Public Address | Cafe | Up Front: Somebody Think of the Young Adults! https://publicaddress.net/system/cafe/ en-us Copyright (c) 2026 Public Address Lilith __ https://publicaddress.net/system/cafe/up-front-somebody-think-of-the-young-adults/?p=289276#post289276 https://publicaddress.net/system/cafe/up-front-somebody-think-of-the-young-adults/?p=289276#post289276 this . ]]> Thu, 04 Jul 2013 16:49:02 +1200 wendyf https://publicaddress.net/system/cafe/up-front-somebody-think-of-the-young-adults/?p=289247#post289247 https://publicaddress.net/system/cafe/up-front-somebody-think-of-the-young-adults/?p=289247#post289247 I visited a dear friend on Tuesday whose adult daughter had sent her a copy of the book. The daughter had bought the book for _her_ little girl, (for when the little girl is old enough to read) and sent it to dear friend in the meantime.

Do you think…

]]> Thu, 04 Jul 2013 12:54:40 +1200 Geoff Lealand https://publicaddress.net/system/cafe/up-front-somebody-think-of-the-young-adults/?p=289207#post289207 https://publicaddress.net/system/cafe/up-front-somebody-think-of-the-young-adults/?p=289207#post289207 Wed, 03 Jul 2013 15:28:59 +1200 Geoff Lealand https://publicaddress.net/system/cafe/up-front-somebody-think-of-the-young-adults/?p=289205#post289205 https://publicaddress.net/system/cafe/up-front-somebody-think-of-the-young-adults/?p=289205#post289205 Wed, 03 Jul 2013 15:28:21 +1200 James Norcliffe https://publicaddress.net/system/cafe/up-front-somebody-think-of-the-young-adults/?p=289199#post289199 https://publicaddress.net/system/cafe/up-front-somebody-think-of-the-young-adults/?p=289199#post289199 Wed, 03 Jul 2013 13:34:00 +1200 James Norcliffe https://publicaddress.net/system/cafe/up-front-somebody-think-of-the-young-adults/?p=289198#post289198 https://publicaddress.net/system/cafe/up-front-somebody-think-of-the-young-adults/?p=289198#post289198 Wed, 03 Jul 2013 13:32:37 +1200 Mark Cubey https://publicaddress.net/system/cafe/up-front-somebody-think-of-the-young-adults/?p=289158#post289158 https://publicaddress.net/system/cafe/up-front-somebody-think-of-the-young-adults/?p=289158#post289158 Saturday Morning. Not only is he unrepentant about the content of Into the River, he suggests that LSD is a potent inspiration for writers. (Music, as always, deleted, because: copyrights.) ]]> Tue, 02 Jul 2013 15:31:10 +1200 Roger https://publicaddress.net/system/cafe/up-front-somebody-think-of-the-young-adults/?p=289157#post289157 https://publicaddress.net/system/cafe/up-front-somebody-think-of-the-young-adults/?p=289157#post289157 Justine? Justine was all but banned back then – under academic restriction. How'd he even get copies?

You are right and my memory was betraying me, it was Peter Weiss's 1963 play Marat/Sade. But I now remember that Slaughterhouse-Five was also on the list

]]> Tue, 02 Jul 2013 14:56:25 +1200 Emma Hart https://publicaddress.net/system/cafe/up-front-somebody-think-of-the-young-adults/?p=289156#post289156 https://publicaddress.net/system/cafe/up-front-somebody-think-of-the-young-adults/?p=289156#post289156 Jacqueline Carey found this column and linked to it on Facebook. Jacqueline Carey. I have, basically, peaked. ]]> Tue, 02 Jul 2013 14:48:19 +1200 Emma Hart https://publicaddress.net/system/cafe/up-front-somebody-think-of-the-young-adults/?p=289154#post289154 https://publicaddress.net/system/cafe/up-front-somebody-think-of-the-young-adults/?p=289154#post289154 Had a 7th form English teacher (in the mid 70s) who put both Portnoy’s Complaint and Justine on the reading list….

Justine? Justine was all but banned back then – under academic restriction. How'd he even get copies?

