Book choice for 14 year old boys - lesbian novel

[NC29]

I need some distance and other ppls thoughts.
In an all boys school the 14 year olds in english lit will be reading a novel about the hardship of being a lesbian girl in a catholic household.
Why?
I don't object to the topic, or the book (haven't read it yet, just arrived today - hope it's good)
My issue is I don't understand the choice. It feels forced* and there is so much literature that I would consider foundational that they haven't read yet that this is out of place. Maybe in a year or 2 it'll be more understandable to them, but now?
I am happy for them to read all kinds of stuff, but I think you need context and some life knowledge/experience for certain stuff.

*it seems that there is a culture emerging where kids have to be tolerant towards one or other specific trait, not the person. I don't agree with this approach. They should be taught that one trait doesn't matter by itself. A person is not black OR gay OR nice OR nasty. We are all a mixture of many things. Putting colour or sexuality at the forefront without the understanding of why it matters and why it is good that nowadays it's not a stigma (or why it should not have ever been and should not be now) is more logical to me.

I want my kid to be tolerant, kind (and a lot of other things :)) and behave normally with others because he sees the other person as a whole - not their color or their sex preference. And I want him to be in a world where he can say he doesn't like xyz and it won't come down to "oh, you don't like him because he is gay". Tolerance works both ways. **
And let's be fair: how is it any of my (or anyone's) business who another person chooses as a partner?

And this is coming form a person who just gave him Murakami to read. (and he likes it.) So no issues with actually him reading any book. (ok, maybe I would not be too happy if he was reading Dosztojevszkij or the memoirs of a serial killer....).
Not for a second do I think it is going to hurt him, but i think it'll fly past their heads and it would be more value a bit later.

**I honestly get the fierce need of oppressed minorities wanting more respect or just to be left alone to be who they want to be. I also see there is a shift to be too pc. There must be a middle ground where these things can be treated factual and without connotations. (ok, naivety off)

so question is, what do you think the motivation behind this selection could be? And what would your thoughts be on this being the mandatory English lit book of the term?

It’s a modern classic. Jeannette Winterson is a superb writer. No issue here.

@ShinyMe I’d really recommend Lighthousekeeping if you’re looking for more Jeanette Winterson, it’s beautiful and wonderfully atmospheric. One of my all time faves!

But I would rather their school focus on more standard texts, so at least they have some cultural references.

What’s a more ‘standard’ text? Why would your child cope with that better? Why are those cultural references deemed more valuable by you?

One of those answers that prompts so many questions.

so question is, what do you think the motivation behind this selection could be?

I imagine one element would be in the hope that the children don't grow up to be adults who claim that they have "no issues with actually him reading any book" and yet just cannot understand why teenage boys should read a book that is partly about "the hardship of being a lesbian girl in a catholic household" .

Your prejudice is showing OP :)

I studied it at school. It's more a coming of age story tbh. It's been a long time but I really don't think there's much sexy stuff in there if that's what you're concerned about

The "cultural references" of OANTOF are far more likely to tally with a 14 year old boy's than those of Shakespeare or An Inspector Calls, or even To Kill a Mockingbird. It's about teenagers in a working class British city. There are schools and families and a market and youth clubs and church halls and young love, and arguments with parents. What won't he recognise there?

@spongedog I dont want my child to hate a novel like this as I do a Midsummer Nights Dream - forced to study when 11 - even over 45 years later I cannot bear it.

I did MND when I was 11 and I loved it. It awakened a love for Shakespeare. I still remember the open air production at Regent’s Park.

dont have the maturity and/or experience to even understand why a novel like this might be important/relevant. At their age it is wasted on them. Perhaps when older fine. But I would rather their school focus on more standard texts, so at least they have some cultural references.

It's a novel about growing up working-class in a small town in the north of England, being a misfit at school, having a mad, thwarted mother who gets her kicks from missionary work in an extreme Pentecostalist sect and plans that for you too, getting by, growing up and finally getting out.

It could not be more 'standard'.

Unless, that is, that you think the lesbianism of the main character means it should be shelved on a shelf in the basement called Minority Literature?

When I read it, I’d only been to the north once and was an atheist. I had a barmy mother though and found it funny and relatable.

Books is one way of learning about the world.

I agree with Neap - that's an odd lineup.

'The Virility Factor' by Robert Merle is a weird, misogynistic mess, and in no way qualifies as literature. It doesn't belong on a reading list for serious study.

Asimov's books, while a far better canon in terms of literary merit than that of Robert Merle, are better for reading in your spare time at home if sci fi is your thing. There is very little in the works of Asimov that would lend itself to critical analysis in an English Lit class except at surface level.

McCormack? I would be interested to know why you would include this writer.

Stephenson - as in R. L., or the modern sci fi writer?

If it's R.L. then you really did grow up in the Soviet sphere .

If it's the sci fi writer (or even good old Robert Louis, come to think of it) then I suspect you haven't understood the criteria for choosing literature for the 14 yo cohort, or what sort of exercises are conducted in the classroom and set for homework, centered around the literature.

It actually strikes me that 'Oranges' will resonate with you on a few levels. Let me explain - there is a lot in the experience of the protagonist that echoes the plight of the individual in an environment dominated by an oppressive ideology, trying to figure out the balance between being an individual and living with the rules of life both spoken and unspoken that are associated with that ideology.

The point about literature - the means of deciding what is literature and what is a 'good read' - is universal applicability regardless of time and place. What a book says about the human condition is the major factor in according it value. Hence Shakespeare, still going strong even though men no longer wear tights and very few of us are princes of Denmark.

@NC29, I hope you won't find me patronising, but your thoughts on Russian writers made me think of the phrase 'cutting off your nose to spite your face'. If Irish writers had thumbed their noses at the English language or the English literary tradition in the early 20th century, about a quarter of university professors of English would be out of a job.

Well Jane Eyre was about a married man who had a mad wife he kept locked in the attic while he had an emotional affair with a vulnerable young woman.

In Lord of the Flies teenagers murder another teenager.

In Catcher in the Rye we witness a mental health crisis in a young man caused, at least partially, by the premature death of his brother.

In The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe we witness coercive control in an oppressive regime that can only be overthrown by the slaughter of a talking Lion who is an allegory for Jesus.

And don’t get me started on Shakespeare.

But lesbians...

Frankissstein: A Love Story is the Jeanette Winterson book merging Frankenstein and AI. Published last May

Everything @mathanxiety said.
I did an English degree and haven't read the authors you mention...
I feel kind of bad about judging you earlier as it seems your education has been lacking. But it's not too late.
Read OINTOF

Oops, OANTOF

Thank you for this thread OP. I haven't had the enthusiasm to read in months and months, but I've finished Oranges over the last 2 days and it's every bit ad good as I remembered.

Thanks for this thread - have just been and ordered the book for DD

What’s wonderful about reading is that you can imagine yourself as other people. It’s important children learn that people superficially different are just as human as they are. I honestly don’t understand the problem. DD is reading A Midsummer Night’s Dream at school but she’s not a fairy...