Too Much Caffine...

A couple of the others (Libby and Kristen I believe) in my book group have already posted on how the title Go Ask Alice was taken from song lyrics by Jefferson Airplane.

The lyrics support claims that Lewis Carroll was using drugs while writing Alice In Wonderland and that the story is full of drug refrences. However, there are as many websites and opinions that disagree with Jefferson Airplane's interpretation of the story as there sites that glorify the hookah smoking caterpillar.

Here is a link to one site that believes Carroll was a 'square':
Q: Was Carroll on drugs when he wrote the Alice books, or are the books about drugs?

In the same vein (vein - Ha - drugs, needles, veins) of druggie song lyrics, this song by band Jimmy Eat World reminded me a great deal of some of what Alice (in the book, not In Wonderland) went through in her drug use. Especially the dichotomy of drugs being an escape and making life's struggles easier (if only temporarily), while at the same time being dangerous and deadly. The song also talks about trying to stay clean while people around you are getting high.


Jimmy Eat World - Drugs Or Me Lyrics

Stay with me
You're the one that I need
You make the hardest things
Seem easy

Keep my heart
Somewhere drugs don't go
Were the sun shines lay
Always keep me close

If only you could see
The stranger next to me
You promised you promised that you're done
But i cant tell you from the drugs

Don't let go
Dig a great big hole
Down an endless hole
We'll both go

You're so blind
You cant see me this time
Hope comes from inside
And I feel so low tonight

If only you could see
The stranger next to me
You promised you promised that you're done
But I can't tell you from the drugs

I wish you could see
This face in front of me
You'r sorry swear it you're done
But I can't tell you from the drugs

(Ohhhh)
(Ohhhh)

(take me) I need your help
(so far away) To pull me up take the pain
(take me) Out from me
(so far away) Out from me

(Take me) If only you could see (I need your help)
(So far away) The stranger next to me (To pull me up take the
pain)
(Take me) You promised you promised that you're done (Out from
me)
(So far away) But I can't tell you from the drugs (Out from me)

(Take me) I wish that you could see (I need your help)
(So far away) This face in front of me (To pull me up take the
pain)
(Take me) You're sorry you swear it you're done (Out from me)
(So far away) But I can't tell you from the drugs (Out from me)

Keep my heart
somewhere drugs don't go
Where the sun shines low
always keep me close

Top 10 Reasons... This website gives 10 reasons that drugs should be legalized. Some of the reasonings are very interesting and somewhat convincing.

Reason #4 provided some facts that related to Go Ask Alice:

4 Drug users are a majority
Recent research shows that nearly half of all 15-16 year olds have used an illegal drug. Up to one and a half million people use ecstasy every weekend. Amongst young people, illegal drug use is seen as normal. Intensifying the 'war on drugs' is not reducing demand. In Holland, where cannabis laws are far less harsh, drug usage is amongst the lowest in Europe.

Legalisation accepts that drug use is normal and that it is a social issue, not a criminal justice one. How we deal with it is up to all of us to decide.

In 1970 there were 9000 convictions or cautions for drug offences and 15% of young people had used an illegal drug. In 1995 the figures were 94 000 and 45%. Prohibition doesn't work.

Go Ask Alice was published in 1971, the same year that President Nixon declared a "war on drugs". What a jump in teenage drug use since then! Although I do think those numbers could be deceiving. Perhaps after Nixon declaration of war, police made more of an effort to get those drug convicions and parents became more aware of the signs of use which would cause reports of use to rise, whether or not the actual amount of use changed.

Sorry this is so cheesy...Basically, I tried to explain how Alice could go from being so against ever using drugs again to overdosing and dying in three weeks. Peer pressure from the 'good' kids seemed the most logical to me, becauce ultimately I think teenagers just want to be a part of the group and can convince themselves of almost anything to accept and be accepted by that group.


September 25

The past week at school has been pretty okay. My old friends pretty much ignore me, which is better than tormenting me and making fun of me and calling me a square and a snitch and all of that. I just try to ignore them right back. I know that I never want to go back to that life and when I think of all the pain I caused my family, not to mention myself, I could just die. I'm so lucky to have their support still, but a part of me is so scared still that something bad is going to happen to my life, like i'm just not ment to be a lucky person. I mean, this all started without me knowing it and most of the bad things that were done to me were done without my control. What if it happens all over agian? I don't know what I'd do diary, I just don't know. I feel that it would be the end of me for sure.


October 3

Fawn's having another party tonight and I'm a little nervous. I know that nothing happened last time that should make me suspicious, but it feels like the whole world is just holding on and waiting for me to mess up. I'm wondering if I should stay home, but Mother and Daddy are so proud of me having normal, straight friends again that I don't want to let them down. Besides, all the kids are fun and straight and don't need all that other mind trip mess to help them have fun. I'll go and be okay keep trying to feel normal.

