Are you strong enough now for a truly big fish?
— Ernest Hemingway
Braveheart, move over.
Kids in Scotland today are Chickenhearts.
Or so a Scottish university thinks.
The University of the Highlands has slapped an ominous "trigger warning" on Ernest Hemingway's Pulitzer Prize-winning The Old Man and the Sea:
Warning: Contains Graphic Scenes
History and Literature students at the school are now on official notice that Hemingway's novel contains "graphic fishing scenes."
The university said trigger warnings allow students to make "informed choices."
One Hemingway biographer told The Daily Mail, "It blows my mind to think students might be encouraged to steer clear of the book."
A British history professor told the newspaper that all great literature depicts inherently violent pursuits.
"Many great works of literature have included references to farming, fishing, whaling, or hunting. Is the university seriously suggesting all this literature is ringed with warnings?"
Among many classics, the school has also flagged Beowulf, Frankenstein and Hamlet for excessive and graphic violence.
If size matters, Moby Dick will be banned by the school altogether.
Critics have bemoaned the concept of triggers for years, insisting its application advances a dangerous liberal orthodoxy.
What's goose for the gander, triggers are now in favor among far-right Super Moms, who cite them when banning books by Black and gay authors.
From my standpoint, trigger warnings are ridiculous because they retard teenagers' development into adults.
We have enough problems with cultural illiteracy.
We don't need rampant faintheartedness, too.
