Wednesday, October 17, 2012

Textbook Betrayal

I scribbled this down today and realized halfway through that it wasn't just about textbooks. I thought that it was interesting enough to put on my blog, so here ya go! =)

Just like that moment when, purely out of the blue, your dry, dependable Saxon Math testbook makes an error, telling you perhaps that 6x7=45. Your heart stops and you stare at the lie, the ugly mark of untruth glaring out at you under the guise of seriousness. You want to believe that it's true, but you soon realize that isn't an option. You want to correct it with your highlight pen, but you've been instructed to not mark The Book, as it isn't yours and never will be. So instead you flip to the next page and try to forget all about the small (yet world-shattering) printing mistake. You try, yet it nags at you the whole time. You imagine thousands of other people coming upon the same mistake and feeling the same sense of horror and disappointment. Or worse, maybe they'll believe it. You keep working out of the book, but not with that same trust. You keep looking for more more lies printed in serious black ink on the other pages and when you do find more, maybe you'll leave that book entirely and find yourself a different one.

3 comments:

  1. I remember running into THAT EXACT ERROR. I've done every Saxon Math book sense fourth grade. This was my exact thought process (though I didn't compose it so gracefully). One of my favorite posts of yours.

    Oh, and a warning for future Rahel: There should be more to come. Not very frequently, but about one to two a book.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Sorry: SINCE fourth grade. Damn it.

      Delete
    2. Wait... WHAT. I haven't worked out of a Saxon Workbook since I was 5 (6? I dunno). I just threw that error out there because I thought it'd be more scandalizing to HHG2G fans if they got 6x7 wrong.... O_O
      I guess that this is a common phenomenon for people who work out of textbooks? Kinda heartbreaking... =(

      Message received. Thank you, past!Cooper. =)

      BTW!! Reading biography about Alan Turning. AMAZING. Paradoxes hurt, though... =(

      Delete

You rock socks.