Later

Fawn asked me to stop by her house this afternoon before the party. I figured she wanted me to help her set up and maybe help with the cooking, but it turns out that she wanted to ask me questions about my past and what drugs I've tried and where I got them. At first I thought she was asking me as some sort of test, to make sure that I wasn't still in with the dopers, but then it started to sound like she wanted to find out for herself what that scene is all about. Why oh why diary do all my friends try to pull me back down? I thought that for sure this group was really, truly straight and wouldn't ever get involved in any of this mess. I guess it's like the adults say, that it's a sickness all the kids are catching. She explained that she doesn't ever want to be a doper, but that she and some of the others want to try it so that they can understand and maybe help other kids. It sounds okay, and they are a pretty straight group of kids, so I don't know. What, oh what, am I to do?

October 4

Well diary, as usual I didn't have anything to worry about. Last night at Fawn's some of the kids tried some pot, just to see how it works, but they didn't seem to have any problems with it like I did. I smoked a little with them too and got that same great feeling. Maybe with this group it will be okay. They seem to be able to handle the world and it's problems much better than the dopers who just want to get high, high, high and forget it all. But Fawn and the kids just wanted to experiment a little so they don't go through life not knowing. That sounds pretty okay to me, because after all, I'm supposed to get educated about the world. How could I ever tell my kids not to do heavy drugs and live that life if I had never tried it myself? So we decided only to do it together, and that someone would always do just a little so that they could be responsible. I really feel like I'm growing up and that this time, with the help of these marvelous friends, I wont make the same mistakes that I did in the past. You're getting pretty full diary. Maybe this is the time to say goodbye, old friend. I've really found a group that understands me and truly understands life. Thank you for helping me get to this point.

You know those awful commercials run by the DrugFree.Org people? (What am I? A larvae? A burrito? No, I'm a joint!) They also have a website that provides a lot of great links to statistics, info for parents, how and where to get help. There is also a link to personal testimonies from teens...Go Ask Aliceish but in today's language and situations.

Nicole's story in particular, stood out to me as being very close to what Alice went through.

The girls in the story grew up in the 'average American home', had a supportive family, felt out of place, trying one drug and getting hooked and then moving on to other drugs, overdosing unknowingly, found out her drug using "friends" would very quickly turn their backs on her, nearly died, and while using, never recognized that she had a substance abuse problem. Luckily for this girl, she didn't end up dead and was able to turn her life around.

Abby's story is a little less like Alice, but she has written a memoir of her drug use and recovery called Bad Girl: Confessions of a Teenage Delinquent. She also has a website www.badgirlbook.com.

This website: "Curiouser and Curiouser": Fact, Fiction, and the Anonymous Author of Go Ask Alice also supports the argument that Go Ask Alice was not the "Real Diary" of a teenage girl, but a cautionary tale against drug use written mostly by editor Beatrice Sparks.

The link brings up the point that if Sparks had realeased the book as a fiction tale instead of a memior, it wouldn't have sold as well as it did (millions of copies and translated into 16 languages - and a TV movie!) and perhaps the kids who read it in school (schools where it is not banned, of course) wouldn't have had the opportunity to hear the meassage it presents.

The same debate of memior vs. fiction is currently being debated with James Frey's book A Million Little Pieces. This page, run by thesmokinggun.com claims that Frey's book, which was released as a memior is more fiction than the author is admitting. The site claims that Frey unsuccesfully tried to get it published as a work of fiction, but had phenominal success publishing it as a memior.

In my opinion, people are making such a big deal out of the small facts that Frey might have fictionalized, that they are completely missing the amazing story he tells. If you want to scare your kids off drugs today, this is the book to use. He tells of waking up on a plane, not knowing where he's coming from or where he's going, with a giant, bleeding hole in his cheek and missing teeth. He is checked into a rehab center and spends the next few days vomitting up chunks of his stomach and intestine that he has so badly damaged through his extensive drinking and drug use. He describes going to the denstist to have teeth drilled and fixed, all without any sort of pain medication (because he's an addict). Debating whether he ran his car up on the curb and into a police officer as he says, or only really recieved a parking ticket takes away from the amazing message of addiction and recovery that he is trying to present to people.

Perhaps Go Ask Alice was the A Million Little Pieces of it's time. The book has an important message to present to teenagers (how effectively it does that in my opinion is another matter), and placing the focus on who actually authored it diminishes it's ability to be helpful to those who can relate to Alice's drug use.

This page, run by Snopes.com discusses the authorship of Go Ask Alice. Snopes.com is a website dedicated to the debunking of Urban Myths.

