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Comments
mayor_of_funville t1_j6n1nnr wrote
> promoting his name and title in Bold on social media
The book is 30 years old and they made a movie out of it, I don't think some anon person mentioning the title is going to put it back on the best seller list. Also if anyone finds that book a treasure they need to seek professional help. 300 pages of detailed descriptions of torturing a young girl to death should not be treasured by anyone.
Moosemellow t1_j6o95wl wrote
It's okay that you didn't enjoy the book and wouldn't recommend it to people, but you're insulting other readers because you didn't like it. If you read the book, you know the book keeps most of the violence and torture off the page and leaves most of it up to the reader to fill in the blanks. You're being disinguous. It's not torture porn, because the book is not meant to be titillating. It's painful, it's heartbreaking, and the characters are morally reprehensible, but it's also (through the safety of fiction) exploring how people, especially children, are capable of heinous acts of cruelty and be disensitized to violence through their own environments or abuse. That was the actual crime that happened. The book fictionalized the crime, and it's actually way less cruel than the real events. By telling the story with the safety net of fiction, the author can be respectful to the victims without speaking for them, or the woman and children who committed the crimes. The book never intends to turn on the reader or excite them, and there are whole passages where the narrator grapples with how anyone could have that mindset. As for the narrator, it would be absolutely awful to read Meg's experiences from her perspective. As it's written, the book's major theme is violence and cruelty through complicity or inaction. By having the character be a side character, and outsider who becomes an insider to the story, the reader feels vulnerable, complicit, and unable to change the events, just like the narrator. So fuck you for assuming reading a specific book makes someone mentally ill or sadistic, and not intelligent or empathetic.
noahsame t1_j6n5491 wrote
This book may be horrific, but is based on real events. Read the story about Sylvia Likens and what happened to her, some parts are even worse in reality. And while I can't say that I enjoyed the book for obvious reasons, but it is very well-written.
mayor_of_funville t1_j6n7lx0 wrote
I saw this same reply you made below, and I am curious as to why you think it being based on real events makes it "better" in some way. This book could almost be redeemed if it was from Meg's perspective or at least had some chapters documenting with the author thinks is going through her mind. I agree it was well-written as it did exactly what the author set out to do which is terrify me. I think had there been a section at the end speaking about the actual events that happened and mentioned Sylvia's name, it could have been seen as a memorial to her, but without it the text is asking you to feel empathy for a mythical person.
noahsame t1_j6n9zpz wrote
This was my only reply in this post. As for your question, yes, I think it makes the book better because it adds an educational value as well. Of course, this is my own perspective and you may disagree, but reading about such cruelty that exists somewhere in the real world might actually make a person kinder and raise awareness.
Angharadis t1_j6n2wfr wrote
There is nothing wrong with trashing, recycling, or burning a book that you don’t want and which exists in plenty of copies elsewhere. Librarians weed their libraries - weed yours.
jawnbaejaeger t1_j6mx786 wrote
I'd donate it to Goodwill and let other people make the choice about whether or not they want to read it.
But if you really can't stand that idea, tear off the cover and throw the whole book away. My friend used to work at Barnes and Noble, and she said they did this on the regular with unwanted merchandise.
not_falling_down t1_j6mszq5 wrote
For books you find vile, trashing them is the way to go. I am very protective of books in general, but I found two hardbacks full of right-wing hatred in the house I bought. They went straight into the dumpster.
dyspraxicjiangyanli t1_j6msx7c wrote
I used to work in a bookshop and honestly I'd just bin it. It does feel weird but sometimes it's just gotta be done.
PM_ME_LADY_ANKLES t1_j6mx9ul wrote
I had a similar problem with Might Makes Right by Ragnar Redbeard. I had to read it for a class, and it's functionally a white-supremacist text.
Didn't want to donate it, cause I didn't really want to be even tangentially responsible for spreading its ideas.
You could burn it, throw it in the trash, or shred it and compost it if that's your thing. Obviously destroying books is bad in a macro sense, but at the end of the day a single book is just an object and you could deal with it how you want.
I eventually resolved to make Blackout Poems with Might Makes Right. Literally turning a hateful, garbage book into something fun and creative that I could do during Zoom meetings I didn't want to be on.
Jack-Campin t1_j6n86qm wrote
The vast majority of published books end up recycled or burnt, the only question is how long it takes.
With that one, I've read enough ABOUT it to know I don't want to read it and wouldn't object to hurrying nature up a bit.
MyBoobsAreEuropean t1_j6mulzx wrote
Give it to charity book shops or goodwill (dunno if they have those in your country) or sell it on ebay that way the person who gets it will be doing so deliberately.
