Posts for category ‘book banning’

I posted an editorial on art and alienation on the AS IF! blog today, after laying awake with a headache last night pondering all of this. Join in the discussion if it interests you.

The KUTV segment featuring me and Story of a Girl is running during the 5 o’clock news tonight (channel 2). I actually saw a promo this morning and am very curious how it’s all going to turn out! It looks like they do post the Parent 2 Parent videos on the KUTV site eventually, so I’ll link to that if and when it’s up.

I still have a headache and am off to get back in bed.

I had the pleasure of talking to G.’s/the ICS sophomores on Friday about writing as a career. They had some great questions (including, “What’s it like to live with [G.]?”) I was not at all nervous during the lead-up to this, or even when I walked in the building. But when I walked into the classroom, instant panic. You teens have no idea the power you wield and the terror you inspire! But ultimately it was fun, and especially worth it to find out later that two members of the class, inspired by the talk, approached G. about writing a female-character-based spin-off of A Separate Peace, which they are now reading for G.’s English class. I think I used the words “suck” and “crap” too much in my talk, though, considering it’s a Christian school. (e.g. “There are a lot of times you worry about sucking, or that your work is crap.”)

Today, I finally had a big enough chunk of time available in which to finish Atonement. I so admire Ian McEwan and his way with language. Yes, there were pages in this book (as well as in Saturday) that I skimmed, but only because I cared enough about the story to want to get back to it right away and did not have time or patience for three-page descriptions of a war march or, in Saturday, 18-page descriptions of a squash game. I know the point of that book was to take a whole book to tell the story of one day, however, though you can delight in language and relish description, reading is ultimately about finding out what happens next. In Atonement, the rejection letter Briony receives speaks to this very issue, and is great advice for any writer. I’m not sure how I feel about the epilogue, but now I’ve read it and there’s no going back.

In other blog news:

Bennett Madison needs your blonde jokes, but not the really mean or vulgar ones.

Due to technical issues, Cynthia Leitich Smith has temporarily moved to http://www.greglsblog.blogspot.com (or http://greglsblog.livejournal.com if you are at LJ). This is tres inconvenent for Cyn as it is merely two weeks from the release of her latest novel, Tantalize. So add Greg’s blog to your feed or LJ friends list so you don’t miss any of the news!

Is “scrotum” a bad word? Some school librarians who won’t carry the Newbery-winning The Higher Power of Lucky seem to think so. In the book, the offending scrotum appears in the context of a dog being bit (where it hurts, apparently) by a snake. This is the kind of illogic of censorship As If! tries to bring awareness to and dialog about in hopes of getting folks to think critically, rather than reactionarily. (That was a poorly constructed sentence with words of questionable origin, but don’t let that stop you from visiting the As If! blog now and then to join the dialog.)

Justine Larbalestier (I did it! I did it!) has a deliciously cranky response for Maureen Dowd. Thank you, Justine. Really, when will the YA-bashing stop?

Since I regaled you with such a long post yesterday, I’ll be brief:

NFL players mostly do not wear cups. I did not know this.

I’m always really tough on Terrell Owens, but for now all I’ll do is wish him well.

In which a school library in Texas kills an ant with a steamroller.

You know about the Salt Lake Dine-O-Round, right? Only three more days! To give you an idea – Squatters, with its outstanding pub food, is in the $15 category. You get a salad, entree, and dessert! (Did you know Squatters is a very progressive company? Using energy and water efficient equipment, serving mostly organic and ethically-produced food, eschewing top-down management, committed to local grocers and growers, and more? Plus they’ve got the best black & tan in town.)

The weather here is gorge. I’m going for a walk.

The American Library Association (ALA) celebrates Banned Books Week at this particular time, but their excellent information on censorship and intellectual freedom is available year-round. Check it out.

A few little links to get you thinking about this stuff if you aren’t already:

My rant from last year pretty much sums up my views on this.

And you may not realize that people like this have objections to just about every book you’ve ever loved, and try to get them removed from schools. I have to say, I’d never seen that site until Laurie Halse Anderson pointed it out yesterday, and browsing it gave me the chills, truly. I can easily see similarly out of context quotes pulled from Story of a Girl and making it to their list.

Mary Pearson says it most succinctly on her blog: “Think of your favorite book of ALL TIME. Got it? Now remember this: Someone, somewhere at some point has hated that book. They would prefer that no one ever read it. They may have even asked for it to be removed from a shelf. Aren’t you glad they didn’t get their way?”

