The Museum of Social Justice Propaganda

If you foll low my blog, chances are you know how annoyed I can get with bad books. What can I say, it's part of the trade. I keep a very careful watch of the books I read and while I try to keep from evaluating them professionally (as I feel that would kinda spoil the read) I just can't help it sometimes.
Yes, my friends, this is a book-rant, so be prepared.

_Source

A couple of days ago, coming back from the library, I was quite pleased with my book haul. A lot of interesting looking novels that promised great fun. I started reading Carys Bray's 'The Museum of You' right on the way home and at first, it seemed like a entertaining read. It has the sort of easy vibe that makes other books pleasant. Sure, it's not Hamlet, but it's a decent, light-hearted read. Or so I thought.
Because apparently, in today's world easy, light-hearted reads are a thing of the past.
See, I know there is a lot of pressure to be all tolerant and all inclusive these days, right up to the point where if you (or your story) have nothing to do with LGBT issues, black Muslim women or anything like that, well, you're not really interesting, are you?
Sign of the times...

I know that and I keep an eye out for such things. Anything that tries to force this down my throat gets a kick in the arse from me. Let me get one thing straight, I'm not against anyone, regardless of sex, race, religion etc. But many of these “equality” movements are getting out of control and when you start persecuting others' religion or life choices, that's when we have a problem.
There's plenty of that going on, but this isn't really what the post is about.

It's very trendy nowadays to be overly-supportive of all these “oppressed, misunderstood” groups. It pays too, as many publishers and magazines tend to give special preference to stories that touch on “current social issues”. So naturally, books that touch upon that are in full bloom.

Which brings me back to “The Museum of You”, typical story of a little girl being raised by her dad trying to make sense of how her mom died. When I read that the little girl has an autistic uncle (another widely popular topic, largely because the pharmaceutical industry is a widely profitable trade), I didn't think much of it. In the UK, where the book is set, the pharmaceutical industry has a much larger hold on society. There are a lot more people on drugs for various mental issues than in other counties, so okay, it's believable.
Then, you find that her other uncle is gay (the super-cliche of the buff giant with a heart of gold – give me a break). Well okay, I suppose that works too.
Then, the little girl befriends an immigrant little girl who is bullied at school and presumably abused in some way by her immigrant father, who seems to have some sort of PTSD (again, the fact that this whole premise is horribly cliche-ic only adds salts to the wound). Now, this is where it started to stink for me.
Again, I have nothing against any of these people individually. But with this book, it's quite obvious that this so called writer crammed them all in to appear socially aware and to increase sales. Trust me, this crap is spreading like wild fire and undoubtedly, the presence of a gay character plus an autistic man, plus various feminist references give this horribly mediocre book a boost.
And when you start doing that, I start being suspicious. And more than slightly disgusted. This is not writing, this is just modernistic crap.
Oh, did I mention the scene where the father (the typical clueless male who has literally no idea how to talk to his daughter about boobs or sex or whatever) goes to the bookstore to buy a book called 'How to be a Woman' and the clerk misunderstands it is for him and cheers “How great! I'm so happy for you!”. Yep, the picture really wasn't complete without a transsexual reference, was it?
And then, there's the charming little bit where he tells his daughter that in case she's gay, he doesn't mind and she can tell him. Another all-inclusive little tidbit.Yey!
And finally, the bit that just made me quit this piece of shit book was when the father was looking at a TV programme and he notes how there are no women on the show and how before he had a daughter, he never used to notice such things, but now he knows how important a female presence is. There's our feminist agenda and I think with it, the picture is complete.

And of course, the more annoyed I got with this forced inclusion of all popular social justice topics, the more aware I became of how crappy the book actually was. The writing is mediocre at best, the plot, as I said, is full of cliché characters and over-used storylines. And while normally I may be willing to overlook some of this, when you force this crap down my throat, I have no choice but to note how painfully bad the book really is.

And when I say pushed down my throat, yes, I am aware nobody forced me to read this. And yet, this sort of book is growing in popularity, there are thousands like it coming out each year. Why? Because it's trendy to be concerned by these non-issues and as I said, it boosts your unremarkable book. Think of it as showing your boobs to gain popularity. This is the politically correct version of that.
I got this book at the British Council library, which I've been going to for some four or five years and recently, I've noticed a huge increase in these socially inclusive “books”. Surely, there are a lot of other books out there, both in the UK and other countries. There are new books – real ones that don't rely on the token transsexual to sell – coming out every month and yet very few of those make their way over here.
Why?
Quite simply because this is the trend we should be following, this is what we should be buying into. What pisses me off is the fact that this is a liberal agenda and that they're trying to force it in. I mean, if you are a client of the British Council library, you will want to take out some books and if these are the only books available, well...
And what pisses me off most is the assumption that I, as the reader, won't mind. I know, most people are sheep, they're all too prepared to go along with the official narrative (including the “author” of this so-called “book”), but I'm not. I know there's a movement to push this agenda and make it the norm and I see the many failings of this pretense-perfect world. It's not an all-loving utopia we're headed towards. And I refuse to believe it is, simply because the MSM tells me so or because some wannabe creative writing jerk-off puts it in their wannabe little book.

Okay. Rant over. Moving on to the next book.

Thanks for reading,