A book rant

As you know, I completed an English teaching degree at BYU. BYU is known to be conservative; I mean, after all, it's an LDS school, and we're a pretty conservative people when it comes down to it. (I'm not talking politics here, so don't any one get unnecessarily offended.) What I liked best about my major was that it was basically two majors: it contained all but one of the classes in the English major, plus all of the classes I needed to get my teaching certificate. This means that my education was very varied; I got to study a lot of different things in lots of different veins. And, as you well know, my attention shifts quite frequently, so this variation of subjects worked very well for me. I have to say that I preferred my English classes to my education classes, if only for the fact that I enjoy reading much more than I enjoy theorizing about why children develop behavior problems. Teaching English was another story, though, because it meant dealing with the literature, which I love. The reason all of this comes up is because I just finished an insanely excellent trilogy by Swedish author Steig Larsson which I feel I cannot, in good faith, recommend to any of my friends. Let's take a look into why, because it's actually very interesting. Let's get back to BYU being a very conservative institution. In most accounts, I agree with this stereotype. However, there are instances where it is not. For example, some of the material I read in the English department would be considered by most people I know as objectionable. I've read about brutal rapes and murders, horrible abuses, and the most abhorrent language you've ever dreamed of. Now before you go getting all upset that a place like BYU would let such filth into its institutions and, therefore, the minds of its students, I should state that Jeffrey R. Holland, when president of BYU, stated that, by reading one of these books, he was able to gain an appreciation for situations and circumstances that he would otherwise not have experienced. I don't bring this up to justify reading smutty literature, but I do write it to show why an LDS university has what some would consider crude subjects in its course materials for its English classes. There, now that that's been said, let's continue. Because I have this background, I tend to be a little more liberal in what I read than with what others around me might. I'm not picking up dime store sex novels or anything, but the aforementioned situations, if well written and necessary to further a plot, don't phase me at all. This brings me to Steig Larsson's books, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, The Girl who Played with Fire, and The Girl who Kicked the Hornet's Nest. I have to say that these books are some of the most well-written works of fiction I've ever come across. The plot is so dense yet so approachable and the fact that the first and third books can be so unrelated yet so necessary to each other just has me astounded. To put it mildly, the man had talent (I say had because he passed away shortly after delivering all three manuscripts to his publisher). The first took me awhile to get into, but looking back, the "boring" backstory I was presented with was completely necessary for the story as a whole. I am so mad that I'm done reading them because I just want there to be more. And that makes me want to run out and tell everyone to go read them because they are so good. But that brings me back to square one: what are others okay with versus what am I okay with. For some of us, these books are no problem. The content doesn't bother us and, in fact, adds to the crime or conflict in the story. (In other words, this makes a bad villain really bad.) However, I know a lot of people who wouldn't be okay with this kind of thing. They find these subjects and phrasings offensive, which they have every right to do, and which I don't judge them for. If I hadn't had such a background in literature, I would have hucked these books at the wall and been really offended. At the end of the day, what I'm ranting about is this: you know you. If you are the kind of person who is okay with these controversial topics, phrases, words, etc, you have to read these books because they are truly excellent. If you are not, then pretend you never read this post and never pick up those books. :)