If anyone cares, I'm under the impression 'contextualise' is a transitive verb.
The reason I am focusing on this word, this verb (likely transitive at that), is because I wish to High Heaven people would FUCKING LEARN TO DO IT!
Lately, I am reading asinine actions taken by triggered snowflakes. I am not keen on using what is becoming a rather hackneyed phrase du jour, but the problem is: the idiots are EVERYWHERE!
More snowflakes than a blizzard, and I would welcome a snowflake of the atmospheric type because it's in the low thirties here, and I'm cooking like a chook in a rotisserie. Anyway, I was doing a bit of online scrolling, and saw an article stating a learning institution in Minnesota is to drop two texts from their syllabus, those texts being amongst the pinnacle of modern American literature, those texts being: (1) To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, and (2) Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain.
Those of you familiar with these books will know a core element common to both is racism in the societies in which the stories are set. The racism is directed at African Americans, and given the settings of these works - being 1930s Alabama in the first instance, and 1840s Mississippi in the latter - a certain offensive word is used. Frequently. In the interests of prudence, I am going to call it the 'N-word'. The authors of the works have characters use this word. Given the settings of the novels, this is realistic. Indeed, a major character in Huckleberry Finn is known as N****r Jim. Now, all you (sigh) Triggered Snowflakes, this is where you have to apply contextualisation. Look at the definition at the top of this post and read it again. Slowly. Or have someone read and explain it to you.
If you dorks administering the syllabus stopped to think, and you pussy-arsed sooks complaining about the word also stopped to think, you'd realise these books have some great lessons to teach us. From To Kill a Mockingbird we learn: respect, importance of protecting the innocent, equality, and moral stance. From Huckleberry Finn we learn: the value of friendship, to question some societal rules that just don't seem quite right, ownership of another person is wrong, and to do what you know in your heart is right.
All students are going to learn these days is how to be a snivelling, diaper-soiled, whining, bubble-wrapped little turd with no moral compass or any idea on how to consult his or conscience. When the heat is on, those snowflakes are going to melt! (Like that analogy? I just thought of it whilst I was typing).
Similarly, there is a school in Western Australia seeking to remove, among other works, Romeo and Juliet from the syllabus. It's a bit racy and the lingo a bit raunchy for the teens studying it, you see. You know something? When you contextualise (my, I'm loving that word today), maybe there is a bit of sauce in the Bard's tragedy of the two star-crossed lovers. Is it Juliet's nurse who leers, 'By my maidenhead?' Or is that in another work? But Sweet Jesus jumping up and down on a pogo stick fitted with an outboard motor, this is getting beyond a joke! Some groan that Shakespeare wrote mainly in seventeenth century so where's the relevance? Okay, sit back; I'm about to tell you. Shakespeare's themes are timeless and easily identified with. Shakespeare's works have given us some remarkable phrases and sayings (such as 'green-eyed monster') still used in day-to-day speech. Shakespeare's plots are great. Shakespeare is a great study of human frailty and nature. And let's face it, if you want to learn to speak in iambic pentameter, than there's probably no better place to turn than the works of Ol' Will. Okay?
Must be on my way now. Thanks for reading.
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