I was recently chatting up some fangirls online when someone mentioned that they were upset about complaints that some Divergents fans had about Theo James. They were saying he wasn’t attractive enough to play Four (more on that later), that he was too old, find etc. etc.
And I really could understand where she was coming from, and it really got me thinking about the world of YA adaptations (or just adaptations in general) and the process of casting our favorite characters.
So yesterday I posted an opinion piece on Evangeline Lilly’s character, Tauriel, in the Hobbit movie. To say that I got a visceral response would be an absolute understatement.
But I love that. Look, I tend to have unpopular opinions and I’m used to that. Just the other day, I pointed out that while I think John Green is a fantastic writer, I do think that he gets overrated a lot, and that there are tons of authors that are way better than him.
That didn’t go over too well.
A couple days ago, recipe I read an article online that threw me into a murderous rage. Well, this web maybe not a murderous rage, cialis 40mg but I was very upset about it.
A New York Librarian by the name of Lita Casey was recently fired from her position as a children’s librarian. While she was not given a reason for this, it is highly speculated that it was due to her support of nine-year-old, Tyler Weaver. Tyler Weaver has won their summer reading contest five years in a row, managing to read 63 books in the six week period. The former library director went on record, saying that Tyler “hogs” the contest and should “step aside” and let other children have a chance. Lita Casey remained supportive of Tyler and refused to comply to the former library director’s opinion. Lita said that it was all about the hard work, and compared it to her granddaughter, a track star, saying ” My granddaughter started working on track in grade school and ended up being a national champ. Should she have backed off and said, ‘No, somebody else should win?'” She worked for the library for 28 years.
There is SO much wrong about this. SO much wrong.
First off, when do we discourage a kid for READING? And reading TOO much? Is that even a thing? Reading is such an essential part of life. You need to be a good reader. You don’t need to actually enjoy reading, and cuddle up with a novel often but you need to have the skill of a good reader to get jobs and to just be a knowledgable person. Its just part of life. And kids more and more are having issues with reading, and it becomes a challenge to make sure that kids gain those skills. Here we have a kid who obviously loves reading and shows a skill with it. 63 books in six weeks? That’s fantastic, and I’m proud of this kid.
So how we can NOT discourage a child to read? How can we not applaud his accomplishments? Is that the sort of world that we live in? I refuse to believe that we are living in a world that applauds mediocrity and doesn’t give credit where credit is due. This nine-year-old worked his BUTT off and he deserves for people to see that! For someone in an authority position to say that he “hogs” the competition is just rude, inconsiderate and cutting, and it is completely unfair to say to a child.
Which leads me to this: the criticism coming toward this child is completely unfair in general. Think about this: its not Tyler’s fault that he reads faster or with better skill and comprehension than other children anymore than its another’s child’s fault that their skills or speed are slower. I’m a fast reader. I’ve already ready 140 books this year. While that’s not the most that I’ve seen on GoodReads, it is definitely higher than most people that I know, especially of those who do really love reading. I read very fast, I have a high comprehension skill and I spend a lot of time reading. There are many times, almost daily, that people ask me, “how do you that? how do you read so fast?”
And you know what my answer is 100% of the time. “I don’t know.” Because I honestly don’t know. I just do. How do you read slow? That’s just the reading skill that you have, that’s how you read. When I read, I read extremely fast. I can’t really explain it, and I’m not going to slow down so that people can keep up with me. If I see friends of mine on their challenges and they are at forty books, I commend them for that, but I am not going to slow down. I’m proud of being a fast reader. Its not really the most useful skill in the world but I am proud of it. Its something that I am good at the way that my brother Robby is a talented athlete, my sister and brother are talented artists. It is a SKILL that some people are going to be good at and others just aren’t.
Tyler is a good reader, a fast one, and he worked hard to get where he wanted, and he won the contest. He won the contest five years in a row. He worked hard for this, and he deserved the awards that he got for it. As a person who has always really fast, and well above my age level, I understand where this kid is coming from. I’ve been doubted SO many times. I’ve gotten in trouble for reading too much, or reading books above my age level, because they don’t believe that I’ve read that much or read that maturely, and it is incredibly frustrating. It is incredibly frustrating for doing all that work, and having the doubt or the disbelief or even just the hate thrown your way.
