(no subject)

[d_aulnoy]

I remain irritated by Kincaid, but it's a useful kind of an irritation:while I may have scattered the margins with commentary like "ARE YOU KIDDING ME!?!?!" (in response to a paragraph in which he addresses the murder of Polly Klaas, only to end with the thought that, "even worse," it resulted in the heightening of attention for 3-strikes legislation), I think his fundamental question of why we as a society apply a frighteningly prurient interest to crimes against children, focusing primarily upon the crimes with a sexual component, is an interesting one.  I think he's dismissive, but I'm reading from the perspective of someone who's known a lot of survivors: I get the feeling that, like Kate Roiphe, Kincaid views the situation from an abstract perspective; it gives him the distance to ask interesting questions, but that same distance skews his answers.

Well, next up is Annoying the Victorians: certainly, I'll be approaching it from a position of empathy.