Seriously, just because you find it offensive doesn't mean it has no redeemable qualities it's not like it's a nazi propaganda, and I mention that deliberately since destroying books because of their contents was big with that crowd. There's actually quite a lot of books such as this which explore transgressive themes usually deliberately and often with reason. Would you destroy a dvd of the exorcist, a copy of Grand theft auto, or the painting Ivan the Terrible and His Son Ivan?
I've not read this and it seems like it's just be trashy horror but I don't think you should destroy it simply because you found it vile when someone else might have a stronger stomach and get something out of it. The blurb on the back indicates pretty well what the book is about and it's clearly not puppies and unicorns so anyone who picks it up should be aware of what they are getting into. Art is subjective and even trashy horror deserves some respect and has millions of fans who would probably like to have this.
scrptman t1_j6na5l4 wrote
It's your book, obviously do what you want with it. But don't project your values on someone else. Now I'm off to get a copy...
uncreativemonkey t1_j6nb58d wrote
And here I was seeing it on my shelf and wondering if I should reread it..
If you didn't care for it, just toss it.
But I'm a believer in the quote by Wilde: “There is no such thing as a moral or an immoral book. Books are well written, or badly written. That is all.”
BuffaloOk7264 t1_j6mui08 wrote
Compost?
BrothrsSistersofKind t1_j6mzth7 wrote
Wipe your butt with it next time toilet paper reaches $10 per roll.
bofh000 t1_j6np904 wrote
I had the same thing with Mists of Avalon (not the book itself, the author). I just threw it in the trash.
Glagnars_Human_Rinds t1_j6o8mdf wrote
I don’t like this book so nobody should read it ever!!
- Hitler probably
loneacer t1_j6mw300 wrote
I kind of want to read it after reading your post.
kaysn t1_j6mwgp6 wrote
It’s torture porn.
Moosemellow t1_j6o6oam wrote
It's not.
loneacer t1_j6n03rr wrote
But based on a true story. That gives it some value. If it was just somebody's dark fantasy, then I'd say it's trash.
GraniteGeekNH t1_j6nl5qj wrote
"based on" means exaggerated, changed, tweaked at the writer's whim. it's not a report it's an entertainment, using somebody's pain and horror for entertainment.
You don't need to read it. Try one of the gazillion other books out there waiting for you!
kaysn t1_j6mwkfj wrote
If you don’t care. Just throw it in the trash. Unless you want to ritualistically burn it?
mjackson4672 t1_j6my2ye wrote
User name does not check out
mayor_of_funville t1_j6n1226 wrote
I had heard it was a scary book, but not much else about it. It's sometimes fun to be scared but torture porn is not fun.
mjackson4672 t1_j6n48cn wrote
You thinking just because you don’t like a book no one else should read it has killjoy Karen vibes.
mayor_of_funville t1_j6n9zml wrote
People can read it all they want, it doesn't mean I have to facilitate it. I'm not asking for it to be banned anything stupid like that. Also if you think not wanting other to read about a 14 year old being repeatedly raped, burned, scared and finally beaten to death makes someone a killjoy, you may need to re-examine some things about yourself.
mjackson4672 t1_j6naya7 wrote
You literally say you don’t think people should read it. I think people thinking because they don’t like a book/movie/hobby/ideology etc. that other people shouldn’t read or watch or partake in it is a killjoy self centered Karen mentality. If you don’t like the book fine throw it in the trash and move on.
PropertyMedium1680 t1_j6n43g3 wrote
If it's a paperback, you should just be able to put it in a recycling bin!
uncreativemonkey t1_j6nakra wrote
Surprisingly, no. The glue used to hold the book together isn't recyclable, so many times they just get put in the trash anyway.
PropertyMedium1680 t1_j6naruk wrote
Oh damn, that makes sense. I never would have thought about the glue! Thank you!
wc10888 t1_j6na55x wrote
Throw it in a recycling bin or the trash
noknownothing t1_j6nbx09 wrote
Just throw it on the recycle bin. Helping the planet in more ways than one.
VengeanceDolphin t1_j6o6uvc wrote
I have thrown away some books and so far have not been struck by lightning. Most of them were secondhand books that were in really bad shape. I read them but just tossed them afterwards because I couldn’t in good conscience waste someone’s time sorting and selling them. One was a book I really liked, but the copy I got was NASTY (you don’t want to know), so I threw it out and bought a new copy to keep.
There have been a couple books that were in fine physical condition, but I found them so abhorrent I threw them out so they wouldn’t be inflicted on someone else. These were also secondhand paperbacks, nothing rare or special. Throw it away and be at peace ✌️.
Timbo_007 t1_j6mtjdp wrote
Burn it.
religionlies2u t1_j6muzs8 wrote
Just donate it to goodwill. One man’s trash is another man’s treasure. You may not like it but clearly some publisher/editor thought it print worthy and perhaps others feel the same? Or just throw it out but do you think promoting his name and title in Bold on social media is the right way to go if you really wanted to get rid of it? Sounds more like virtue signaling to me.