A few additional thoughts: I’m certainly not saying that parents should let their kids read, watch, or listen to anything and everything they want. If you are a parent, you have the right and the responsibility to be aware of what your kids are reading, watching, listening to, playing, and help them make decisions about what is and isn’t appropriate. Here’s how this should work in real life: I have friends who, upon seeing their high school freshman’s summer reading list, talked to the teacher to let teacher know about their concerns and issues, and asked for some alternative titles. They did not start a campaign to have the school library purged, the entire curriculum altered, the teacher fired, the school sued, etc. etc. etc. I’ve had friends who didn’t want their middle school kids going to certain school assemblies about drugs/sex/rock and roll/whatever, and they had a conversation with the school and made alternative arrangements for their kids on that day. They did not picket the assembly, call a school board meeting, or send nasty emails to school administrators. Intellectual freedom doesn’t mean you have to love or endorse every book, movie, CD or video game out there. It means you can decide what’s best for your kids while they are kids, and it also means other people can decide what’s best for their kids, or they can decide to let their kids read everything. You may have very strong opinions about what’s appropriate for all kids, and you are entitled to free expression of those opinions, but you don’t get to make the decision for everyone.

Banned Books Week comes but once a year. Meanwhile, little and big things happen every day. A librarian quietly pulls a book from a collection based on the complaints of one person, school boards are threatened by one or two vocal objectors and then books go away simply in service of avoiding a scene, books with a religious point of view disappear under the guise of separation of church and state or national security, intellectual rigor weakens when books written in different times in history or culture are pulled because of hot button words that are no longer politically correct. Etc.

Last: E. Lockhart posted some ideas about what you can do.

At the very least, give it some thought. Maybe you vehemently disagree with me. Great!  Sometimes I even disagree with myself! But do flex those critical thinking muscles.

This is already long, so I’ll post about Mark Haddon and the Curious Incident of a Young Adult Novel tomorrow.

Andrew Auseon has decided that the Internet is woefully bereft of Andy (too true), and that he needs more fun in his life (don’t we all). What better way to bring in the fun, bring in the Andy, than with an Andy-centric comic book! (Don’t let it make you sad. I think it will have a happy-ish ending.)

Authors Supporting Intellectual Freedom celebrates Banned Books Week every week, in a way, by championing “those who stand against censorship, especially of books for and about teens.” Just think: if Robert Cormier’s The Chocolate War had been successfully banned at my school and I’d never read it, my career as a writer might never have started.

You know there are those sites Overheard in New York and Overheard in San Francisco? I am starting a new feature: Overheard in My House. This week:

S: (Singing while folding laundry) “Don’t bring me doowwwwn, Bruce! Don’t bring me dow-ow-own, Bruce!”

G: Bruce?

S: Bruce. You know that ELO song, Don’t Bring Me Down?

G: Yeah, but…Bruce?

S: Well, what else could they be saying?

G: (shrugs) I just don’t think it’s “Bruce.”

I checked the all-knowing Internet. Apparently there is a longstanding tradition of people believing the word is “Bruce” when in fact ELO is singing a nonsense word (or a German word, depending on which side of the debate you fall).

America’s Next Top Model. Oh, Tyra. Tyra Tyra Tyra. You are turning into a charicature of yourself. (And lose the wig already. Stop talking about it. DO it. And I would really love to see Mr. Jay’s natural hair color while we’re at it.) But the season looks promising.

Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip. So far, so wonderful. For some reason, I never became a West Wing viewer – I think it was on a night when I was doing stuff, or I missed the initial launch and it’s hard for me to get into shows unless I was there from the beginning. I can say that I’ve been a fan of Aaron Sorkin from the beginning, truly, because we saw the touring production of A Few Good Men, the play, in San Francisco a couple of years before it was a movie. Michael O’Keefe had the lead, and I remember thinking, wow, this writing is awesome. I’m looking forward to seeing where this show will go. And by the way, also looking forward to 30 Rock, which debuts in October and seems to be about the same thing ast Studio 60 but in sitcom format.

It’s raining and gloomy. Bah.

Despite this morning’s evidence to the contrary, I still stand by my assertion that spring has more or less arrived. Brush a little of that snow aside and my tulips are right where they were.

In the big wide world: The Oklahoma state legislature proposes taking certain teen books out of the hands of teens. This is worrisome because it’s not just a parent or librarian or two raising a fuss in a particular school district. This is a proposed state law that would severely limit teens’ access to the books written for them. Laurie Halse Anderson has some interesting thoughts here, and you can read what I’ve written on this general subject here. While the AS IF! blog has some proposed actions you can take, those who are not constituents of OK won’t have much say in the matter. If you are not in OK, it is still important to be aware of what’s going on if/when the issue is raised in your state.