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Warning: ‘The Old Man and the Sea’ Contains Fishing
Western Society has reached a level of absurdity beyond comprehension. A University in Scotland has put a warning label on Ernest Hemingway’s great short novel, The Old Man and the Sea. From the Daily Mail: “University warns woke students that Ernest Hemingway’s classic novel Old Man and the Sea contains graphic scenes… of FISHING”
It is a story of one man’s heroic struggle against the elements and often viewed as a metaphor for life itself. But Ernest Hemingway’s classic novel The Old Man And The Sea is the latest victim of today’s woke standards, with students warned that it contains ‘graphic fishing scenes’.
Successive TV and film adaptations of the 1952 classic have been awarded U and PG certificates, suitable for children, but a content warning has been issued to History and Literature students at the University of the Highlands and Islands in Scotland, an area renowned for its fishing industry.
Mary Dearborn, the author of Ernest Hemingway, A Biography, said: ‘This is nonsense. It blows my mind to think students might be encouraged to steer clear of the book.
Can I ask, what did you expect from a book titled The Old Man and the Sea? Second, what is wrong with fishing? More from the article:
Jeremy Black, emeritus professor of history at the University of Exeter, added: ‘This is particularly stupid given the dependency of the economy of the Highlands and Islands on industries such as fishing and farming.
‘Many great works of literature have included references to farming, fishing, whaling, or hunting. Is the university seriously suggesting all this literature is ringed with warnings?’
The content warning was revealed in documents obtained by The Mail on Sunday under Freedom of Information laws.
Do yourself a favor, and read Hemingway’s classic. It’s one of Hemingway’s best and led to him winning the Nobel Prize in Literature.
What’s next? Warnings on every book.
Let’s have some fun and create some potential warnings for some great books.
1984 by George Orwell: Warning: There’s a mean Big Brother.
Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky: Warning: A young man goes berserk.
Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy: Warning: Adultery suggested.
Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes: Warning: Climate denier attacks windmill.
Othello by William Shakespeare: Warning: Racist portrayal of mixed marriage.
Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë: Warning: Passionate affair transcends death.
The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger: Warning: Teenager in angst.
We have become a bunch of ninnies.
Published in Culture
The Perfect Storm contained scenes of sailors fighting mother nature.
Adventures of Huckleberry Finn contains racial slurs and the main character displays a lackadaisical attitude towards education.
Not we. They.
Moby Dick by Herman Melville: See warnings in course syllabus, pages 1-4.
There already is a warning for 1984. Such irony!
It’s actually okay though, because I’m for not mandating any of those books be read to be quite honest. I’d assign an edition of Orwell’s letters and essays though. I guess Moby Dick did turn out to be pretty good after being forced to go through it a few times. We typically just skip the whale parts section– not because its violent (I don’t even remember) but because the teacher said it was boring!
I want to contribute but I don’t even know what kids these days read in school. I’ll try!
The Iliad: Warning: Scenes of violence, may contain anti-Turkish sentiment, possible under age and nonconsensual relationships.
Edit:
Our intro to political theory professor did alert the class that Jefferson’s letters (we had to read) did contain some racism in them and they may be offended, at the same time, she also said they still had to read them. She then allowed the students a chance to say how they felt reading the racist passages. Take that for what you will.
And I am sure that if you go to school in Boston they need to warn you that Santiago is a Yankees fan.
No one tell them about The Sun Also Rises or Death in the Afternoon.
Let’s not forget Bambi. Those evil hunters killed his mom!
The Perfect Storm contains scenes of sailors in peril due to climate change.
That episode may have been the origin of trigger sensitivity.
That was actually pretty sad as a kid, no lie.
Warning: This book contains scenes of flatulence, incoherence and gross bodily functions.
The Old Man and the Holy See
I don’t know. The graphic fishing scenes in Moby-Dick sure do trigger my sleep impulse.
I got the only content warning you will ever need: “WARNING: This book may contain ideas”
I propose a new sub taxonomy of the virtue signal, that I would like to call the “compassion flex.” These ever-more ridiculous content warnings are a perfect example.
This is less about some purported individual who is offended by the idea of fishing and more about some mid-level administrator being able to brag: “Oh, look at meeee. I’m soooo caring and conscientious that –despite the fact of their statistical unlikelihood– I even worry about the tender sensibilities of theoretical individuals who are utterly discomfited by the very concept of fishing. ”
“Santiago comes back with nothing! There’s no meat on the bone. It’s Hemingway’s ego trying to defend itself again. Trying to prove he can still perform.”
Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury: Warning: You will suffer the curse of Cassandra.
The Little Engine That Could celebrates fossil fuel use and could be triggering.
But doesn’t the left just love trains? Especially Brandon? Could be a tough call!
Winner!!!
Thank you guys for the comments. And this had to be the fastest I ever had a post go to main feed. I’m surprised actually.
The Catcher in the Rye celebrates homophobia.
Oh. Well. Then nevermind.
LOL.
Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel is a deeply misogynistic work which celebrates a woman’s surrendering of a fulfilling career for a trapped, domestic existence as well as the conversion of the worker classes into positions of servitude.
Mayor Pete loved light rail. Not that he would actually travel that way.
It does actually. I wonder what the left thinks of it today.
Warning! The Bible contains scenes of rape, incest, murder, adultery, slavery, the killing of animals, disease, famine, theft, climate change , war, and negative stereotypes of Egyptians, Assyrians, Babylonians, Canaanites, and Philistines.
There’s a site. Think it’s called Does the Dog Die that has tags for possibly triggering scenes in movies. You got stuff like eye gouging, head crushing, rape. Then there are tags for child has a toy smashed, shots of rotten food. I can see how it could be helpful if you want to avoid certain content; I just find it funny to think about someone trying to avoid seeing a toy get crushed but not a head.
But the whale part sections are what makes the book great. Love how digressive the narrative is. Didn’t have to read it in school (only got around to it a couple years ago), but it would’ve been a nice lesson to know your book can just stop so the narrator can talk about the color white for a whole chapter.