Sometimes collection development isn't easy....

Whilst I work with a team of others to select titles for our library, I do however, possess the final say in all selections and purchases. It's my job and we have limited funds. I am constantly saying "yes" to some titles and "no" to others all based on a whole myriad of considerations. This is what collection management and development entails.

So when a book was recently suggested to me for the library to buy which is basically about a married school teacher in a suburban US town who has a singular sexual obsession with 14 year old boys - "It is a craving she pursues with sociopathic meticulousness and forethought, her sole purpose in becoming a teacher is to fulfil her passion and provide her access to her compulsion” - I said 'no'.

I found myself quite distressed by the synopsis of the book. I tweeted about it. One of my friends commented that she'd once been offered a self-published non-fiction title on incest for her library to buy. Though the particular title she'd been offered was completely lacking in academic rigour or literary merit and so was rejected, she made a rather significant point - "as one of the last societal taboos, surely accurate and non-sensationalist discourse would be valuable?" I tend to agree with the sentiment. 

I considered what GoodReads readers had to say about the book in question. The ratings and the comments vary from 0 stars right up to 5 stars. Comments also range from praise of the writer's skill in presenting a distinctly horrible character to those who lambasted it as nothing more than sensationalist pornography..
This sort of blurring the lines is evil. If I could do it over again, I'd have stayed away, just to avoid the corrosive effect that desensitization has been proven to have on our psyches. At the very least, I implore you, don't let your kids read it, even your "mature" ones. (Recynd)

The range of comments went on to raise the issue of how a particular crime is viewed not only in society but also in different countries.

This made me curious as to what our very own Crimes Act 1900 No. 40 has to say - not just about the kind of behaviour being portrayed but also the fact of the physical presence of the book in bookshops...

Sections 66A - 77 cover the whole gamut of sexual offences relating to children.
Section 91FB describes child abuse material as any "material that depicts or describes, in a way that reasonable persons would regard as being, in all the circumstances, offensive ... a person who is, appears to be or is implied to be, a child engaged in or apparently engaged in a sexual pose or sexual activity (whether or not in the presence of other persons)."
This section goes on to state that "the matters to be taken into account in deciding whether reasonable persons would regard particular material as being, in all the circumstances, offensive, include:(a) the standards of morality, decency and propriety generally accepted by reasonable adults, and (b) the literary, artistic or educational merit (if any) of the material, and (c) the journalistic merit (if any) of the material, being the merit of the material as a record or report of a matter of public interest, and (d) the general character of the material (including whether it is of a medical, legal or scientific character)".
91H describes the penalty for production, dissemination and/or possession of said material to be a maximum of 10 years.

Does the book depict acts of child abuse as per the Crimes Act 1900? Yes. 
Am I a reasonable adult to be offended by it? Yes.
Does the book have any literary, artistic, or educational merit? No. Do any of the characters in the book participate in sexual offences against children? Yes. Do these characters actively pursue this activity? Yes. Do they know it is wrong? Yes. Does that stop them? No. Do they consider murder in order to hide their crime? Yes. Are they sexually interested in any kinds of sexual partners other than children of a certain age? No. (Note: I am basing my answers here on the majority of comments I read on GoodReads).

The book in question does not have graphic images but it does explicitly detail sexual activities between an adult and a child that leaves little to the imagination. The adult protagonist actively seeks out children of a certain age bracket and does not appear to be interested in these children as they mature. Based on what the Crimes Act 1900 tells me this is both behaviour and the presentation of behaviour that is a crime in Australia. Indeed there is a very good paper by Kylie Miller, Senior Analyst with the National Crime Authority, which considers the nature and definition of a paedophile. So, considering all these elements it could be fair to say that the library buying this book and making it available to the general public would constitute a breach of the Crimes Act. It's probably a good thing I said 'no' then isn't it.

It will be interesting to see how this book progresses through the Australian literary scene. We're a pretty forgiving lot, open to reading about all sorts of subjects, but I truly query whether this 'debut novel' is worth the paper it has been printed on.


On a final note, this is my own personal opinion. It is based solely on my interpretation of the reviews available on GoodReads and my interpretation of the Crimes Act 1900. I do not believe that having a list of 'banned books' is in any way shape or form a good idea. Nor do I believe that content which is extremely offensive to a reasonable person is a good way to get people's attention and change the social mindset that all paedophiles are male. If this were a Non-Fiction title which enabled " accurate and non-sensationalist discourse" I would be all for it - but it's not.

Ramblings....

Back towards the end of July I came across an article written by Kerry Parnell listing the 25 books you really don't have to read before you die. 

