Kid Charlemagne's book club and the use of trigger warnings in media

kid charlemagne

kid charlemagne

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Earlier today, I made my return to book club after being away for a couple months. I had not read the book, but as the discussion wrapped up, I offered a book to read next. Yukio Mishima's The Sailor Who Fell From Grace With the Sea. I loved the book when I read it a few months ago, and the club's theme for April was Japanese Literature. The members weren't familiar with the book or the author, so I watched as they buried their faces in their cellular devices to look up reviews, what the book was about and... trigger warnings. A girl suddenly looked up from her phone addressing me,
"Is there anything I should be aware of in this book?"
"You can be specific." I replied, just completely baffled and not really sure what she was getting at. If you have something to say or something to ask me, just do it. "There's no explicit violence in the book", I then added, still unsure of what the game was here.
"There can be other trigger warnings besides violence", a different girl added in, to which the first girl then listed off two trigger warnings.
Which I replied with "Yes, that's correct.".Then like an assembly line a third girl listed off two more trigger warnings, and received the same reply from me.
I was able to calm the masses and convince them to accept this book as our next book for discussion, but I was left in complete bemusement as to what just happened. I am familiar with trigger warnings, and I understand if you don't want to see something, or if you want to double check before you show a film or book to a younger person, but I had never encountered these sheltered types of people in real life. As a long time commended leftists, this is likely my most conservative belief. When it comes to media, sometimes you need to grow the fuck up. You will encounter subjects, circumstances, and ideas in books and art that are upsetting, but hey, that's fucking life. You don't know when a bad day is going to happen, you don't know when a good day is going to happen, it just hits you, and you deal with it. Why are people so soft when it comes to media literacy? Is this something that is just big with my generation? When did this shift occur? Is it possible to return to an unflinching reality? Is it really so bad to blindly confront yourself with potentially upsetting art? How often do you read reviews of books before you read them? Me? hardly ever.

I try my best to be understanding of different races, cultures, genders, sexualities, but sometimes, I'm baffled.

I will update this thread after our discussion of the book.
 
jenks

jenks

thread death
Went to The Years last week. People keeping on fainting and the show stopped. The discussion in the press is whether the trigger warning are actually creating this atmosphere. I think it was in the Netherlands that the play was performed without warnings and no one keeled over.
It’s a brilliant version of Ernaux’s book btw

Also do I need to be warned that there’s scenes of smoking in a Beatles documentary based on 1964 footage?
 
version

version

Well-known member
jenks said:
Went to The Years last week. People keeping on fainting and the show stopped. The discussion in the press is whether the trigger warning are actually creating this atmosphere. I think it was in the Netherlands that the play was performed without warnings and no one keeled over.
It’s a brilliant version of Ernaux’s book btw

Also do I need to be warned that there’s scenes of smoking in a Beatles documentary based on 1964 footage?
Click to expand...

There was an article in the New Yorker a few years ago where the author said there was evidence they may make some people worse due to priming them for a negative response.

'What if Trigger Warnings Don’t Work?'
 
kid charlemagne

kid charlemagne

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i really liked tthat book club, i riled people up and got angry in it because of the stupid shit i read in there..... i havent joined any new clubs since because i cant get any motivations to read for an online class.... but i just found a club "The Bushwick Boys Club"....some shit like that.... next monday..... hemingway old man and the sea..... no one actually knows if hemingway is a good writer, ive only read one of his short stories..... interested to read one of his actual books
 
jenks

jenks

thread death
kid charlemagne said:
... hemingway old man and the sea..... no one actually knows if hemingway is a good writer, ive only read one of his short stories..... interested to read one of his actual books
Click to expand...
Does nobody put the reading in these days? One short story and The Old Man and the Sea - an old gcse set text?
I’ll save you the bother, he’s a phenomenal writer. Fiesta, The Snows of Kilimanjaro, the early short stories, Farewell to Arms. You won’t u stay and 20th C American Lit without him, even if you don’t like him.
 
version

version

Well-known member
jenks said:
Does nobody put the reading in these days? One short story and The Old Man and the Sea - an old gcse set text?
I’ll save you the bother, he’s a phenomenal writer. Fiesta, The Snows of Kilimanjaro, the early short stories, Farewell to Arms. You won’t u stay and 20th C American Lit without him, even if you don’t like him.
Click to expand...

I think it's near impossible for a lot of people to keep a reading group going, so they pick things which aren't too much of a commitment.
 
kid charlemagne

kid charlemagne

Well-known member
jenks said:
Does nobody put the reading in these days? One short story and The Old Man and the Sea - an old gcse set text?
I’ll save you the bother, he’s a phenomenal writer. Fiesta, The Snows of Kilimanjaro, the early short stories, Farewell to Arms. You won’t u stay and 20th C American Lit without him, even if you don’t like him.
Click to expand...
he does have a lot of shorter books in general so i may pick some up after this one.... might be a writer i try to run thru this year
 
IdleRich

IdleRich

IdleRich
vershy versh said:
I think it's near impossible for a lot of people to keep a reading group going, so they pick things which aren't too much of a commitment.
Click to expand...
Yeah it's always the Crying of lot 49, or the old man and the sea... why not read a real book?

A Farewell To Arms is my favourite, that bit when the officers who retreated in the face of overwhelming odds are all going to be executed as traitors always stuck in my head as one of these scenes of irresistible, inexorable, but clearly wrong headed injustice. It's just powerful.

I also started and finished Red Shift today but that doesn't pretend to be anything but a novella.
 
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version

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I've got one with a nice cover called Islands in the Stream that sounds good.

__ia_thumb.jpg
 
IdleRich

IdleRich

IdleRich
Not that TCOL49 and TOMATS aren't good, they are, and I think they both achieve or at least cram in more than you would think possible into their page count which is exactly what makes them so attractive for courses... but they are very much, and this should never be forgotten, the easy options.
 
kid charlemagne

kid charlemagne

Well-known member
ok tbf this is the first book the club is doing as it is new... if i want to stick with it, i will surely suggest longer.... ive been thinking about requesting Vineland if i end up liking the club...
 
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