Epic Fail.

Dear Ruth Franklin and The New Republic, 

I would first like to take this opportunity to say that i thoroughly enjoy reading your editorials. Your writing has been a part of a large chunk of my AP Language & Composition grade this semester. I've read your takes on everything from the Holocaust to Jersey Shore and have found that we have the same opinion on everything. You are an excellent voice for young women.
After reading THE READ: Washed Up, I was told to shape an argument on your thoughts and feelings in the article via outline. The article was hard hitting, blunt, and hilarious. It's about time that writers speak up about how absurd television is getting. I was wondering: Have you written anything similar to Washed Up? (http://www.tnr.com/article/books-and-arts/78178/jersey-shore-snooki-novel-disaster)

I must admit, I felt pretty awkward e-mailing a professional not only because it comes off as creepy and stalkerish, but also because it was an assignment rather than a choice. Still I was a little excited to get a reply. So when I heard "you've got mail!" I bolted back to my inbox only to find this:

"Out of Office AutoReply
Dear Sir/Madam:

Thank you for your letter/submission to The New Republic. We read through each email and value your participation and time, although we do not respond to every query. Letters will be published according to interest and may be edited for space and clarity.  The number of submissions we commission from outside writers is necessarily small, and there is often duplication of a topic already treated in our pages or in preparation by one of our staff writers. For these reasons we must often decline an article idea in spite of its innate quality.  We do promptly contact any writer whose submission is accepted.
Thank you, again, for your interest in The New Republic.
Sincerely,
The Editors"

Rejected. From this experience I learned that Ruth and the rest of the editors are quite used to creeps like me. Yes, I was pretty mad because I didn't know how to make a riveting blog post based off of an automatic response; however, this experience relates back to the article THE READ: Washed Up. Franklin's whole argument is that the tanning buffoons are not intelligent enough to deserve their status. In my opinion however, Ruth Franklin, an Ivy League Graduate and reputable writer does deserve the right to be selective over which emails she reads. In this scenario, I'm the Snookie. I'm sure Ms. Franklin is also getting emails from politicians and highly educated personnel, and they're clearly ranked higher than me on a successful editors to do list. Maybe someday, after getting an awe worthy education and not starring on a ludacris reality show,  Ruth will find me worthy of a real, heartfelt reply.

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH!

Dear Melissa, Thanks for your message. I'm glad to hear you've been finding my writing useful in your classes! You're actually not the first high school student to respond this way to my piece on "Jersey Shore." I haven't written anything else quite as pop-culture-oriented, but I did publish a column about the HBO show "Treme" last spring. It should turn up if you search at the TNR site. I hope you'll continue reading the magazine! All best, Ruth Franklin

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

There's hope in the world! Well I would right something different to tie in the advice she gave me with the article or something, but I'm just going to analyze the broad fact that I received a reply. My pity party self (as seen in the paragraph above my freak out) never would've expected this. My subconscious tells me that people with any social status are above and therefore don't have to talk to me, or even acknowledge my presence, but Ruth did. A very educated and established woman took time to show that she appreciated my work. I think that's what separates celebrities from TV from famous writers: writers, who have the education that I'm striving to gain, fully understand how difficult putting your thoughts on paper is and they applaud any attempt, even from a sixteen year old. It feels amazing to get a reply back. Snookie couldn't make me feel this good.

IT'S T-SHIRT TIME!

Upon hearing that Snooki, one of the stars on Jersey Shore, is writing a novel, Ruth Franklin wrote this piece on October 6, 2010 about the Guidos and Guidettes on Jersey Shore.
http://www.tnr.com/article/books-and-arts/78178/jersey-shore-snooki-novel-disaster


CLAIM
 "As The New Yorker's Nancy Franklin put it none too gently in her review of the series, our interest in the characters—who are "energetic but essentially aimless, oblivious of their own deficits, and delusional about their attractiveness and their importance in the world"—depends not on "our ability to identify with them but on our ability to distinguish ourselves from them." To be successful, Franklin notes, the show has to "make us feel as though we are anthropologists secretly observing a new tribe through a break in the trees."


CONCESSION
"But the anthropologist analogy breaks down with the knowledge that there is nothing secret about our observations: The members of this tribe are well-aware that they are performing for an audience of millions, and it’s their lack of shame that makes the show so riveting."


1. "Shamelessness, in some ways, is a good quality for a writer to have; but, by any other measure, the “Jersey Shore” housemates fall wildly short."
-"For nearly two seasons (the second is scheduled to end in a couple of weeks), I’m not sure any of the cast has been spotted reading so much as a tabloid magazine. And yet, the series has already spawned three book deals: a dating-advice book co-authored by Ronnie and Jenni (who claims that, after she has sex, she likes to “bite [men’s] heads off”), a lifestyle guide by Mike “The Situation” Sorrentino, and now Snooki’s novel."
-"On the very first episode, Snooki got drunk, took off her clothes in the hot tub, and came on indiscriminately to all four of her male housemates; the next morning, her vomiting was audible through the bathroom door. She later apologized for her behavior, telling her housemates she was worried they might have gotten “a wrong impression” of her."


2. "In theory, it’s an interesting exercise: As any viewer of the series knows, the characters on “Jersey Shore” speak a kind of coded lingo that manages to be at once almost sub-literate and yet highly creative."