]]> Tue, 02 Jul 2013 14:44:26 +1200 Roger https://publicaddress.net/system/cafe/up-front-somebody-think-of-the-young-adults/?p=289152#post289152 https://publicaddress.net/system/cafe/up-front-somebody-think-of-the-young-adults/?p=289152#post289152 Tue, 02 Jul 2013 13:59:34 +1200 Emma Hart https://publicaddress.net/system/cafe/up-front-somebody-think-of-the-young-adults/?p=289147#post289147 https://publicaddress.net/system/cafe/up-front-somebody-think-of-the-young-adults/?p=289147#post289147 heard of books like 1984, so assuming they're "worthy", but never having read them. And it's good for your kids to be reading Worthy Books. ]]> Tue, 02 Jul 2013 10:29:47 +1200 Rob Hosking https://publicaddress.net/system/cafe/up-front-somebody-think-of-the-young-adults/?p=289146#post289146 https://publicaddress.net/system/cafe/up-front-somebody-think-of-the-young-adults/?p=289146#post289146 ‘1984’ was also a set text. The Herald may need reminding that major portions of the plot revolve around the active enjoyment of sex and state suppression thereof.

Yeah, I was thinking of that too. Same at my school...(4th form, I think. Was somewhat surprised, but not unpleasantly, at the…

]]> Tue, 02 Jul 2013 10:27:45 +1200 Craig Ranapia https://publicaddress.net/system/cafe/up-front-somebody-think-of-the-young-adults/?p=289141#post289141 https://publicaddress.net/system/cafe/up-front-somebody-think-of-the-young-adults/?p=289141#post289141 "Worthwhile literature” – just want to roll that around on the tongue for a while, it’s so gigglesome :)

Not as laughable a notion as you might think. I got quite a worthwhile literary education looking for fucks and dirty words – not least from the copy of Maurice Gee’s…

]]> Tue, 02 Jul 2013 08:22:38 +1200 Craig Ranapia https://publicaddress.net/system/cafe/up-front-somebody-think-of-the-young-adults/?p=289139#post289139 https://publicaddress.net/system/cafe/up-front-somebody-think-of-the-young-adults/?p=289139#post289139 Is it a book that you would even wish your husband, or, even, your servants to read?

If my servants have the time to read anything more involved that the wrapper on a bar of carbolic soap, they will be killed and fed to the dogs. Plenty more pre-literate waifs…

]]> Tue, 02 Jul 2013 08:20:02 +1200 Rich Lock https://publicaddress.net/system/cafe/up-front-somebody-think-of-the-young-adults/?p=289129#post289129 https://publicaddress.net/system/cafe/up-front-somebody-think-of-the-young-adults/?p=289129#post289129 Oh, wow. This editorial. You know "Don't read the comments"?

Caitlin Moran has a new book out. I know this because there's an online ad rammed right into the middle of one of the most frothy and hysterical comments in that thread.

'Rammed', as in, right through the middle, completely…

]]> Mon, 01 Jul 2013 21:48:09 +1200 Rob Hosking https://publicaddress.net/system/cafe/up-front-somebody-think-of-the-young-adults/?p=289128#post289128 https://publicaddress.net/system/cafe/up-front-somebody-think-of-the-young-adults/?p=289128#post289128 Is it a book that you would even wish your husband, or, even, your servants to read?

Nice Chatterley trial reference there.

]]> Mon, 01 Jul 2013 20:57:51 +1200 Rich Lock https://publicaddress.net/system/cafe/up-front-somebody-think-of-the-young-adults/?p=289127#post289127 https://publicaddress.net/system/cafe/up-front-somebody-think-of-the-young-adults/?p=289127#post289127 'Brave New World' was a set text for the years 14-16 at my in-very-many-ways-not-at-all-progressive all-boys school. A book that contains, among very many other sexy sextime sexysex scenes, some fairly graphic descriptions of drug-fuelled orgies.

'1984' was also a set text. The Herald may need reminding that major portions of…

]]> Mon, 01 Jul 2013 20:53:46 +1200 BenWilson https://publicaddress.net/system/cafe/up-front-somebody-think-of-the-young-adults/?p=289126#post289126 https://publicaddress.net/system/cafe/up-front-somebody-think-of-the-young-adults/?p=289126#post289126 Mon, 01 Jul 2013 20:43:07 +1200 Emma Hart https://publicaddress.net/system/cafe/up-front-somebody-think-of-the-young-adults/?p=289125#post289125 https://publicaddress.net/system/cafe/up-front-somebody-think-of-the-young-adults/?p=289125#post289125 Christchurch Libraries have posted this:

To uphold the principle of intellectual freedom, the Library attempts to supply a balanced collection containing varying viewpoints on controversial issues. Material will not be suppressed or removed simply because it gives offence. While recognising the right of the individual to reject material, this should…

]]> Mon, 01 Jul 2013 20:34:58 +1200 Isabel Hitchings https://publicaddress.net/system/cafe/up-front-somebody-think-of-the-young-adults/?p=289123#post289123 https://publicaddress.net/system/cafe/up-front-somebody-think-of-the-young-adults/?p=289123#post289123 Mon, 01 Jul 2013 19:31:09 +1200 Biobbs https://publicaddress.net/system/cafe/up-front-somebody-think-of-the-young-adults/?p=289121#post289121 https://publicaddress.net/system/cafe/up-front-somebody-think-of-the-young-adults/?p=289121#post289121 They were giving the Herald on Sunday away at the Warriors game. Didn't actually read it.

