A little bit ago I started reading The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy to my 2 younger kids, ages 11 and 9. I had not read it for many years, and simply recalled it as very funny, but relatively inconsequential nonsense. My main concern was that a lot of the humor would be over my kids’ heads. I was pleasantly surprised at how much they took to it. It was also neat that they would find great pleasure in different parts than I did.
Last night at dinner, my son said something like, he wanted to finish his homework quickly so we could read THGTTG. Mrs. D said, “You’re reading that to them?” Mind racing (as only a husband being questioned by his wife can appreciate) I responded, “Well, yeah. Why? Is it a problem?” She said she thought she recalled something in the book might be “inappropriate” for kids.
I racked my brain, but couldn’t remember anything “troublesome” about the books. No explicit sex, no gratuitous violence (other than blowing up the earth and exterminating our species, that sort of good clean fun!), no excessive vulgarity.
I don’t really feel like reading the whole damn book(s) first to convince myself (and my wife) that there is nothing wrong with it, and then reading it again out loud to my kids. I was hoping those of you who might have a clearer recollection of the book(s) could fill me in on what, if any, parts of the book(s) might be considered inappropriate for younger readers.
I can’t remember which book, I think either the 3rd or 4th one, Arthur gets a GF and Douglas Adams writes the question, “Does Arthur fuck?” or something like that.
I think there’s a “shit” somewhere in the series too, but I can’t exactly remember where. Not in the first book, I’m pretty sure. Probably wouldn’t be too hard to do a little word substitution there when you find it, if necessary.
And it’s the 4th book where Arthur bleeps Fenchurch.
I heard Eccentrica Gallumbit’s erogenous zones start some 3 light years from her body. Me, I’d say it’s 5.
Well, the explicit parts are few and far between but there are a few (like Arthur fucking up in the clouds after he learns how to fly and the tri-whore…etc) but you could either edit that stuff out as you go along or do what i would do and just read it to them. You’re a fool if you think they havent heard worse by the time they are 5 or 6 (so, no offense but its a fact).
Believe me. My precious darlings have heard worse than shit or fuck. So that wouldn’t be a big problem. I’ll have to check out that whore. If those are all the naughty bits, I don’t see a problem. Of course, I’m not gonna go to war over it.
I think some of the missus’ reaction reflects that she thought it somewhat “inappropriate” that I turned my son on to “Night of the Living Dead” over the last weekend. So she’s kind of over reacting, making sure we don’t go out of our way to expose tham to stuff that could wait a while.
Dinsdale, better that they get “exposed” to stuff like THHGTG and Night of the Living Dead, etc. from you, where they can ask questions. Your son is gonna stumble across horror movies on his own or at a slumber party sooner or later, so he’ll be better-prepared watching Night of the Living Dead with Daddy safe and close by.
I think it’s cool that you still read to your kids, and I think it’s cool that you read them stuff that might be a little beyond them.
As for your wife’s desire to be “protective” of their reading material: Being a voracious reader, I got exposed to lots of stuff that I probably shouldn’t have been by today’s “Let’s protect the children from dust, pollen, gluten, and life” days, but I think it’s prepared me well for life.
I learned to read when I was 3, and exhausted the kiddie section of the public library by about the age of 8 or 9. Spent a lot of time with the “classics” - which, btw, contain a lot of stuff unsuitable for children. I think I first ran across your username in the Scarlet Letter around age 11.
“Mommy, what is adultery? Is that when you become an adult?”
I don’t think I picked up HHG until I was in junior high or so, I remember quoting sections to my unamused family at the dinner table, don’t remember being scarred by references to Eroticon - it will probably make your kids giggle more than anything at this point. “Daddy said ‘whore’. (snicker)”.
The good thing about the whole Arthur / Fenchurch tryst is that Adams steps out of character in the previous chapter and warns people that the next pages involve sex. And says something like “For those of you who do not wish to read about this, you can go on to the chapter 10, which is funnier and has Marvin in it.”
The only real problem was the book (don’t remember which one) that was entirely about cricket. ((Ok, other stuff happened too, but cricket was a big part of whatever the plot may have been…)) I’d already been exposed to everything else in the books.
