"Go the F*** to Sleep," as it's called most everywhere, is a parody book. It's written and illustrated in the style of a traditional children's book, the kind a parent might read to a child at bedtime, but it is definitely not for children. The book tweaks the notion of perfect little angels and gives parents an opportunity to vent-laugh at the frustrations of the job of parenting.
Dina Santorelli, contributing writer on money.cnn.com said:
"'Go the F to Sleep' is actually a book for adults that deals with the age-old problem of trying to get children to go to sleep.
'It was very evident to me that the book was addressing with humor what is perhaps the core psychological hurdle of parenthood in the early years,' said Temple, whose own children are ages 3 and 5. 'Lack of sleep breaks up marriages.'"
But not everyone finds it funny or helpful.
Karen Spears Zacharias, CNN.com contributor and author of the forthcoming memoir, "The Shelter of Mockingbirds: The Murder of 3-Year-Old Karly Sheehan" said:
"'Go the F*** to Sleep'" is being hailed as a cathartic children's book for parents. Beautifully illustrated and written in the same witty prose style as generations of beloved bedtime storybooks, this read has made a startling climb to the No. 1 spot on Amazon and as a New York Times Bestseller.
Who can explain it?
As the title suggests, 'Go the F*** to Sleep' mocks the parental frustrations of trying to lay a child down to bed. Crass in concept and execution, this is an expletive-filled bedtime story intended solely for the amusement of parents.
Joan Demarest is an attorney in Corvallis, Oregon, and the mother of three young boys. Demarest told me that initially she thought the book was funny. That was before she read it. 'Now I find it unsettling. I don't like violent language in association with children.'
Still, there's no denying the reason 'Go the F*** to Sleep' should be kept out of reach of children is because of its violent language and because of the way it demeans children.
'Imagine if this were written about Jews, blacks, Muslims or Latinos,' says Dr. David Arredondo. He is an expert on child development and founder of The Children's Program, in the San Francisco metropolitan area, which provides consultation and training for those working with troubled youths.
It is hard to imagine this kind of humor being tolerated by any of the marginalized groups Arredondo cited.
Author Adam Mansbach is undoubtedly the kind of father who heaps love, affection and attention upon his daughter. (He reportedly had the idea to write the book because of his exasperation with her at bedtime.) But sadly, his book accurately portrays the hostile environment in which too many children grow up.
For far too many kids, the obscenities found in Mansbach's book are a common, everyday household language. Swearing is how parents across the social, educational and economic strata express their disappointments or anxieties, their frustrations and outright anger at their children. Sometimes the biggest bully in the neighborhood lives in the same house you do. Sometimes it's your parent.
Perhaps the reason Mansbach's book resonates isn't so much because of the humor, but because of the truth behind it.
The violent language of 'Go the F*** to Sleep' is not the least bit funny, when one considers how many neglected children fall asleep each night praying for a parent who'd care enough to hold them, nurture them and read to them."
Katie Roiphe on Slate.com said:
"Is the nice, liberal father who has just this Saturday carted his kids to soccer practice, play dates, piano lessons, made sunflower-butter sandwiches, and read Goodnight Moon three times seething with quiet desperation?"
The idea of saying 'shut the fuck up' to a 3-year-old is hilarious and enthralling only if you are channeling an awful lot of that 'hot crimson rage.'
In Jokes and Their Relation to the Unconscious, Freud writes about the 'hostile purpose' of jokes. He argues that jokes are liberating and give us pleasure when they articulate the anger we are not allowed to express in everyday life. Here of course, that anger or hostility is aimed at children, at big-eyed toddlers padding around in their strawberry pajamas, and that is what is both exhilarating and disturbing about the book. There is a nastiness in Go the F**k to Sleep, an undercurrent of resentment that is comic, or 'cathartic,' as another Amazon reviewer put it, only to parents who are pretty radically subjugating themselves to a certain kind of kid-centered drabness, and judging from the book's runaway success, that would be a lot of parents."
Mary Elizabeth Williams on Salon.com said:
"What's more absurdly hilarious than an ersatz bedtime story called "Go the F**k to Sleep"? Funnier even than Werner Herzog or Samuel L. Jackson reading it? Answer: The uproariously hyperbolic opinion piece that ran Monday on CNN – CNN! -- by author Karen Spears Zacharias, who claims, "The violent language of 'Go the F*** to Sleep' is not the least bit funny, when one considers how many neglected children fall asleep each night praying for a parent who'd care enough to hold them, nurture them and read to them." Wah wah waaaaaaah.
Zacharias, whose comedic credentials include a blurb from Jeff Foxworthy, has drummed up a world of disagreement; her story has received over 2,000 comments in just one day since her bizarre Op-Ed appeared. The more restrained can be summed up by the reader who noted 'Humor helps people deal with stress' and the person who suggested, 'This lady is out of her mind.'
Mansbach's humor is about the tyrannical boss -- the boss, in this instance, being the baby. And if you're a parent, you damn well know who wears the poop-loaded, spit-up-stained pants in your torturously sleep-deprived relationship."
Dina Santorelli, contributing writer on money.cnn.com said:
"The book, written by Adam Mansbach and illustrated by Ricardo Cortés, originally was slated for a fall release. Then the PDF version of the book hit the Internet and went viral. As a result, Akashic is moving up its release date, for both the print book and ebook, to June 14. The film rights already have been sold to Fox 2000."
Samuel L. Jackson reading "Go the Fuck to Sleep" available on Youtube:
Is the book funny? Appropriate? Inappropriate? A useful vent? Encouraging or making light of potentially abusive attitudes and behaviors? An example of a kind of ageist bigotry? Is the controversy a tempest in a teacup or a spotlight on a serious and insidious problem? Yuppie whining or just parenting reality? And...film rights?
Links:
http://money.cnn.com/2011/06/08/smallbusiness/akashic_go_the_f_to_sleep/index.htm
http://www.cnn.com/2011/OPINION/06/27/zacharias.kid.book/
http://www.salon.com/entertainment/tv/feature/2011/06/28/go_the_f_to_sleep_tracy_morgan_updates/
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/jun/24/go-the-fuck-to-sleep-parenting-childrens-book
http://www.slate.com/id/2297399/
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