Discovered this little gem not so long ago - found here and written by THE HON. DR GORDON MOYES.
'I knew Scholastic also had an Australian Book Club. I later found in some of their promotional material: “Welcome to Scholastic Book Clubs, where you’ll always find fabulous books, terrific value and wonderful resources! The most affordable books!” They were advocating the sale of “Harry Potter”, “Halloween” and “Monster Blood Tattoo” so I could expect to find the objectionable books with these if they had them.' (bold type added by me.) (I do not have any issue with the general content of the article - I am not that keen on wolves in sheep-clothing either.)
So if I read it right by the inference, I reckon I can say it is official: MBT is an objectionable book.
I wonder if the Honourable Mr Moyes formulated his opinion on a thorough reading of the text or rather by a cursory and shallow assumption based on the title alone? I fear it was probably not the former.
Either way, I feel like I've won something and do not know who to thank first.
11 comments:
I particularly like the way he says that you can't judge a book by its cover, but then appears to do exactly that with MBT.
Anyway, we all know that objectionable books are often the best. Congratulations :-)
I object!
I'm looking forward very much to your new book in May next year. I wish it wasn't taking so long, but I am resigned.
Pen
gday mate,
I wouldn't - and don't - regard anything that guy says, after bad mouthing the spelling of the website error message and then positing this gem himself, "Beverley and I had two Victorians staying with us to wanted to see some of the Central Coast.
glass houses...stones...
cheers mate
or this further down
"e-mail addressees
I hope no-one takes the guy seriously, but obviously some people must if he has been elected into parliament. Scary thought.
The final apology is the biggest laugh of all...the guy hasn't even got his facts straight before slandering the good name of Scholastic, and by association your own book.
The spelling errors are annoying. What gets me, though, is comments like "Scholastic was advocating the sale of..." particular books. If Moyes has views on what content is imappropriate for his children or for children in Christian schools, that's fine and he is entitled to his opinion. But why is he expecting Scholastic - NOT a Christian publishing company - to do anything other than 'advocate' its own books? They weren't advertising them as morally superior books; they are just selling them. They have never claimed to be of any particular religious persuasion and so should not be judged on the basis of their Christian ethics.
Also, his tone was a little snide. Poor form.
Congratulations!!!
Cheers!
While I agree that parents and guardians of children should make themselves aware of what their children are watching, reading, listening to, and talking about, I object to being policed by either side of any particular debate. I would not advocate the sale of the book that Moyes was denigrating to anyone (and for the same reason that he was objecting to its sale), but far be it from me to tell anyone else what to do or what they can buy just because I don't uphold the same belief. It smacks of something from an Orwell book (which, by the way, Scholastic doesn't offer at my kids' schools). So, while I don't believe in being objectionable for the sake of being objectionable, I do think you should wear this particular badge with pride. There's no such thing as bad publicity, right? Congratulations on your success.
Oh, I surely do not wear the tag of "objectionable" with pride. In fact I am frustrated about being mindlessly lumped in with a book that I may well have objections to myself (Conversations with God that is, not Harry Potter).
I find some small satisfaction in imagining ahead to some mystic future where the Hon. Mr Moyes discovers (maybe in conversation with me) that:
a/ I am a Christian too
b/ that there is nothing objectionable about MBT as he has assumed (should he condescend read it) except that for some the title might be a bit startling and Rossamünd can be a rather naïve at times. Indeed Mr Moyes might think the opposite once he and I had a chat.
Every book is objectionable. Really, depending on one's point of view, one could be offended/disturbed by anything.
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