‘A Child Called It’ Creeps Someone Else Out, Too
So, it’s come time to out myself. You think that should have been the headline? Well, read on. Main point: I’m really, really wary of any and all people who rep “A Child Called ‘It’”. I also have never read the book. It’s not that I hate the book on principle. The author clearly has a point to make about the horrors and prevalence of child abuse (or so I hear). But from all accounts, it seems excessively graphic, like literary porno for the “Chicken Soup for the Soul” set.
I think it’s (pun?) perceived as an espresso shot of “life experience” for those who might previously have found it hard to believe that childhood could consist of anything except Baby Einstein tapes, play dates and Gymboree (cringe) strollers. And that’s a good thing, I suppose. But there’s life experience and there’s “life experience.” The problem is that only the extremes (gentrification v. what happened to that poor kid) are explored and the reader’s analysis never evolves beyond disgust and a vague sense of pity. There’s no resulting synthesis or introspection, no ‘Aha!’ moment. So, on that note, a Vice Magazine writer who has read the book and come to some of the same conclusions, will color in the rest of my (mostly unsubstantiated) argument. Au revoir.
5 years ago