

But those are all quality works of literature and genius. Swear words in that context is acceptable. Robopocalypse? Yeah, not so much.

_{(And I am a HUGE fan of SF, don't read anything else.)}

Just remember this is the same crowd that cries over books like 1984 Brave New World. Profanity, sex, thinking for yourself. All horrors that children should NEVER be exposed to.

Hahahahahahaha...these parents need to make one journey on a middle school bus......where their eyes will be opened to just how much their teen and preteens know..............what kind of rock do they live under if they think their snowflakes don't know about swearing

yves0010: Case in point, South Park's Sh-t episode. They swore in that episode's story so much that they lost meaning of the word.

That's the whole point, mocking the insanity and uselessness of censorship.

Scorpio Rex: Unobtanium: When I was 14 or 15, we had to read The Catcher in the Rye, The Scarlet Letter, and a couple of Hemingway works. By that age I already knew (and had heard several times) George Carlin's take on "dirty" words, plus thanks to Monty Python's Flying Circus, I could curse in British.

But those are all quality works of literature and genius. Swear words in that context is acceptable. Robopocalypse? Yeah, not so much.

(And I am a HUGE fan of SF, don't read anything else.)

I had to read a lot of "quality" works in school that frankly I thought sucked big huge monkey balls. Even after I got older, the stories didn't take on any new meaning, just the same crappy boring stories I read as a kid. Some of the stuff I had to read was great... I loved Catcher in the Rye... I thought Great Gatsby was utter putrid garbage. I intensely dislike the notion that something that is by its very nature subjective is "ranked" objectively.

stonicus: yves0010: Case in point, South Park's Sh-t episode. They swore in that episode's story so much that they lost meaning of the word.

That's the whole point, mocking the insanity and uselessness of censorship.

I saw it a different way. I saw it as using the words to much literally made them useless. Plus, causing a killer dragon to show up and kill people.

david_gaithersburg: Mangoose: I went to one of the most highly regarded private day schools and we were taught proper usage of expletives in english class.



We must have attended the same school. Was Mr. Grogan your English teacher by any chance?

fark = Fornication of Unlawful Carnal Knowledge, a.k.a., to sow the seed out of wedlock. So the use of fark in its slang context, would be "I'm heading out to fark the fields. The phrase "fark you" used properly could be considered a sexual proposition rather than an expletive.

fark is what would be written on the sign hanging from your neck while you were doing time in the pillory for committing the crime of fark.

Now please consider what you are saying and how silly you sound to everyone the next time you improperly use the word "fark".

Haven't read the whole thread yet, so I don't know if anybody responded yet...

But that's not true