A quandary today. An issue on which I have mixed feelings. It involves the Education Department, freedom of expression, censorship, moral values, shielding the innocent, and obscenity.

That’s a lot to wrap up in one argument. To make it worse, personally, it involves obscene words in a book and a description of a rape and as a journalist and author I am guilty of writing and publishing similar things.  Especially in a novel called Death at Newport.

This time it involves a bestselling book called The Kite Runner. The movie version is screening in Australia right now and it has an M rating. That is a mild rating. Parental Guidance is not necessary and it is not restricted to people 15 and over.

But it is the book version which is causing controversy.  I received an e-mail overnight from the concerned mother of a 17-year-old female student completing Year 12 this year. As part of the English curriculum  she was asked to read The Kite Runner.

The mother was registering her ‘total disgust’ at what her daughter was made to read as English homework. ‘Page Seven  includes a sentence which cannot be spoken over the air  due to the language and Page 71 describes a rape scene between two men.’

A soldier in the Middle East, trying to incite a young man boast bout having sex with his mother and says ‘what a tight little sugary bleep’ she had.

The mother says she intends to front both the English teacher at her daughter’s school and the Education Department to explain why

‘in particular young ladies would be made to read this’.

She says a censored version would have been more acceptable.

The problem here is that, rightly or wrongly, teenagers have all heard that language. Twelve and thirteen year olds  have heard it and use it in the playground. But you wouldn’t use it at home.  As an adult I wouldn’t use it. The word in question in The Kite Runner I would never use. Even when John Laws flayed me with it in public a few weeks ago.

But does putting in print as homework for a teenager give it some imprimatur? Some status? How do you argue with a 17-year-old daughter if she uses it at home and points to her homework as justification.

It’s a tough one. I don’t like censorship. To me it’s akin to book burning. But where do you draw the line with making something, objectionable to many, homework for students.

Tuesday, February 5, 2008