A Little Light Reading
I was just perusing the ILA's list of challenged and banned books for 2009-2010.
The list contains the usual foul-mouthed, society-destroying filth: Toni Morrison, Harper Lee, Anne Frank ( Really? Anne Frank? Man, that still blows me away) Ernest Hemingway, Maya Angelou, Barbara Kingsolver. However, I did not see that miscreant Mark Twain on the list this year. Huh. Poor guy is probably rolling over in grave from shame at being thought "tame" enough for school boards in Kansas and Kentucky.
And no one tried to get Barack Obama's books banned either, which surprises me, given that he's a Nazi Muslim.
And no one tried to get Barack Obama's books banned either, which surprises me, given that he's a Nazi Muslim.
But those damn gay penguins are still pissing people off!
~The book Nickled and Dimed , which is about economics, by the way, was challenged in Pennsylvania because it presents "socialist ideas" and belittles Christians. Wow! Well, we can't have that. It might make the baby Jesus cry, and we all know he was a free market capitalist..
~ The Twilight series was removed from school libraries in one district in Australia and parents were asked not to let their kids even bring the book to school. Now I have plenty of objections to "Twilight", coming more from a feminist frustration with its oh rescue me you big strong boys! attitude, but puh-leese! They'll just watch the movie on their computer!
~Another vampire series, Vampire Academy was banned from school libraries in Texas. All the books. The series is still ongoing… which means the school board has banned books they haven't read yet because they haven't even been written. Way to go, guys!
~Paint Like Me, an anthology of poems by teenagers, had 2 pages cut out of the library's copy by the school principal in order to remove an offending 31 line poem about an abusive father.
The principal. Cut pages out of a book. Yeah. Great example for the kiddies! This must be why they pay you the big bucks.
The principal. Cut pages out of a book. Yeah. Great example for the kiddies! This must be why they pay you the big bucks.
~In Idaho, someone tried to censor a book about an 8th grader learning about censorship. Which proves that irony is alive and well in Iowa.
But these two are my favorite stories, by which I mean, they freaked me out.
~In Manifee, California the school removed (and I am not making this up) The Merriam-Webster New Collegiate Dictionary from the shelves because a kid found the term "oral sex" in it. At this time school officials are "considering a permenant classroom ban of this book."
This book. Yes. The fucking dictionary, excuse my french, but my point is that the kid can find more about oral sex on Facebook than he can in the dictionary!! What in the hell, America?
~In Wisconsin, 2 men, on behalf of the Christian Civil Liberties Union, (and don't you just love the name of that group?!) filed a lawsuit against the public library because of the emotional damages inflicted on them just from seeing a certain book on display. The book is by Francesca Lia Block and is called Baby Be Bop, and I don't know about you but I immediately went to Amazon.com to try to see the cover of this book that damaged these men so irreparably!! Right?! Inquiring minds want to know!
Guess what? Amazon has "no cover art available for this title". I kid you not!! The synopis says the book is about a teenager realizing that he is homosexual, which sounds pretty darn run-of-the-mill to me. (And then they tried to sell me a book about Barney and his stupid little friend Baby Bop, whom we've also been told are gay, but whatever. )
So I'm on a mission now, aren't you? Stay with me!
At Barnes and Noble I only found the book as part of a two story set, and the cover picture was of a teenaged boy with jeans and no shirt, sporting wings and looking a little like a carved angel in a cemetery only, well… hot. I don't know if this is a cover dreamed up especially for this anthology or if it might, in fact, be THE Medusa-like, emotionally damaging cover!! The not-knowing is driving me crazy! Have I, in fact, survived the book cover, or not? So anyone out there who has seen this endangered, Ivory-billed woodpecker of a book, please drop me a line, ok?
But wait! Just like in a Sham-wow ad- there's more !
In addition to their poor psyches burning from seeing the book, the men further allege that the books' content is "slanderous to all males" and (again, not making this up) can put people's lives in danger.
In addition to their poor psyches burning from seeing the book, the men further allege that the books' content is "slanderous to all males" and (again, not making this up) can put people's lives in danger.
Oh. My. God.
It's like a book, and a bomb, and looking at an eclipse, all in one little package with a hot gay angel boy (maybe) on the cover!!! What's not to love?!
(Side note: I am clearly going to hell.)
It's like a book, and a bomb, and looking at an eclipse, all in one little package with a hot gay angel boy (maybe) on the cover!!! What's not to love?!
(Side note: I am clearly going to hell.)
All of this word-banning, frankly, is just hard for me to wrap my head around in the land of "Free Speech", you know? What ever happened to "don't read it if you don't like it"?
And as a general observation, Montgomery Co. Kentucky needs to get a grip. They removed a LOT of books from the reading curriculum because they felt that sex, abuse, suicide and drugs were" not suitable topics for discussion in a co-ed high school classroom."
Right. No, they're much more suitable for discussionamong drunk kids at a football party, or while texting on the school bus, you morons.
And as a general observation, Montgomery Co. Kentucky needs to get a grip. They removed a LOT of books from the reading curriculum because they felt that sex, abuse, suicide and drugs were" not suitable topics for discussion in a co-ed high school classroom."
Right. No, they're much more suitable for discussionamong drunk kids at a football party, or while texting on the school bus, you morons.
The ILA estimates that up to 85% of the books challenged or removed from shelves never get reported, so this is just a tip of the freak-out iceberg.
Now I confess that some of these books I have not read, and in fairness, when it comes to school reading lists, I cannot swear that I would not find them inappropriate for my child to read at the grade level they might have been suggested for, although I'm definitely not the "don't read that book!" type.
Now I confess that some of these books I have not read, and in fairness, when it comes to school reading lists, I cannot swear that I would not find them inappropriate for my child to read at the grade level they might have been suggested for, although I'm definitely not the "don't read that book!" type.
But the idea that parents or a school board thinks, in the electronic age, that removing a book from a school library means kids won't read it, or that not having a subject presented in book for discussion in school with an adult mediator means that kids won't just talk about those things without having someone sensible present- is moronic.
Oh but wait- we live in a day when people believe that terrorists are sending pregnant women to America to "drop their anchor babies" so they can return a quarter century later as citizen terrorists!! So…. yeah.
Oh but wait- we live in a day when people believe that terrorists are sending pregnant women to America to "drop their anchor babies" so they can return a quarter century later as citizen terrorists!! So…. yeah.
And what is the objection to those poor penguins? How can you possibly hate on the two-daddy penguins??
Tracy Meisky is a poet, writer, singer, songwriter and all-around boat rocker from way back. Feel free to look around, but if you break it, you bought it.
Wow. Twilight is such an abstinence-only-until-marriage fest that you would think that it would be welcome.
And Nickled and Dimed? Haven't read it, but come on!
So I guess, in public schools, neither poverty nor the suggestion that sex in some way shape or form is related to SOMETHING…is bad. Ouch.
Hi Tracy! What a great essay! Are you published anywhere? You should be. T
Thanks. I seem to be at my best when I’m mocking something- oh dear. But I had a lot of fun with this. What else can you do with people who want to ban the dictionary but mock them?