Provocative Titles - e.g., "I Wish My Kids Had Cancer" (1 Viewer)

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Entry Number 1:

I Wish My Kids Had Cancer: A Family Surviving the Autism Epidemic by Michael Alan

For all I know, this may be a reasonable, well-written and informative book. And I have an idea where the author may be headed (there is often a lot more emotional and financial support from the community for families stricken by childhood cancer, cancer diagnoses typically don't require constant battles with the insurance company over coverage issues for standard treatments, etc.) But the title alone sure has ticked a bunch of people off, including not only parents of children stricken by cancer (for obvious reasons), but also parents of children with autism (for implying that a child's autism is an epidemic that must be survived and is a fate worse than cancer). The title alone has resulted in this Huffington Post Blog Article and a petition to have Amazon pull the book. The title sure has upset a lot of people, though few seem to have actually read the book.

I'm having trouble coming up with an example of a more intentionally provocative title for a book, article, essay, etc.

 

[Aerial Assault]

Yeah, while I understand the point he's trying to make, he probably could have made it quite effectively within the covers, and not alienated and angered a bunch of people by bizarrely making that concept an explicit part of the title.

 

[Fear The Turtle]

Abbie Hoffman's "Steal This Book" was a provocative title in its day.

 

[Kal El]

Just a marketing ploy, it's happened before and will again.

 

[fatguyinalittlecoat]

I'm having trouble coming up with an example of a more intentionally provocative title for a book, article, essay, etc.

"I Wish Your Kids Had Cancer"

 

[GroveDiesel]

The shame is that he's probably also received a million times more publicity than he would have received anyway and will sell a lot more books because of it.

And I would say it's insulting rather than provocative. For any parent that has lost a child to cancer, that's a big punch in the gut followed by a middle finger.

 

[phrozen]

Mr. Ishida's Bookstore

 

[fatguyinalittlecoat]

Why is this getting publicity now? Amazon says the book came out 6 years ago.

 

[IvanKaramazov]

Click-bait taken too far.

 

[Rayderr]

I'm having trouble coming up with an example of a more intentionally provocative title for a book, article, essay, etc.

ifI DID IT - Confessions of the Killer by O.J. Simpson

 

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Why is this getting publicity now? Amazon says the book came out 6 years ago.

Not sure. The Huff Po blog where I saw it was from the last week. I note that the guy's website where he was promoting the book per the Amazon description (iwishmykidshadcancer.com) is no longer being used for that purpose.

 

[bigbottom]

I'm having trouble coming up with an example of a more intentionally provocative title for a book, article, essay, etc.

ifI DID IT - Confessions of the Killer by O.J. Simpson

That's a great example. The whole cover is pretty bad.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/4/4f/If_I_did_It_2.png

 

[McGarnicle]

HOW TO COOK FORTY HUMANS

 

[Cjw_55106]

Why is this getting publicity now? Amazon says the book came out 6 years ago.

People being offended didn't happen as quickly as it does today.

 

[Lehigh98]

"To Serve Man"

 

[B-Deep]

I think the problem is this title is not just provocative, it is insulting.

I have a son who does not have Autism, but has a cognitive disability. He cannot speak, and likely never will. But what he is is a very healthy and happy child. Sometimes it is hard having something that cannot be explained or cured, so I think i understand what the author was going for. In our case we do not even have a diagnosis, there's no ribbon "Cognitive disability with severe aphasia".

But you know what i would not do? I would not want to have his life in jeopardy from cancer just so he could be "normal". If someone asked me if i wish he had cancer instead of his disability i would want to pound them. Likewise I know people who have lost their kids to cancer and I think this comes off as insulting to them. It seems to be minimizing their issues when compared to how hard being the parent of an autistic child. It is indescribably hard to come to terms with something like your child having autism, or having downs syndrome, or any other disability. I get that. It is not easier to have a child who is fighting cancer, not in any way. The struggles are there and are real in both cases, and we deal with them because that is what you do for your kids. You love them how they are. You love them for as long as they are here, and you just work through everything else.

There's every chance this book has some good points in it, but there's no way I would get past the name. The author wanted to get notice with that name, and it has worked.

 

[Slapdash]

Abbie Hoffman's "Steal This Book" was a provocative title in its day.

"Steal This Album" by System of a Down

 

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The shame is that he's probably also received a million times more publicity than he would have received anyway and will sell a lot more books because of it.

It may be an informative and helpful book (I have no idea one way or the other), so selling more of them may not necessarily be a bad thing. But it also doesn't seem like the publicity is resulting in that many additional sales - it seems that most people refuse to buy it because of the title. And if the petition has any success in getting on-line retailers to stop carrying it, that will likely hurt sales.

 

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I think the problem is this title is not just provocative, it is insulting.

I have a son who does not have Autism, but has a cognitive disability. He cannot speak, and likely never will. But what he is is a very healthy and happy child. Sometimes it is hard having something that cannot be explained or cured, so I think i understand what the author was going for. In our case we do not even have a diagnosis, there's no ribbon "Cognitive disability with severe aphasia".

But you know what i would not do? I would not want to have his life in jeopardy from cancer just so he could be "normal". If someone asked me if i wish he had cancer instead of his disability i would want to pound them. Likewise I know people who have lost their kids to cancer and I think this comes off as insulting to them. It seems to be minimizing their issues when compared to how hard being the parent of an autistic child. It is indescribably hard to come to terms with something like your child having autism, or having downs syndrome, or any other disability. I get that. It is not easier to have a child who is fighting cancer, not in any way. The struggles are there and are real in both cases, and we deal with them because that is what you do for your kids. You love them how they are. You love them for as long as they are here, and you just work through everything else.

There's every chance this book has some good points in it, but there's no way I would get past the name. The author wanted to get notice with that name, and it has worked.

Yeah, by comparing autism to cancer, he managed to tick off both groups.