Highland Park HS Keeps Genesis on Required Reading List Despite Smut

By Emily Mathis Tue., Nov. 18 2014 at 7:14 AM

Lot and his daughters. "Oh, man, I'm sho drunk right now I don't know whatsh going on."

Last week, Highland Park ISD released its updated high school reading list. The list provided titles required for in-class reading, optional outside reading and the passive aggressive list of "approved" but not taught in the classroom reading.

Students will have to get parental permission to read six books on the required and outside choice list: Oscar Wilde's The Picture of Dorian Gray, Jeanette Walls' The Glass Castle, Bram Stoker's Dracula, Garth Stein's The Art of Racing in the Rain, Aldous Huxley's Brave New World and David K. Shipler's Working Poor: Invisible in America.

HPISD Superintendent Dawson Orr will make the final decision on all English department books at the December 9 board meeting.

Let's hope that between now and then someone tips Orr to certain oversights in the list, which -- we're shocked to note -- includes the biblical book of Genesis as required reading for English IV classes, no permission slips required.

Seriously, Highland Park, have none of you heathens ever read Genesis?

Smut. Smut. Smut. It's nothing but smut.

What, you think it's all "let there be light" and apple theft? Oh, no, Genesis is a Hunter-esque chronicle of sex, drugs and rock and roll of the earliest monotheists, only with more incest and less rock and roll. It clearly could be a negative influence on impressionable Highland Park teens. You think The Picture of Dorian Gray is gritty enough to require parental approval? Listen, Oscar Wilde may have been as gay as a chorus line, but he was the soul of propriety compared with the heinous filth Highland Parks' callow youths will traipse through in Genesis:

Incest: We could start with Cain and Abel, who, as Mark Twain noted: "had some sisters; and knew what to do with them. And so there were some more results: Cain and Abel begot some nephews and nieces." But that's nothing compared with Lot and his daughters, who got Pops drunk and took turns having sex with him in order to get knocked up. This story, told in Genesis 19:30-36, is that Lot was soooo drunk he didn't know he was diddling his daughters, making this the earliest known instance of victim blaming in the history of sex crimes.
Sex with non-relatives: So much sex. Adam and Eve, Bilhah and Reuben, Abraham and Hagar, Abraham and Sarah, Abraham and Keturah, (Abe was a playah.) Judah and Shuah, Onan and his dead brother's wife (just the tip), Judah and his dead son's wife...
Birth control: Speaking of Onan ... well, let's not speak of Onan. Let's just say that when Dad tells you to impregnate your dead brother's wife (Tamar), the pull-out method is off the table, if you want to live.
Prostitution: Judah thinks his dead son's wife is a whore (again Tamar) and sleeps with her for the price of a young goat. Who knew Genesis was set in Alabama?
Booze: In typical SMU frat boy fashion, Noah gets drunk and passes out naked in his tent. His son Ham sees father naked and all his descendants are cursed by Noah, as if getting an eyeful of your drunk dad in all his glory isn't punishment enough.
Fratricide: Cain killed Abel in Genesis 4:8, and ~~Jacob~~ Joseph was very nearly killed by his brothers in Genesis 37:18-28.
Almost infanticide: In the words of Bob Dylan: "God said to Abraham, 'Kill me a son.' Abe said, 'Man, you must be puttin' me on.'" God wasn't. But at the same time he was.
Rape, sodomy and extremely bad parenting: In Genesis 19:3-8, Lot houses two angels as guests, and all the men in town riot his house because they want to have sex with them. Lot, who may have been a great host but is no one's idea of father of the year, had another idea: "My brothers, don't do such an evil thing. I've got two daughters who are virgins. Let me bring them out to you, and you may do to them whatever you wish." Which goes a long way toward explaining why his daughters were so effed up (see above).
Sex trafficking: Sarah gave her slave, Hagar, to Abraham to sleep with in Genesis 16:1-4. In Sarah's defense, she was probably worn out, because Abraham was a damn lumberjack.
Mass murder: Noah. Flood. Humanity. Got it?

The HPHS list reads like an awkward grab-bag compromise between Highland Park parents and the HPHS English department. Compromises in emotionally charged issues like whether high school students are ready to read The Picture of Dorian Gray can be good things ... unless they're dumb.

That's why we urge HPHS to rethink the use of Genesis in its English classes. Let's keep stuff like Genesis out of hands of impressionable English students and in the science classroom where it belongs.

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littledikkins

You forgot Genocide and Infanticide in Joshuah

riconnel8

Actually Adam had a wife prior to Eve...her name was Lilith.

skeeterskier1

I especially love how, in Genesis 18, god tells Adam he shouldn't be alone, and promises to "make" him a life-partner.

So...god makes all the animals (out of dirt), and parades them in front of Adam.

Adam goes about giving them all names, but ultimately tells god to head back to the drawing board - he didn't want to partner with a beast.

That's when god tears out a rib bone and whips up Eve.

Men...we were t-h-i-s-c-l-o-s-e to dating squirrels.

HPParent

I believe Dr. Orr's decision will be about changing the policy, not these book lists.

RTGolden1 topcommenter

Nicely done. (minor quibble: Joseph's brothers tried to kill him, Jacob ran off to mesopotamia to marry his cousins, a family tradition, apparently.)

mmm28

I was wondering how you (and Mark Twain) were getting incest from Cain and Abel, but Google tells me that the Torah indicates this. But if we're going strictly by the Bible and Genesis, Cain gets expelled after he murders his brother and ends up marrying someone from the land of Nod. Which means, gasp, other people besides Adam and Eve existed. I know this because I was required to teach Genesis to ninth-grade English students. It wasn't so bad, lots of cool literary stuff.