"Ah, yes, without question my favourite magazine; soft, strong and thoroughly absorbent". Since we're doing Stephen Fry.

Ted Dawe was my 4th Form Social Studies teacher in 1976. He was a *seriously* good teacher.…

]]> Mon, 01 Jul 2013 18:42:46 +1200 Keir Leslie https://publicaddress.net/system/cafe/up-front-somebody-think-of-the-young-adults/?p=289120#post289120 https://publicaddress.net/system/cafe/up-front-somebody-think-of-the-young-adults/?p=289120#post289120 But Emma, would you approve of your young sons (or your young daughters – because girls can read as well as boys) reading this book? Is it a book that you would have lying around in your own house?

Is it a book that you would even wish your husband,…

]]> Mon, 01 Jul 2013 18:29:23 +1200 Robyn Gallagher https://publicaddress.net/system/cafe/up-front-somebody-think-of-the-young-adults/?p=289118#post289118 https://publicaddress.net/system/cafe/up-front-somebody-think-of-the-young-adults/?p=289118#post289118 Oh, wow. This editorial. You know "Don't read the comments"?

Read the comments.

I'm particularly impressed with the comment from the awesome Time Out bookstore of Mt Eden. It starts with, __"We've been selling Into the River steadily since September 2012 and have not had one complaint about it's content.…

]]> Mon, 01 Jul 2013 18:11:42 +1200 Russell Brown https://publicaddress.net/system/cafe/up-front-somebody-think-of-the-young-adults/?p=289115#post289115 https://publicaddress.net/system/cafe/up-front-somebody-think-of-the-young-adults/?p=289115#post289115 Oh, wow. This editorial. You know "Don't read the comments"?

Read the comments.

]]> Mon, 01 Jul 2013 17:33:57 +1200 Rob Stowell https://publicaddress.net/system/cafe/up-front-somebody-think-of-the-young-adults/?p=289114#post289114 https://publicaddress.net/system/cafe/up-front-somebody-think-of-the-young-adults/?p=289114#post289114 Well said.
The editorial packs so much stupid in so few words, you do have to laugh. I love "It contains obscenities and shock references that worthwhile literature does not need. "
"Worthwhile literature" – just want to roll that around on the tongue for a while, it's so gigglesome…

]]> Mon, 01 Jul 2013 17:25:01 +1200 Bevan Shortridge https://publicaddress.net/system/cafe/up-front-somebody-think-of-the-young-adults/?p=289113#post289113 https://publicaddress.net/system/cafe/up-front-somebody-think-of-the-young-adults/?p=289113#post289113 Mon, 01 Jul 2013 17:24:11 +1200 linger https://publicaddress.net/system/cafe/up-front-somebody-think-of-the-young-adults/?p=289108#post289108 https://publicaddress.net/system/cafe/up-front-somebody-think-of-the-young-adults/?p=289108#post289108 the “This Herald Editorial is Batshit” column
– should be a more regular feature; at least weekly.
Their editorials, on the other hand, probably need to be a less regular feature.

]]> Mon, 01 Jul 2013 16:38:29 +1200 Emma Hart https://publicaddress.net/system/cafe/up-front-somebody-think-of-the-young-adults/?p=289103#post289103 https://publicaddress.net/system/cafe/up-front-somebody-think-of-the-young-adults/?p=289103#post289103 that’s The Herald on Sunday, which has its own editors.

Fair point, I shall amend the post to make that clear. The Herald-Herald offered up this, for which they found it necessary to get a quote from sex-Voldemort.

]]> Mon, 01 Jul 2013 15:04:18 +1200 Rob Hosking https://publicaddress.net/system/cafe/up-front-somebody-think-of-the-young-adults/?p=289102#post289102 https://publicaddress.net/system/cafe/up-front-somebody-think-of-the-young-adults/?p=289102#post289102 The Victorians are much maligned, I feel. They were more colourful and varied than their reputation.

