ORDINARY PEOPLE

Democrats buy most of the books that have been banned somewhere. Republicans form censorship committees and read them as a group.

Ordinary People is Judith Guest's first novel. Published in 1976, it tells the story of a year in the life of the Jarretts, an affluent suburban family trying to cope with the aftermath of two traumatic events.

Although it won critical praise and awards upon its release, it is best remembered today as the basis for the 1980 film version, which won several Academy Awards including Best Picture. It is also assigned in many American secondary school English classes.

The novel begins as life is seemingly returning to normal for the Jarretts of Lake Forest, Illinois, in September 1975. It is slightly more than a year since their eldest son "Buck" was killed when a sudden storm came up while he and their other son Conrad were sailing on Lake Michigan. Six months later, a severely depressed Conrad attempted suicide by slashing his wrists with a razor in the bathroom. His parents committed him to a psychiatric hospital from which he has only recently returned after eight months of treatment. He is attending school and trying to resume his life, but knows he still has unresolved issues, particularly with his mother, Beth, who has never really recovered from Buck's death and keeps an almost maniacally perfect household and family.

His father Calvin, a successful tax attorney, gently leans on him to make appointments to see a local psychiatrist, Dr. Tyrone Berger. Initially resistant, he slowly starts to respond to Dr. Berger and comes to terms with the root cause of his depression ... his identity crisis and survivor's guilt over having survived when Buck did not. Also helping is a relationship with a new girlfriend, Jeannine Pratt.

Calvin, too, sees Dr. Berger as the events of the recent past have caused him to begin to doubt many things he once took for granted, leading to a midlife crisis. This leads to strain in his marriage as he finds Beth increasingly cold and distant, while she in turn believes he is overly concerned about Conrad to the point of being manipulated. Finally the friction becomes enough that Beth decides to leave him at the novel's climax. Father and son, however, have closed the gap between them.

Guest began Ordinary People as a short story, but found herself writing more and more as she explored the characters in greater depth, wanting to know more about their backgrounds. "Before I knew it," she says "I was 200 pages in". It took her three years to write, after she gave up her teaching job and decided to concentrate on actually finishing a novel.

It became focused on the psychology of the characters, particularly Conrad.

I wanted to explore the anatomy of depression — how it works and why it happens to people; how you can go from being down but able to handle it, to being so down that you don’t even want to handle it, and then taking a radical step with your life — trying to commit suicide — and failing at that, coming back to the world and having to "act normal" when, in fact, you have been forever changed.

Legacy

In the wake of the film version, the novel has been assigned in many American high school (and sometimes middle school) English classes due its young-adult protagonist. This has led to some challenges to its inclusion on reading lists and curricula due to not only the subject matter but a short scene near the end of the novel where Conrad and Jeannine make love. The American Library Association ranked it 59th on its list of the hundred most frequently challenged books in school libraries during the 1990s.

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LEGACY is the part that really got me fired up!

Books, any source of information, should never be censored in my opinion. Even literature full of profanity, or those inciting hate and violence.

As we do not live in a world that's benign; withholding knowledge helps no one to avoid harm.  It makes one more likely a target, an unprepared defenseless easily overwhelmed victim of prejudice and ignorance at the hand of others, if not overwhelmed by their own.

Every action performed (or inaction), every word uttered (or unspoken) has a connection to a deeper meaning; have consequences.

Which one would most likely be successful,

a) one who looks and acts politically correct in public; at work

or

b) one who does not,

if one aspires to become a murderer? a serial killer?

Who is more likely to be a victim of a mass killing,

a) someone who intervened/spoke up for someone during a taunting

or

b) someone who witnessed/did not get involved/maybe not even there,

at the time someone was being discriminated against?

It irritates me when I hear, "too much information," as one puts their hands up and walks off, when I mention something about myself. Or the indignation, "don't go there," if critical observation about them.

I'm grateful to have had parents that did not restrict access to information. Being hearing impaired, was already isolated to some degree. Had I not books to fall back on, I would have been more confused, unsure of what to do; would have felt even more alone. It may have been what kept me alive.

I was aware of homosexuality before I realized I was one. Although I do not remember ever feeling so helpless as to consider suicide, I can understand why one might. Aware of how my family might react, it helped being aware my problems were not unique to me; that I was not alone.

"You have a girlfriend....yet?"

(relatives)

"What's wrong with you boy!"

(having admitted to some college buddies that I've yet to have sex)

"If you wake up in the morning and find me dead, would you feel guilty?"

(on coming out to my mother)

"....I scrubbed the shower out, afraid your brother might catch something."

(in the letter I received 3 days later after leaving the following morning back to LSU)

"I can handle you dead easier than I can handle you gay!"

(my mom 2 year later)

"Is it wrong that I don't want my son to be gay?"
(my mother 25 years later)

"I hope you haven't been coming home to visit because of us."
(my sister on officially coming out to her after giving up on mother/senseless at 48 years of age, feeling I had to jump from behind bush to bush around my own family/felt it important she knew before I became completely dysfunctional)

"Can you imagine the relief I felt on hearing Dad just died?  After making arrangements to fly home, I actually went out dancing that night!"
(my response to my sister's reaction)

"We (her family) knew you where gay.  We just want you to be happy.  Mother doesn't need to know."
(my sister wrapping up my coming out)

"THANK GOD FOR THE LIBERAL MEDIA!" 

(unless maybe I should have committed suicide?  wish the anal retentive conservatives would make up their "GOD DAMN FUCKING" minds!)

Factors that increase the risk of suicide among teens include:

•a psychological disorder, especially depression, bipolar disorder, and alcohol and drug use (in fact, approximately 95% of people who die by suicide have a psychological disorder at the time of death)

•feelings of distress, irritability, or agitation

•feelings of hopelessness and worthlessness that often accompany depression (a teen, for example, who experiences repeated failures at school, who is overwhelmed by violence at home, or who is isolated from peers is likely to experience such feelings)

•a previous suicide attempt

•a family history of depression or suicide (depressive illnesses may have a genetic component, so some teens may be predisposed to suffer major depression)

•physical or sexual abuse

•lack of a support network, poor relationships with parents or peers, and feelings of social isolation

•dealing with homosexuality in an unsupportive family or community or hostile school environment

Everyone has a threshold. Would be foolish to think not. To take all the credit for not having crossed it. To believe not responsible for someone who has.