Fun with Preposterous Neo-Victorianism
From a New York Times article on the furor among librarians over a word in the new Newbery Medalist for children's fiction, The Higher Power of Lucky.
Andrea Koch, the librarian at French Road Elementary School in Brighton, N.Y., said she anticipated angry calls from parents if she ordered it. "I don't think our teachers, or myself, want to do that vocabulary lesson," she said in an interview....
Ms. Nilsson, reached at Sunnyside Elementary School in Durango, Colo., said she had heard from dozens of librarians who agreed with her stance. "I don't want to start an issue about censorship," she said. "But you won't find men's genitalia in quality literature."
"At least not for children," she added.
More words pre-empted from the useful "quality literature for children" category:
- "consenting" (followed too often by "adults," not very often by "to stay for an additional serving of green bean casserole")
- "Epidermalicious"
- "as-yet-un-lubed"
- "Psychoalphadiscobetabioaquadoloop"*
- "slattern" (not actually obscene, but it really sounds like it should be)
- "perineum" (if you thought the vocabulary lesson on scrotum would be difficult...)
- "codex" (rhymes with "sex", also too likely to be in a book in which Mary Magdalene and Jesus do it)
- "evolution" (consult your local school board)
*Sole exception: Nancy Drew and the Motor Booty Affair, which is also controversial because of its inclusion of way too much Electric Spanking of War Babies.