# The Chocolate War **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [April 25, 2003, 12:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-chocolate-war/170993 "2003-04-25T00:49:01Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![fauxpas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e480ec/32.png) [@fauxpas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fauxpas)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2003, 12:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-chocolate-war/170993/1 "2003-04-25T00:49:01Z")
I just finished reading this bool called “The Chocolate War” by Robert Cormier. I just want to say this… HOW DARE YOU MR.CORMIER??? You my be old but you have a very very sick and perverted mind! Talking about homosexuality like its no thing! Does anyone else want to discuss this? I think this book should be banned. My teacher thought the quite oppisite and sent me to detention. Even though I said it very nicely. Then again, she does hold some remorse towards the Catholic Church and me, and my friends, and other beings. Perhaps it was her way of punishing us for such filth. ---
**Author:** ![Eutychus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a3d4f5/32.png) [@Eutychus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eutychus)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2003, 12:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-chocolate-war/170993/2 "2003-04-25T00:51:44Z")
This can only end in tears … ---
**Author:** ![Payton\_s\_Servant](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/3da27b/32.png) [@Payton\_s\_Servant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Payton_s_Servant)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2003, 1:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-chocolate-war/170993/3 "2003-04-25T01:23:07Z")
Yeah, ban this book. Hell, why stop there, lets all go get torches and pitchforks and axes and shovels and march to Robert Cormiers house and drag him outside and beat himn senseless and burn him alive. And then we’ll all have pie. That’ll teach him a lesson. How dare he think that Freedom of Speech applies to him.:rolleyes: :rolleyes: Never mind that Cormier has been dead for about 4 years. As for the OP, I think someone needs to get back to doing their school homework. There was no homosexuality in **The Chocolate War**. ---
**Author:** ![gobear](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/8dc957/32.png) [@gobear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gobear)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2003, 1:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-chocolate-war/170993/4 "2003-04-25T01:26:31Z")
Hmm, I’ve never read **The Chocolate War**? What is it, a guide to scat fetishes? ---
**Author:** ![dave316](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/76d3ee/32.png) [@dave316](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dave316)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2003, 1:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-chocolate-war/170993/5 "2003-04-25T01:38:37Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by gobear \* > \*\*Hmm, I’ve never read **The Chocolate War**? What is it, a guide to scat fetishes? \*\* i think its about S&M with M&M ---
**Author:** ![d\_redguy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/5fc32e/32.png) [@d\_redguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/d_redguy)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2003, 1:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-chocolate-war/170993/6 "2003-04-25T01:40:21Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by gobear \* > \*\*Hmm, I’ve never read **The Chocolate War**? What is it, a guide to scat fetishes? \*\* I’ve never read it either, but that question caused a bark that has my coworker looking at me! Nice!😃 😃 ---
**Author:** ![friedo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/8edcca/32.png) [@friedo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/friedo)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2003, 1:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-chocolate-war/170993/7 "2003-04-25T01:40:52Z")
Robert Cormier is a shitty writer who writes shitty books. **fauxpas** is a fucking imbecile. They’re made for each other. ---
**Author:** ![Blalron](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/35a633/32.png) [@Blalron](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Blalron)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2003, 1:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-chocolate-war/170993/8 "2003-04-25T01:48:06Z")
The Chocolate War is a great book. It is a chilling portrait of the evils of conformity and the cruelty of adolescense. ---
**Author:** ![friedo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/8edcca/32.png) [@friedo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/friedo)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2003, 1:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-chocolate-war/170993/9 "2003-04-25T01:53:14Z")
What you call a “chilling portrait of the evils of conformity and the cruelty of adolescense,” I call a “boring and hackneyed tale of typical teen angst.” But I suppose it’s all rather subjective. ---
**Author:** ![Iacob\_Matthew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Iacob\_Matthew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Iacob_Matthew)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2003, 1:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-chocolate-war/170993/10 "2003-04-25T01:56:14Z")
I’d be more offended by talking about graft, corruption, and organized crime like it’s nothing (the focus of almost all his books on one level or another), while accepting young HS boys calling eachother gay as provocation as a perectly normal. Were you complaining about how his book _Fade_ deals with that, then I’d accept this complaint as relevant. You’d probably be vomitting into the toilet until you forgot about it, though. friedo- “Robert Cormier is a shitty writer who writes shitty books.” No, Cormier is a stylistically talented writer who writes pointless books, the opposite of Phillip K. Dick, a shitty writer who writes creative books. Orson Scott Card falls much better into the “shitty writer who writes shitty books.” Read something decently written, the read something of his. ---