3.  "These characters aren’t real people; their personas are crafted by a show’s editors and producers, who wade through hundreds of hours of mundanity to extract a single snappy line or sassy eye-roll."








As much as I love watching unnaturally tan people fist pump and create a new language, I agree that they are in no way deserving of the title of author. I like watching dolphins at the zoo, but that doesn't mean I'll offer them money to write a novel. TV stars are running the world more than they know. These days, it's more likely that people will listen to the words of Tom Cruise or Lady Gaga or even Oprah over President Obama's speeches. Just recently with the controversey of  the Don't Ask Don't Tell policy none of my teenage channels (MTV, VH1, etc) never broadcasteda government officials take on the policy, but Lady Gaga was heard. It is also believed amongst many people that Barack Obama was elected not because of his ideas, but because Oprah Winfrey supported  him.

Is Ignorance Always Bliss?

It's a mind boggling debate: do we tell our children the horrific truth of the Holocaust, or sugar coat it until they're older? There's just no simple way to confront the issue so most parents simply don't bring it up. Unfortunately, the day for Ruth Franklin came while she was writing A Thousand Darknesses: Truth and Lies in Holocaust Fiction. Instead of giving facts straight from her book she did what most of the human population would do: googled Holocaust books for kids, and thus the article was born.

 

I'd like to start off by saying the genre "children's Holocaust books" is an extreme paradox. Children, like the precious little girl on the side, equal naiive and innocent  and the Hollocaust..well..... doesn't. A child couldn't very easily make a transition from Sam I am not liking green eggs and ham to the death of approximately 11 million people in the pursuit of creating a perfect race. Why should kids try to understand it when I, a highschool junior, can't even comprehend how exterminating whole religion and races could ever seem ethical? What happened to sheltering our children from all the monsters under the bed or in the closet? Innocence is a precious thing, but ignorance isn't. Ruth Franklin and I both agree that we must ride that fine line. Talk about the Holocaust when asked about it, but avoid the manslaughter subject. Of course, a parents response to, "Mommy, did Hitler kill people?" shouldn't be "No sweetie, he was a gentleman", BUT it also wouldn't be a good idea to say, "Well yes, but only because he was trying to create a perfect world where all brown hair brown eyed people were burned, gased, slaughtered, or worked to death". Let's imagine how horrific that would be for the little brown hair brown eyed toddler..... That's what I thought.

Warning!

 I'm getting sidetracked: STORY TIME! I grew up on a court two houses down from quite possibly the most bitter couple I've ever met. I grew up getting yelled at in German for running through their yard during flashlight tag, and leaving any balls that went too far in their yard and never seeing them ever again. It was a no trespassing zone for fifteen years of my life, and no one would tell me why. As all the kids in my court got older the hatred faded on both sides, and the psychos began to show their faces until one day they came all the way out to the court and told us their story: Dell, the husband, was a liberating officer in World War II, and Nina, the wife, was a captive jew( however, we always called them nazis, irony? Yes,  and I feel terrible about it now). Anyway, Dell took Nina and got permission to leave early and marry her. It's movie material, I know.

What's my point? That story would've meant absolutely nothing to me when I was growing up. I still would've thought they were psychopaths and she was scared of the sun. But because they waited to tell me, I now understand that she's super cautious because of her past and he's protective for the same reason. There's no point in teaching a kid calculus before they've master 1+1, and the Holocaust goes along the same guidelines. Don't rush it. It's an important part of the world's history, and all children will learn about it, but there's no point in teaching about it early because they won't fully comprehend. I mean, I still don't.

DON'T READ THIS IF YOU THINK THE HOLOCAUST DIDN'T HAPPEN. Actually, do read this. That is just flat out dumb. The whole "oh it was all in studio, like a movie idea" concept: dumb. That's a terrible movie idea! Like I said: ignorance isn't precious. The worst thing you can do is tell your children it didn't happen.

Remember the Holocaust

"We in the United States should be all the more thankful for the freedom and religious tolerance we enjoy. And we should always remember the lessons learned from the Holocaust, in hopes we stay vigilant against such inhumanity now and in the future. "
-Charlie Dent
Like what you read? Wanna see a professional's opinion? Check out Ruth Franklin!

http://www.tnr.com/article/books-and-arts/79217/teaching-childrens-books-holocaust

Ruth Franklin

"Sure God created man before woman. But then you always make a rough draft before the final masterpiece."
~Author Unknown

Ruth Franklin is a senior editor for The New Republic. She has been working for the magazine since 1999 and became a literary editor in 2001. Being a Boston native, Ruth's writing is loud and in your face. Franklin is all about girl power, and she makes it known in her articles. She also titles many of her writings beginning with "THE read". Most of these articles encourage the reader to explore a certain book so that they can form their own opnion or understand hers. Not only is she an editor, but she is also the author of Women and Chairs and A Thousand Darknesses: Lies and Truth in Holocaust Fiction. Needless to say, her pen is the sword that will attempt to take down the sexist pigs of the world along with closedmindedness.

 

Ruth isn't just a stereotyped woman that just complains about how bad women have it because of a plethora of hormones and estrogen. Oh, no. She's legit. she earned a bachelor of arts in English from Columbia University in 1995 and a master of arts in comparative literature from Harvard University in 1998. She has also been featured in The New York Times Book Review, the New Yorker, Slate, The Washington Post Book World, The London Review of Books, and other publications.