Banned together
I'm not sure how it happened, but I missed most of Banned Book Week, only noticing it late in the week. I'll blame it on the ACLU, which doesn't seem to be doing much locally to promote the event. They are certainly doing their share to prevent the banning of further books, though, through their continued fight against the Vamos a Cuba ban.
But on the off chance that you missed it, too, here are a few links of interest. Hell, the effort to restrict our freedom of thought goes on year round, these days; perhaps we need a Banned Book Year.
- First, the American Library Association official banned books site
- Google Book Search has a nice list of banned titles, with the chance to read bits of many of them
- And what's life without a little controversy? Librarian.net points out some of the oddities in the ALA's quasi-ownership of BBW (hey, that makes two things I like using those initials!).
On a related note, in reading about this I learned of the existence of SafeLibraries.org. If you manage to filter out their inflammatory rhetoric, some of their members may indeed be well-meaning people who are afraid of what their children might learn in the library. However, when there is an entire section called Porn Pushers which describes — in a cornucopia of font sizes, weights, and colors — how the ALA is part of a plot to destroy America, and "[...]how the ALA pushes porn on children and gets away with it scot free, even getting librarians and school administrators to assist in this effort nationwide," it gets hard to take them seriously. Most of the librarians I know are just about organized enough to shelve books properly; they certainly aren't capable of organizing a global conspiracy to corrupt the minds of our children. Besides, I have friends who are librarians, and they never share their porn!
Anyway, unless you are a deranged and frothing conservative nutjob, or a liberal looking for a fresh source of justifiable outrage, steer clear of this crew. And with the time you save, read a banned book. May I recommend Vamos a Cuba?
5 Comments:
Selfish librarians, always hoarding the porn... (mutter, mutter)...
My high school librarian always used to hang that year's Banned Books List on the wall in our school library. I remember being amused then, and proud later, that apparently the English department at my high school looked at the BBL and said, "Hey, that looks like a high school English curriculum to us!"
I am furthermore proud that, although my parents had taken care to screen my media consumption when I was young (by actually watching the movie or reading the book before deciding whether it was appropriate for their child) they trusted enough in their own parenting to know that I could handle the challenging passages in what I was reading, and not become some sort of drugged-out ho, or whatever it is these book-burners fear for their children.
I think they are afraid their children won't become part of the hive-mind, and may actually think for temselves.
Hey! Nobody ever said they wanted to have a peek at my porn, okay? I mean, it's not like breath mints or something else that you automatically offer to other people. I just didn't know y'all was freaky that way. Now, just head over to shavedpnutbutteryaks.com... Actually, according to quantum fetish mechanics, that's probably a real thing now. Thanks, interweb!
Thanks for mentioning SafeLibraries.org [hereafter, SL].
Based on what I understand what from what I read in this blog about SL, it is my impression that you might believe SL if it were not so over the top. I really do not blame you for having that position -- much of what is said is rather out there, but, and it's a big but, it is based on actual facts actually presented by reliable sources and gathered together in one spot by SL. It is the actual facts that is rather out there, not my responses. Librarians awarding oral sex and pervasively vulgar books for twelve years olds is out of the mainstream, not my exposing this information to public view.
Further, porn is not really the problem -- rather the problem is the material already addressed in various laws and court cases -- the word "porn" is just a shorthand for all that. (You know, so many people get thrown off by that word--I ought to explain/fix it.)
Listen. Give me/SL a fair chance. Others have raised concerns similar to yours and I have addressed them online. Please read the letters I have received and my responses. For example, one writer wrote, "you are severely exaggerating the points on your 'Porn Pushers' page, especially when dealing with Looking For Alaska." Look at my answers. I think you will get a better understanding of what the page is saying.
By the way, even if you do not agree with the opinion and information I have presented, at least you should recognize that I am intellectually honest enough to place opposing information right on the very same page. Please respect that by not asking your blog readers to ignore the SL page as you have.
Thank you for your consideration.
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