The books listed include:

• Eucalyptus / Murray Bail
• Ulysses / James Joyce
• Cloudstreet / Tim Winton
• The Dice Man / Luke Rhineheart
• Catch 22 / Joseph Heller
• To The Lighthouse / Virginia Woolf
• The Slap / Christos Tsiolkas
• Twilight / Stephanie Meyer
• On The Road / Jack Kerouac
• The Metamorphosis / Franz Kafka
• Midnight's Children / Salman Rushdie
• Oscar & Lucinda / Peter Carey
• My Sister's Keeper / Jodi Picoult
• Sons and Lovers / D H Lawrence
• We Need To Talk About Kevin / Lionel Shriver
• 50 Shades of Grey / E L James
• Crime and Punishment / Fyodor Dostoyevsky
• Eat, Pray, Love / Elizabeth Gilbert
• Shantaram / Gregory David Roberts
• Tess of the D'Urbervilles / Thomas Hardy
• Charlie and The Great Glass Elevator / Roald Dahl
• Memoirs of a Geisha / Arthur Golden
• The Devil Wears Prada / Lauren Weisberger
• The Secret / Rhonda Byrne
• The Celestine Prophecy / James Redfield

There's a comment from Grant of Melbourne right at the end that neatly sums up a lot about how I feel about this article....

I [am] so glad that we have someone like this reviewing books who is clearly more intelligent than the multitudes who have enjoyed these books or the people who as a group have reviewed the books and deemed them worthy [of] recognition. Sorry Kerry but many of us have progressed beyond the Cat in the Hat and Green Eggs and Ham, have laid down the crayons from our colouring books and can follow stories that have multiple threads, moral dilemma, convolutions or the other issues that seem to plague you with these books. The reason that people enjoy them or that they are deemed classics is that they reflect in many regards our lives. You inability to connect to this either indicates a bland life or some other disconnection with the world around you... rather sad either way,

Moving on.

There are various ways of looking at this list - one is to take the list at face value and consider the merits (or not) of each title, another is to consider the act of list making itself (after all who am I or anyone else to tell others what to read and what not to? I honestly dislike lists that state "100 books to read before you die", or "100 places to visit before you die", and so on - seriously, a slow reading year for me is roughly 100 books, does this mean my death is imminent?). 

I guess the chief part of this article that I truly take umbrage to, before I even get to the books listed are the words .... "I'd like to relieve you of some literary pressure and reveal the titles life's just far too short to waste time on". Since when is life too short to read whatever takes your fancy? Since when is life too short to read what has won an award? Since when is life too short to read outside your comfort zone and push the boundaries of what reading (and indeed writing) is?

I personally have no intention of reading beyond Twilight or 50 Shades of Grey - I've read both those titles and have no inclination to read the remainder of either series. Whilst I consider both books to have some literary flaws I also see great merit in both. I will continue to hold up 50 Shades as an example of writing that has got locale descriptions down perfectly - R L James certainly knows how to describe a room, what people look like, what they are wearing. The rest of the book didn't do a lot for me personally but I do recognise and accept the appeal to others. Aside from what I think, both books got people reading and the bottom line is that it's all about "bums on seats".

I have read Ulysses by James Joyce. It's not an easy read but I do believe it's worth it. Reading Ulysses forced me to reconsider the experience of reading and to be challenged to accept that a story can be told in oh so many ways - all within the one novel. I am also a serious fan of train-of-thought (as anyone who knows me well will attest) so the ending pages were an absolute delight where lack of punctuation fought hard against the flow of words - I loved it!

I personally cannot stand Thomas Hardy, but I put a lot of that down to a bad experience reading Tess of the D'Urbervilles during high school. Being forced to read a book and choosing to read one can really influence how you go on to feel about that book and this one is certainly a case in point. Here I was frustrated by the number of pages Hardy spent describing the heath yet leaving me simply with a feeling that it was low and a green-purplish colour.... But, I am an impatient reader - I want to know now what is happening and certainly as a 17 year old I had no patience at all for the casual meanderings that established the scenery. Now I see the cleverness, now I see the beauty in the prose, now I see the clever use of language, now I see that the pages were worth it .... I'm still an impatient reader but I'm a lot more forgiving these days.

I could discuss each and every title on this list but it will only and always be my own opinion, to which you are very welcome to disagree. There is no definitive list, there will never be any agreement. Disparity is as natural as agreement. I adore Shakespeare. I like dark vibrant colours. I prefer Fantasy fiction over World fiction. I am me. You are you. And to be blunt, thank goodness for that for if we were all the same it would be a jolly boring world we live in!

I remain however, vehemently opposed to anyone who tells me that I shouldn't waste my time on a particular book. After all, it's my time to do with as I please. Reading is a personal experience and one which should be respected. I don't think there can ever be a list which definitively gathers those books which are worthy of reading and those which are not. You need only look at any title listed on GoodReads to see the sheer variance in rating and opinion for each and every title there. And I for one think that the difference of opinion is what adds to the discussion and to the value of each reading experience.

Oh and by the way, I've only not read 6 out of the 25 books listed ...