Duel, Duel, Purple, "Duel"

   Two things I wish to say, there are. The first is an agreement and response to some of the blogs below. The second is a pondering from Duel.

 The point has been made that children don't always understand what they are seeing. The question is whether this should be taken into consideration. My brother saw Star Wars before I did because I was eight and he was only a few months old. Does he remember this? He might tell you he does, but he doesn't.  Did it affect him in any way? Nope. Very young children, if they are conscious of the screen, may begin to develop a certain feeling toward an image or a sound, be it fear or joy. I would argue they are generally immune.
   When old enough to see upright and actually pay attention, things change a little. When I was about six, we were watching The Princess Bride, which contains the greatest sword-fight in cinema. I liked it. My mother did not. She turned it off. Why? There was a bad word in it. Where? What was this word? She didn't say. I watched that movie three or four times before she pointed it out. I had never noticed.

   Without getting into too deep a story about my childhood, it has been my experience that young children do not notice something until it is pointed out to them. When it is, tone makes all the difference. Kids, including myself, had no inkling anything was "wrong" with Tinky Winky. I saw "him" as a sexless being, a thing in the television with no notable life or agenda. Just a cool slide. Imagine trying to explain homosexuality and sanctity of sex and sin and God and innuendo to a two-year-old without totally freaking her out about the color purple for the rest of her life.
   I am not saying none of this matters, or that it isn't in media. I am just wondering if we should tone down our responses a bit.

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   (This will be shorter, I promise.) I noticed in Duel one book that the kid read of his own choice was a Jules Verne novel (I didn't catch which one). Why was it destroyed? What about Verne was not appreciated by the education committee? Those books are full of science, adventure, wonder and joy of life. Was it simply because it was fiction? Was there something wrong with the content? Are novels no longer appreciated in school? Is there something about Verne I don't know? If anyone has an answer, please tell me. I am terribly curious.

Also from experience; kids don't need to be taught to
point bright things in their faces. That's natural.