**Author:** ![Mockingbird](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c68b51/32.png) [@Mockingbird](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mockingbird)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2003, 2:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-chocolate-war/170993/11 "2003-04-25T02:08:41Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by fauxpas \* > \*\*I just finished reading this bool called “The Chocolate War” by Robert Cormier. I just want to say this… > > HOW DARE YOU MR.CORMIER??? You my be old but you have a very very sick and perverted mind! Talking about homosexuality like its no thing! Does anyone else want to discuss this? I think this book should be banned. My teacher thought the quite oppisite and sent me to detention. Even though I said it very nicely. Then again, she does hold some remorse towards the Catholic Church and me, and my friends, and other beings. Perhaps it was her way of punishing us for such filth. \*\* Talk about living down to your username. Wow. ---
**Author:** ![Mockingbird](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c68b51/32.png) [@Mockingbird](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mockingbird)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2003, 2:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-chocolate-war/170993/12 "2003-04-25T02:11:24Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by gobear \* > \*\*Hmm, I’ve never read **The Chocolate War**? What is it, a guide to scat fetishes? \*\* No, you’re confusing that with the **Hershey Highway** by John Rechy. John Rechy wrote no such book. Really. But I bet he’d find it amusing. ---
**Author:** ![hyperjes](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/df705f/32.png) [@hyperjes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hyperjes)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2003, 4:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-chocolate-war/170993/13 "2003-04-25T04:21:13Z")
**Iacob\_Matthew** , I love Orson Scott Card. How anyone could find him to be a shitty writer is beyond me. _Ender’s Game_ is brilliant. _The Worthing Saga_ is phenomenal. He is often touted as one of the best sci-fi writers of our time. But everyone is entitled to their own opinion. I personally can’t stand Heinlein. I’d never call him a shitty writer, because he’s not one. I just don’t like his books.😉 ---
**Author:** ![Aslan\_of\_Narnia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecd19e/32.png) [@Aslan\_of\_Narnia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aslan_of_Narnia)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2003, 4:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-chocolate-war/170993/14 "2003-04-25T04:35:56Z")
Yes, talking about homosexuality is very much equal to having an old and perverted mind… On Bizzaro earth. ---
**Author:** ![kambuckta](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/53a042/32.png) [@kambuckta](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kambuckta)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2003, 5:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-chocolate-war/170993/15 "2003-04-25T05:42:06Z")
May I just add that the OP and his/her OP make absolutely no sense to someone (such as my good self) who has not read ‘The Chocolate War’ nor heard of its author, R. Cormier. My interpretation of the OP’s OP was that he/she had a major objection to the discussion of homosexuality. Now whether or not Cormier had raised the issue seems to be another matter altogether according to the other posts. I’m so confuzzled it ain’t funny. So, in closing, what exactly are you whingeing about **fauxpas**? ---
**Author:** ![Gozu\_Tashoya](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/7993a0/32.png) [@Gozu\_Tashoya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gozu_Tashoya)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2003, 7:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-chocolate-war/170993/16 "2003-04-25T07:28:07Z")
Hey, at least all you got was detention. In some schools I’m sure you’d get locked in a boxing match that was fixed by the gang that rules the school and, as a school fundraiser, every student in the school would pay money to call a punch at your all but defenseless self, including a whole bunch of gratuitous nut shots. Kids today, so fucking soft (you know, in the head). ---
**Author:** ![Gozu\_Tashoya](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/7993a0/32.png) [@Gozu\_Tashoya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gozu_Tashoya)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2003, 7:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-chocolate-war/170993/17 "2003-04-25T07:32:35Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by kambuckta \* > \*\*My interpretation of the OP’s OP was that he/she had a major objection to the discussion of homosexuality. Now whether or not Cormier had raised the issue seems to be another matter altogether according to the other posts. I’m so confuzzled it ain’t funny. \*\* IIRC, there’s maybe 15 lines discussing homosexuality in the whole book, culminating in the conclusion that people get pissed off when you call them something that they’re not. (In this case, main character takes umbrage at being called gay - they call him a faggot, IIRC - because he’s straight.) Not a very profound point, and definitely not worth the amount of whining put forth by the OP. ---
**Author:** ![Odesio](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/odesio/32/20003_2.png) [@Odesio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Odesio)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2003, 7:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-chocolate-war/170993/18 "2003-04-25T07:41:03Z")
I saw the movie. Does that count? Marc ---
**Author:** ![Tomcat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Tomcat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tomcat)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2003, 8:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-chocolate-war/170993/19 "2003-04-25T08:04:35Z")
I’m with **MGibson** , I loved the movie. I don’t remember homosexuality being addressed at all though. So, could someone enlighten me on what the OP is bitching about? Does the author talk openly about homosexuality, and the OP is upset about it? As in “Homos are sick, we shouldn’t talk about them?” -Tcat ---
**Author:** ![Cerri](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/3bc359/32.png) [@Cerri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cerri)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2003, 8:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-chocolate-war/170993/20 "2003-04-25T08:08:37Z")
> [@](#): > > This can only end in tears … Euty! You made me almost shoot Diet Coke out my nose on that one!! _snickers_ [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-chocolate-war/170993.md?page=2)