It defines an Urban Myth as:
A tale is considered to be an urban legend if it circulates widely, is told and re-told with differing details (or exists in multiple versions), and is said to be true. Whether or not the events described in the tale ever actually occurred is completely irrelevant to its classification as an urban legend.

Snopes.com lists the book Go Ask Alice on it's sight because of it's "Anonymous" authorship. The book claims to be "A Real Diary" of a fifteen-year-old girl who overdosed and died.

Here is who they claim authored the book:
Go Ask Alice was the product of Beatrice Sparks, an author who has come out with a number of "teens who saw their lives ruined by their bad choices" offerings, each one presented as a true story, often in the form of a diary of an anonymous teen.

The precise authorship of Go Ask Alice is still a bit of a mystery. Beatrice Sparks is presented as its editor rather than its author, and one tantalizing mention in a 1998 New York Times book review indicates the book might have been the work of several people:

Linda Glovach, since exposed as one of the "preparers" — let's call them forgers — of Go Ask Alice, has just written Beauty Queen, about a girl who flees her alcoholic mother, becomes a stripper and dies of heroin addiction.

Our best guess is that a number of folks work at churning out these cautionary tales, which are then presented to an overly accepting public as real diaries of anonymous teens. Yet on the question of authorship, one thing is startlingly clear: whoever wrote the Go Ask Alice "diary" was not a 15-year-old girl.

I agree with some of the ideas that the website presents and some of the questions it raises about the true authorship of the book, however I am not entirely convinced that the diary account was complete fiction.

I found a great resource listing banned and challenged books in MI. Some I would agree with, such as Sex by Madonna - love her, but wouldn’t want my kids reading that book in school. Some blew me away, such as a Where’s Waldo, and Dahl’s Matilda which is not allowed to be read in the classroom in the GRPS.

Here it is: http://plymouthlibrary.org/bbw.htm

The first image that pops into my head when I think of the term ‘literary reading’ is of struggling through Heart of Darkness in my highschool AP English class. I read that book with pen, pencil, and highlighter in hand so I could make a quick note of the foreshadowing, irony, and whatever other literary elements and insights I was supposed to be picking up from the story. All I remember about the book now, is that it was a pain-in-the-ass to read. I think that is the general image of literary reading that most students have. It’s reading that you do to find the right answers, or the right meaning, or to make sure you know exactly what the author meant by every word and phrase of the story.

It surprised me that I had such an immediate, negative reaction to that term because I’ve always loved to read. From the time I learned how to read, I’ve always preferred it to watching tv (except when the OC is on), or playing video games, or listening to music or any other solitary form of entertainment. There were, and still are, many nights that I stay up waaaaaay too late because I just want to finish what I’m reading. But throw the word ‘literary’ in there, and reading suddenly becomes work or study, not pleasure.

Our wonderful text book (that I was 'literarily' reading last night, highliter in hand) makes a distinction between efferent reading and aesthetic reading. Efferent reading being the practice of studying a text, finding the right answers, and learning the ‘correct’ interpretation of it - what I first thought of when I thought of literary reading. Aesthetic reading is more about relating to the text; finding your own meaning and discovering what and how a text makes you feel. That seems more like the “fun” reading that I enjoy. The point is made in the book that both are valid forms of reading and should both be taught and encouraged in the classroom as models of how to read.

However, I think that the majority of students, including myself, only encounter efferent reading in a school setting. It’s all about filling out that worksheet, or finishing the book report, or analyzing some character’s role in the development of blah blah blah...Nobody cares if you enjoy what you are reading in the classroom or if it relates to your life in any way, or if you learn any valuable lesson from it as long as you can complete an accurate story diagram.

Luckily for me, encountering the practice of classroom reading never diminished my love of reading, but it did make that huge distinction in my mind between the literary or ‘studying’ reading that I do, and the reading that I do for pleasure. I think an important question, one that alludes to a shift from strictly efferent reading in the classroom, is which has been more valuable in my life? I know that I got an A in that AP English class, but I don’t recall enjoying anything we read and probably couldn’t tell you what any of the books were about. However, in something I’ve read in an aesthetic manner I can tell you exactly what I’ve learned, what the text meant to me, what emotions, memories, aspirations I’ve experienced. I can recall the author’s name and usually know a little about their life. I can identify twists in the plot, each character’s role in the story, and usually have a pretty good idea of what message the author was trying to present to the reader. I usually finish the book with a desire to keep reading, instead of feeling relief that I’ve finished and panic that I didn’t get the ‘right’ answers from the story.

So, back to the question of what literary reading is...My best answer is that it's a combination of the two. Having an understanding of what the author is trying to communicate to the reader, but also freeing yourself enough to enjoy the book fits my definition of literary reading.