Why is the Child Called It Peoples Favorite?

Question

give me examples of why it is peoples favorite

Answer 1

Essentially people are fond of reading about "People Who Triumph Over Adversity", and the author's adversity was particularly severe, not just in terms of parental abuse, but in terms of having a mother who *actively* tried to kill him dead. (by suffocation, starvation, and chemically burning his lungs)

Also...one thing to consider is that the "Triumph" in this case played out in a way that many folks can deem socially acceptable. When the author "won", he won completely....to the point of having the job, the wife and kids, the suburban, middle-class lifestyle, and the works. He even talks briefly about how conservative his politics are....

So for a lot of folks this represents an *ideal* or best-case scenario, or a perfect exemplar that can be point to and shown to other people: "This is your Official Role Model."

Trouble with that is, at that point the tale stops being so real and instructive. At that point it really starts to ignore and even denigrate the *fact* that *millions* of teenagers and young adults (and even some not-so-young adults) who survive severe childhood abuse really *don't* make it out so well. Many of us survivors end up with rather *persistent* emotional problems, along the lines of depression and *chronic* post-traumatic stress issues (hyper-vigilance, dissociation, and depersonalization mainly). Many of us end up *not* being able to cope with the *power-centered* nature of the work place, and the *Highly* demanding nature of the things you have to do to *earn your own keep* in society.

So....many of the reasons why "A Child Called 'IT' " and its sequels are so popular are the same reasons why it fails to enlighten people. It's *too good* a story, hews *too strongly* to the Mythology of Overcoming All Obstacles (and never paying any price for it).

Because the real truth is, *most of us* abuse survivors *Do* in fact pay a severe price, *twice*, for what we've been through. We have the emotional *scar tissue*--the depression and other mood disorders--and then we have to deal with a society *so* competitive and cutthroat and seemingly *driven by abuse itself* that we end up needing medications and therapies that your HMOs and employers *frown on* and don't approve of and *refuse to* pay for.

Society ends up giving us such a raw deal that we need psychotropic drugging just to *get by*, and then we get shut out of the workplace rather deliberately for needing the medications. So it's not just the mood disorders, it's the *reputation* those disorders have among the Rich and Ignorant that these disorders somehow aren't "legitimate" compared to diabetes or heart failure. Never mind that the science proves otherwise *over and over again*. Nah, they're employers and HMOs, they can't be bothered to be *confused* with facts.

But I digress. Point is, the *reality* of surviving abuse for most of us is *way Way* more complicated and conflicted than just a mere Overcoming All Obstacles.

And for some reason, other people on the outside looking in *like* their Fairy Tales simple and ignorant like that. They'd rather hear a Just So story than anything that reflects reality.

It's sad really, but there it is. People are addicted to Occam's Razor, to things that are stingy and parsimonious on issues that are really more complicated *in their results* than they seem from the Just So stories.

Thanks for your time.