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8SECTION 4
Letters to the Editors
Dear Editors,
'To read or not to read?' - that is a question. While there is almost no hesitating among teachers concerning the fact that David Lodge's "Nice Work" is worth of and should be discussed in class, there are still certain doubts about students' reaction to the erotic scenes and the occasional use of vulgarisms in the novel. Are they going to detest it because of the gross language? Are they grown-up enough to read about such "adult" things? Are they going to behave themselves while discussing these episodes?.. All these questions and many others are running in a teacher’s mind that is willing to take "Nice Work" for class discussion.
I would like to shed some light on the problem from a student's point of view. It seems to me, dear "Dons", that you are a bit overreacting. Is this book really so indecent and obscene? Open other books of contemporary writers, have a look at the illustrations in newspapers and glossy magazines, switch on your TV-sets and radios, listen to the hits of modem singers, and Lodge's novel will seem a child's play to you. I mean, come on, we are living in the 21-st century and it is already impossible to pretend that sex does not exist and to live in blissful ignorance of the words connected with it. There is an opinion that intimate scenes should be discussed, but without resorting to the vulgar words used by D. Lodge, thus substituting them with more decent ones or skipping the details altogether. However, I believe that we should call a spade a spade, and, being a student of Linguistics University, it perplexes me that I am to have such words as " surface-to-surface missile" under my belt, but at the same time I am unaware of proper names for particular parts of my body. I find it inconceivable to fully appreciate Lodge's style, his acute jokes and to understand his characters' behaviour and inside world, if a teacher introduces "censorship " to the novel, thus cutting numerous extracts of his work. One should not close their eyes to such episodes, but see some aesthetic value and beauty in these moments of a person's life.
Many teachers give up the idea of taking the novel for class discussion in apprehension of the fact that the whole seminars may be disrupted by some ill-behaved students. There are always some troublemakers in class that are eager to amuse their groupmates or challenge a teacher with boorish questions. But I am convinced that such situation will never occur if a teacher poses the "taboo" issue himself and is the first to point to the correspondent vocabulary. Up-to-dateness and the nerve to discuss everything with their charges, without any secrets, evoke respect and gain prestige in the eyes of the students. It should be explained that there is nothing funny about such words, but they indeed can acquire a funny meaning when used in an unsuitable context. Truly hilarious are the awkward situations in which our students find themselves while in the USA during their summer holidays. Due to their ignorance of a proper spelling, pronunciation or a second meaning of certain ambiguous words in the English language they fall prey to the mockery and sneer of native speakers.
I also see another argument in favour of touching upon "inappropriate for seminar discussion" topics. There is a great educational role imposed on such literature. As many parents, due to their timidity or other reasons, are reluctant to talk about this kind of things, there is the only hope for the educational system "to enlighten" the youth. Maybe, if adolescents talked about sex life with a mature grown-up in classrooms rather than in yards over a bottle of beer with their mates, there would be fewer teenage pregnancies, fewer abortions and fewer cases of sexually transmitted diseases. To my delight our teacher in spite of all the debates over the novel has cast all her doubts away and has chosen it for discussion on our seminars. I take a great pleasure in reading the book and admire Lodge’s style and language. We are allowed to say whatever we think and to talk about whatever we want. There are no "taboo" topics and no rules concerning its language. Still, no one goes over the line: when there are no rules, there is no desire to break them.
Alesya Kirillova, 4thyear student, Minsk State Linguistic University • »
