I’ve been invited to review a new young readers’ fantasy novel which I’m not going to read because I’m afraid it will make my brain fall out. I won’t name the title or the author because I don’t wish to hurt anyone’s feelings; but I feel I ought to comment on this book as a cultural barometer.
The story is all about a “diverse” group of teens saddled with various handicaps and representing various ethno-cultural groups–because, as you know, there’s no such thing anymore as “Americans.” The group includes kids who are deaf, blind, “overweight” (I think that means “fat”), lazy, wheelchair-bound, “angry,” and “a chronic loner”–think of Seven Miserable Dwarfs, without Snow White. Anyhow, they all go off to some other world where they all become “warriors”–because, as you know, anyone can literally become anything he wants to be. Does that mean I have a chance to play center for the Lakers?
I do not wish to find out more about this. When a liberal says someone is a “warrior,” they usually mean “a social justice warrior,” which is a euphemism for a particularly annoying malcontent.
I insist that there is a difference between fantasy and twaddle; and if not, there ought to be.
The author is a middle school teacher who has become an expert on such riveting topics as “Going beyond tolerance: How to teach kids to be inclusive” and “The importance of diversity in writing for teens.” By “diversity,” liberals mean a rigid uniformity of thought. We do all know that by now, don’t we?
Is it humane to subject children to such a grueling regimen of Political Correctness? You wouldn’t be allowed to do it to a dog. I mean, okay, sure, we want to be nice to everybody, especially to children. Our God and King expects it of us. But being nice should not entail filling their heads with tiresome poppycock.
This literary enterprise reeks of unearned self-esteem, which is one thing our culture can easily do without. Individual human beings are valuable in and of themselves, in or out of a wheelchair. They derive this value not owing to their membership in this or that cherished minority group, but simply because they are persons created by God in His image.
Anything else is just a lot of bunk.