Which leads me to the librarian, Lita Casey. Why is a woman getting fired for doing her job? As a librarian, especially a children’s librarian, your job is to encourage reading and to do everything you can to facilitate that sort of environment. She is there to assist in all reading needs and in a children’s section, she would be there to instill a love of reading. How can you fire her for doing EXACTLY that? She obviously could see that Tyler had a love of reading and she was doing the right thing by applauding this boy’s accomplishments. I feel like its the same way a coach would applaud his fastest runner, the most skilled quarterback, etc. Lita wasn’t sitting there and telling the other kids that they weren’t good enough. She encouraged the other readers just as much as she did Tyler, she just recognized the accomplishment that he did.
The way I see it is this: I would never sit here and tell my brother, “you know what, you’re hogging the competition. You win too many cross country races, and you should step aside to let someone else have a chance.” That is ridiculous. No one would ever tell an athlete to step aside because they’re winning too much. Kind of a random example but Jimmie Johnson, the NASCAR driver, won five championships in a row. Now while this was kind of annoying, what could I really say to that? Nothing. Jimmie Johnson drove his ass off and he deserved the championship that HE earned, and I would sit here and be like, “stop being such an awesome race car driver, Jimmie, its not fair to the rest.” No, if the other drivers want to win a championship, if other runners want to win a race, if other readers want to win the contest, they are going to do the work needed to accomplish this task.
I’m not going to enter myself into a cross country race, and complain that someone else always wins. I am NEVER going to be a good runner, and that’s okay. I stick to reading. I think that these kids should always be encouraged to love reading, and should always be helped in reading, especially if they show interest in it, but Tyler read the most and he won and that’s that. And Lita Casey did the right thing by encouraging him.
Okay. Rant over.
I’ve been stewing all day. I’ve been on the brink of exasperation and annoyance and yeah, a little bit of anger. And it took this little picture here to make me happier.
But still. I’m frustrated. City of Bones hit theaters yesterday, officially, in most countries. Thousands and thousands of TMI fans have flocked to the theaters, and I know several fans who have seen it more than once, some three times already! I am so proud of this fandom, and I am so proud of Harald Zwart and his team, and our beloved actors for making a great movie.
So some of you may already know that last week, in a very anticlimatic manner, my computer decided it would go…kaput. So now it is dead. I’ve had the computer for years, so its not a complete heartbreak but it has been making my ability to post very difficult.
Today is Friday when I am writing this, though this will be posting on Sunday. The reason being that I am borrowing my dad and my boyfriend’s laptops until my financial aid comes in and I am able to purchase a new one. That means I have to mass write blog posts. So you will still be seeing my blog posts but I won’t be able to respond as much.
I’m also letting you know that I will be VERY busy this coming Sunday-Tuesday. I am heading down to Los Angeles, which is only about 45 minutes away from me to have some City of Bones fun. I am going to be camping out for the movie and for the mall tour stop. I will be VERY busy and trying to save my phone battery as much as possible for pictures and such so I just won’t be as available.
However, if you follow me on Twitter, Instagram or Tumblr, you will be able to see pictures because I will make sure to post some!
If you’re there, I’d love to meet you, so definitely tweet me! I can’t wait for it, its all going to be SO exciting!
So I was browsing on Facebook, when this picture popped up, a snap shot of a tweet by Cassandra Clare. Here it is for you:
And people were going insane. They were all happy, and freaking out. For one thing, can I just point out that she said “sort of”? They’re not actually getting married, so yeah, stop fantasizing Clary and Jace’s wedding.
But the thing that really bothered me was that, if they actually get married, I’ll be super pissed off. And that’s not because I don’t like Jace and Clary together, and that I don’t want to them to live happily ever after, forever, and ever. Because I do. The thing is, Clary is 16, and Jace is 17? I don’t think Clary has had a birthday since her 16th in City of Bones and I’m pretty sure Jace is still underage so he’s 17. This really really bothers me.