And another example of mass murder (and revenge killings) courtesy of Anita Diamant's wonderful The Red Tent -- when Jacob and sons go ballistic on the people of Shechem for Dinah.

Anyway...

fordamist

Did they decide anything about "Cleaned-Up Deuteronomy"?

(with thanks to Bertha Bumiller, Tuna, Texas)

Sotiredofitall topcommenter

What in the world makes you think they're going to read the Bible when the approved parts are being spoon-fed.

And old Oscar wrote one hell of a play based on the Bible.

TheCredibleHulk topcommenter

You can bet your bottom dollar that nearly every HP kid has unlimited access to cable and the internet. And if they don't have it at home, they certainly have access via their friends TVs and computers.

At least their pious parents can prove to the world that they tried. That's what really matters.

ozonelarryb topcommenter

Emily, add in the slavery bizniss, and the dietary restrictions. And. The West Wing- Bible Lesson: http://youtu.be/S1-ip47WYWc

ThePosterFormerlyKnownasPaul topcommenter

I am surprised that they left a story on the reading list about poor people.

But then again, I imagine that HPISD does have a required class in the proper use and application of noblesse oblige.

mavdog topcommenter

Great piece Emily! Well done.

NewsDog

But it can't be wrong... I's the word of Gaawwwd.

holmantx topcommenter

"Eroticism without spirituality becomes pornography" - Geeta Chandran, classical Indian dance exponent (former belly dancer) after a reported proposal by the British pop group Spice Girls to perform in front of a 1,000-year-old Hindu temple, known for its erotic sculptures, sparked outrage among Indian artists and conservationists. Geeta Chandran said the show should be stopped because it would undermine the sanctity of the temple in the central Indian town of Khajuraho. "The eroticism of Khajuraho is part of the larger Hindu view of the cyclicality of life. The Spice Girls' profile does not match that of the temple.”

Americanized version - Smut? I'll know it when I see it.

Montemalone topcommenter

If we're gonna have any future Oscar Wildes and Aldous Huxleys, these impressionable yutes are gonna need to know the facts of life, so sodomize away, young minds!

Sotiredofitall topcommenter

@riconnel8 "According to the Alphabet of Ben Sira, Lilith was Adam’s first wife but the couple fought all the time. They didn’t see eye-to-eye on matters of sex because Adam always wanted to be on top while Lilith also wanted a turn in the dominant sexual position. When they could not agree, Lilith decided to leave Adam."

Why didn't I get any of this good stuff in Sunday School?

kduble

@skeeterskier1 This would have lent new meaning to the term animal husbandry.

Sotiredofitall topcommenter

@skeeterskier1 "tears out a rib bone and whips up Eve" - and Adam made love to barbeque

PatrickWilliams moderator

@skeeterskier1 So what do you have against squirrels, you anti-squirrelist?

kduble

@RTGolden1 Marriage in the Near East, even to this day, remains a family affair. It's all about keeping money in the family. In fact, fertility treatment is a big thing in Iran. So many couples are so closely related they have difficulty conceiving.

PatrickWilliams moderator

@RTGolden1 Oops. Thanks for catching that. It's corrected up above now.

Montemalone topcommenter

@mmm28 How can there be other people if Adam was zapped into being then lost a rib to Eve? They popped out the first generation.

Otherwise, it's all lies...

NewsDog

@holmantx Smut? I'll know it when I see it. Invoking the spirit of the late US Supreme Court Justice Felix Frankfurter, I like it.

riconnel8

@Sotiredofitall You forgot the last part said about Lilith....

" She is Adam’s first wife, before Eve, who boldly leaves Eden because she is treated as man’s inferior."

Now that's interesting isn't it? And she was considered a devil ever after. That's even more interesting.

markzero

@Sotiredofitall @skeeterskier1 gives a whole new angle to the sauce(y) vs. rub debate.

skeeterskier1

@PatrickWilliams @skeeterskier1 Squirrels are a little too rough on the nuts for my taste.

rufuslevin

@kduble @RTGolden1 when they talk about getting stoned at a family reunion...it is the REAL THING

ThePosterFormerlyKnownasPaul topcommenter

@kduble @RTGolden1

Well, that explains a lot of things.

riconnel8

@kduble Interesting Kduble. Another thing I didn't know and future generation around the world will have to deal with.

Sharon248

@Montemalone @mmm28

BINGO!!!!!!!!

MickeyFree

@Montemalone @mmm28 MAJOR speculation on my part here, but Adam and Eve were the FIRST humans created - maybe not the only ones. Also, there were angels who were cast out of Heaven for aligning themselves with Lucifer. Perhaps some of those mated with Adam and Eve's children and produced a race of giants (i.e. Goliath). I'm a little rusty on Genesis.

I wasn't there, though, so I don't know.

mmm28

@Montemalone @mmm28 I know, I can't believe I dared to utter the words.

ozonelarryb topcommenter

Right room, wrong robe. Potter Stewart.

The issue here is not eye of the beholder per se, but selective ignorance.

rufuslevin

@riconnel8 she is planning to run for President in 2016 as a democrat, having been married to the devil's main homeboy all this time.

PatrickWilliams moderator

@skeeterskier1 @PatrickWilliams And it's skeeterskier1 for the win.

RTGolden1 topcommenter

@MickeyFree @Montemalone @mmm28 The book of Enoch describes just what you are talking about. Genesis only alludes to it. The fallen angels spawned with the daughters of men and out popped the Rephaim, Annakim (You're not my father!!), and other giants. The king of Og was supposedly the last of these giants. (then again, there was Goliath, as you mentioned).

It's really a great read if you keep in mind it was oral tradition of nomadic herders. There were lots of things they couldn't explain so we got stories from it. (like just about all early cultures)