And they did elect a pot smoking, camp and probably bisexual novelist as prime minister several times – leading a Conservative administration, too.

]]> Mon, 01 Jul 2013 15:03:46 +1200 Russell Brown https://publicaddress.net/system/cafe/up-front-somebody-think-of-the-young-adults/?p=289100#post289100 https://publicaddress.net/system/cafe/up-front-somebody-think-of-the-young-adults/?p=289100#post289100 Hey guess what? It’s my turn to write the “This Herald Editorial is Batshit” column.

Welcome! But to be fair, that's The Herald on Sunday, which has its own editors.

]]> Mon, 01 Jul 2013 14:51:26 +1200 Stewart https://publicaddress.net/system/cafe/up-front-somebody-think-of-the-young-adults/?p=289097#post289097 https://publicaddress.net/system/cafe/up-front-somebody-think-of-the-young-adults/?p=289097#post289097 Thank you, Emma, for this.
Given that we have a sizeable population of parents who are extremely uncomfortable talking to their childeren about sexual matters, I feel it is important that they get a realistic depiction of sex rather than relying on the plasticised 'internet porn version'.

Your point about…

]]> Mon, 01 Jul 2013 13:33:09 +1200 martinb https://publicaddress.net/system/cafe/up-front-somebody-think-of-the-young-adults/?p=289096#post289096 https://publicaddress.net/system/cafe/up-front-somebody-think-of-the-young-adults/?p=289096#post289096 Mon, 01 Jul 2013 13:29:27 +1200 Craig Ranapia https://publicaddress.net/system/cafe/up-front-somebody-think-of-the-young-adults/?p=289093#post289093 https://publicaddress.net/system/cafe/up-front-somebody-think-of-the-young-adults/?p=289093#post289093 This is the cliche to end all cliches, but only one thing came to mind reading that editorial – “The Victorians called. They want their editorial back”.

Which could only be said by anyone who hasn't read much in the way of Victorian fiction — even if you subtract Dickens…

]]> Mon, 01 Jul 2013 12:15:46 +1200 Joshua Drummond https://publicaddress.net/system/cafe/up-front-somebody-think-of-the-young-adults/?p=289092#post289092 https://publicaddress.net/system/cafe/up-front-somebody-think-of-the-young-adults/?p=289092#post289092 Mon, 01 Jul 2013 12:08:34 +1200 Emma Hart https://publicaddress.net/system/cafe/up-front-somebody-think-of-the-young-adults/?p=289091#post289091 https://publicaddress.net/system/cafe/up-front-somebody-think-of-the-young-adults/?p=289091#post289091 So, this?

(Sorry.)

Pretty much. (I have such a clear picture in my head. He's wearing pink, and saying, "Dirty," in the most magnificent tone. I spent an hour looking for it this morning.)

]]> Mon, 01 Jul 2013 12:05:32 +1200 Megan Wegan https://publicaddress.net/system/cafe/up-front-somebody-think-of-the-young-adults/?p=289090#post289090 https://publicaddress.net/system/cafe/up-front-somebody-think-of-the-young-adults/?p=289090#post289090 I nearly didn’t write a column. I was just going to upload a clip of me reading it aloud in my Outraged of 1870 voice. Imagine Stephen Fry wearing pearls and a twin-set.

So, this?

(Sorry.)

]]> Mon, 01 Jul 2013 12:02:06 +1200 Kyle Matthews https://publicaddress.net/system/cafe/up-front-somebody-think-of-the-young-adults/?p=289088#post289088 https://publicaddress.net/system/cafe/up-front-somebody-think-of-the-young-adults/?p=289088#post289088 Mon, 01 Jul 2013 11:59:03 +1200 Craig Ranapia https://publicaddress.net/system/cafe/up-front-somebody-think-of-the-young-adults/?p=289086#post289086 https://publicaddress.net/system/cafe/up-front-somebody-think-of-the-young-adults/?p=289086#post289086 Teenagers have access to a lot of shitty depictions of sex.

A fair number of which appear under the masthead of the New Zealand Herald. (Was that a cheap shot. Fuck yes, but also a totally justified one.)

]]> Mon, 01 Jul 2013 11:49:25 +1200 Public Address https://publicaddress.net/system/cafe/up-front-somebody-think-of-the-young-adults/?p=289085#post289085 https://publicaddress.net/system/cafe/up-front-somebody-think-of-the-young-adults/?p=289085#post289085 Discussion from blog post.

]]> Mon, 01 Jul 2013 11:49:25 +1200