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This starts a whole new chapter on what it means to be woke.
A Wikipedia-style website has published trigger warnings for thousands of the world’s most iconic novels ranging from the works of Charles Dickens to Harper Lee and even J.R.R. Tolkien.
The site, aptly named BookTriggerWarnings.com, cites vices across classic literature such as fatphobia, age-gap romances, discrimination against gypsies, and even diarrhea as some of the red flags for readers.
Though, the minds behind the concept are quick to admit that the team of peer-based trigger spotters are not all that qualified.
“We are not medical/psychological professionals and do not claim that our pages are complete or accurate,” a homepage message reads, also warning “just because a book ‘looks safe’ for you on our site does not guarantee that it is.”
There’s been a total of 6,701 books to have trigger warnings on the webpage, the Daily Mail reported.
They range from high school required readings such as Mark Twain’s reconstruction era book “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn,” which was listed for “parental neglect,” along with themes of racism and slavery, to a laundry list of apparently inappropriate subject matter in J.D. Salinger’s New York coming of age tale “The Catcher In The Rye.”
That novel is marked for ableism — the discrimination against non-able bodied individual — vomiting and diarrhea, violent fantasies, in addition to other heavier subject matters such as suicide, sexual harassment, racism, homophobia, and “implied” pedophilia.
F. Scott Fitzgerald’s “The Great Gatsby” — a glamorous depiction of Long Island’s elite gold coast in the 1920s — made it onto the site for containing themes of wealth hoarding, class discrimination, misogynistic violence and — spoiler alert — character death.
Harper Lee’s iconic “To Kill A Mockingbird” depicting the Jim Crow south was also cited for murder, mentioned rape, use of the “n-word” and racism. A school district near Seattle also removed it from curriculum earlier this year.
Classic reads from Arthur Conan Doyle’s “Sherlock Holmes” mystery series were also found to contain triggers relating to the persecution of Mormons, use of poison, ableism again, and the novels’ often main theme: murder.
Jane Austen’s British romance and cultural classic “Emma” is apparently problematic for referencing period-typical age gap romances and anti-gypsy sentiment whereas Helen Fielding’s “Bridget Jones” series is listed for cheating along with body image issues, weight obsession and calorie counting.
Mythical adventures such as J.K. Rowling’s “Harry Potter” books were put on the muggle website for containing elements of fatphobia, child abuse, invasion of privacy, “eliminationist language” in addition to use of spiders (ok I can agree with this one), snakes and broken bones.
The University of Chester in England also put content warnings on “Harry Potter” in January.
Dickens’ “Oliver Twist,” the story of an orphan’s plight through poverty on old England also gets dinged for anti-semitism, “traumatic childbirth,” inhuman treatment, vulgar swearing and bullying.
Meanwhile, Victor Hugo’s French Revolution novel turned musical, “Les Miserables,” was put on the site for references to prostitution, illness and gun violence.
It was also found to be true that the hearts of men are weak in Tolkien’s “The Lord of The Rings” series as fascism, sexism and slavery were all noted on the site as well.
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