My son read Persepolis and Maus in middle school – he was in 6th and 7th grades. No one we know had any issues with that – but then again, that was in the heathen, sinful city of New York in – gasp – PUBLIC SCHOOL…
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Probably a good idea… And now that you mention it, I think I may have started the series in the middle as well. I can’t remember now; it’s been a while.
Gaiman himself stated that he didn’t really find the right tone for Sandman until later issues and that most of Preludes was experimentation with various genres (except for The Sound of Her Wings which he felt had the right spirit for a ‘Sandman’ story).
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There’s also some linguistic research showing that by the spelling used, there’s just so much filthy punning in Shakespeare, and I love it:
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As one of the people assuming that she, a twenty year old, is a legal adult for almost all practical purposes, save for buying alcohol or renting a car, I stand by my assertion: she is indeed an adult, capable of of entering legal contracts, etc., and, most importantly, being treated as if she is the one responsible for her decisions and actions. The question of rather or not she is mature simply doesn’t enter into it. Frankly, I don’t care if she “gets” the material or not, she should still be held responsible for making the decision of what classes to take and should be held responsible when she let the deadline to drop the class without penalty whiz past. (Although of course the college seems to have decided to teach her, and others like her, a completely different lesson instead. My cynic sense is tingling: it detects more such shenanigans ahead.)
To be clear: I don’t have much respect for the college student in the original article. What she’s done strikes me as equivalent to calling in a bomb threat to force a chemistry midterm to be rescheduled. It’s beyond irresponsible, and into the space of a deliberate attack on the common good for one’s own selfish interests.
I was reacting more to a note I thought I was detecting in the responses to that: a sort of assumption that anyone of such an age has already worked out their sexuality and had sexual experiences. It’s something I run across now and then, usually implicit, sometimes explicit. “Oh, so-and-so is 21, so of course they’re sexually active.” There’s an implicit shaming of anyone who doesn’t meet that expectation, a denial that they’re really an adult human being – which doesn’t ease the difficulties for a young adult.
For instance, not long after I first read Sandman, I read an interview with Neil Gaiman, in which he said that his comics were for people who’ve already had sex. As I’d suggested in my previous comment, I can see a point in that – there are some things hard to appreciate fully until you’ve had the experiences to compare them to. But then, it’s not that hard to have an intellectual understanding of what’s going on, if someone actually pauses to explain it, rather than just assumes that, haha, we all know what that means.
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WARNING
College has adult themes.
WARNING
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True story: we had quite a handsome model for our drawing class in college (I was - I know this would shock the graphic novel hater - 18 when I took the class and I saw a real neked guy). So, I miss a class and have to show up to the general drawing session he models at. Only it’s just me there. Drawing him. Totally full frontal. Fortunately he was a very cool guy and we had a great conversation about his drumming career. It was awkward still.
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I can hear your professor now “I think you might want to work on some more details here…”
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When I was a freshman you could always spot the art students who were embarrassed to be in the presence of a naked model because their life drawings would end up looking like Ken dolls.
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“Nice hands there Tim, but what about the rest of the body?”
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or the reverse…
“Uhm…Tim…we should talk.”
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“Tim, but what about the rest of the body?”
They’re accredited by churches. I’m not sure that makes them actual colleges. Seminaries perhaps.
Let’s not insult Seminaries, now. My dad actually went to a seminary for his freshman and sophomore years of HS before he discovered girls…
Weren’t there girls there?
Three little maids who all unwary
Come from the ladies’ seminary
Freed from its genius tutelary…
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At my dad’s seminary, in the late 60s? I have his yearbooks, and I think it was an all boys school. Actually, I was kind of shocked to learn how religious he was as a youth. We didn’t often go to church, and never to a catholic church as a kid.
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You don’t need to be sexually active to be comfortable reading sexually explicit material. The most passed-around book among the girls in my Grade 6 class was Flowers in the Attic.
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I read that series as it released, my older sister & mom were into them. Man that was some spooky shit, I was 10 when I read Flowers in the Attic, made me sad.
Look, she’s not laughed at for her parents reacting to the (harmless) hazing. She’s laughed at because their act was the equivalent of calling Barack Obama to complain that your car was keyed. The level of overreacting was epic. On the same level as if someone called the GLOBAL CEO of Coca Cola to complain that their kid’s coke had a swear word printed on it instead of the local representative.
And it seems a weird global issue is happening these last years where college students are regarded less and less as independent adults and more and more becoming childlike and depending on their parents. Some Universities now have parent-teacher meetings, which makes me cringe really hard.
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