This is almost one for
Jeff, but I couldn't help it:
MR. BILL: Gee, kids, I'm not sure we can do our show today because it looks like Hurricane Sluggo is headed right for us here in America's wetlands.
WALTER WILLIAMS, MR. BILL CREATOR: That's right, Mr. Bill. And since New Orleans is below sea level, if a hurricane hit us directly, it could push the water over the levees and fill it to the top.
BILL: Well then we'd better leave.
WILLIAMS: Well it's too late to evacuate since all the roads are jammed and under water.
BILL: Then where can we go that's safe?
WILLIAMS: Here this should work.
BILL: Gee, I hope it doesn't get much higher.
WILLIAMS: Well, Red, the alligator, doesn't seem too worried.
BILL: Yes, that's because he can swim. You know I don't do that too well.
WILLIAMS: Well in that case, Red says he'll have one of his buddies come and give you a lift.
BILL: That's OK. Maybe you could mind the water wings or something. Oh, get me out of here! No, wait, no, no, ohhh!
WILLIAMS: Let's act now before it's too late.
posted by Kevin at 8:16 PM
My Mother in Law checked out,
A Day No Pigs Would Die, by Robert Newton Peck, from the library and gave it to me to read. Perhaps she saw the
bacon post...
Becky only vaugely remembered the story from her childhood, so we decided to read it together.
I was enjoying the book, but I didn't know anything about the Shakers. They made chairs, or something, right!? Literally, that was the extent of my Shaker knowledge. The book constantly refers to
The Book of Shaker. I thought I'd look it up online and find out a bit more about Shakers, in general.
Long story short, Peck's portrayal of Shakerism is a total fabrication. The only thing it shares in common with real-life Shakers is the name. There is no
Book of Shaker, and Shakers, in reality, behaved nothing like Peck's Shakers. I won't go into all of the problems of Peck's portrayal of Shakers, but if you're interested, read
Robert Newton Peck and Shaker Beliefs:
A Day the Truth Would Die.
What I find most interesting is the absorption of the meme, by the general public, that the book, though fictional, provides an accurate portrayal of Shakerism! I read reviews on Amazon that said things like,
the book seems to provide an accurate portrayal of what it was like to grow up in a Shaker household.
Say what!?
This book, I learned, is read by millions of elementary school kids. Are the teachers even aware of the fact that the descriptions of the Shakers in the book have nothing to do with Shakerism?
It's fiction. Who cares? Right?
Yeah, but people come away from reading that book believing a total crock of nonsense about a real organization with an easily verifiable history. As a naturally inquisitive adult, I got to the bottom of Peck's Shaker fraud---which the book's dust cover helps perpetrate---in a matter of about two minutes with the help of the Internet. What about the millions of kids who read the book? Will they do the same thing? I don't know, but the kids probably have a better chance of sorting it out than the teachers who assign this book.
Am I making a mountain out of a molehill? Maybe, but this is where the disturbing thoughs started to creep into my mind. (And this is my main point, in case you were wondering.) If millions of people read this book and thought they were getting an accurate picture of Shaker life, imagine what they could be made to believe when targeted by profesionally engineered proprganda and disinformation.
I think I'll just go read some more of Peck's faker Shaker pig story.
posted by Kevin at 5:06 PM