- The Sun Also Rises, Hemingway. This was one of the first books assigned during my Lost Generation course in college. I'm not sure if the book so much as the class opened up my eyes to the expatriates and their carpe diem world view, but the book actually turned out to be the first vehicle for my feminist leanings. I'll never forget the gender-neutral namesake of Brett Ashley, or her subtle, masculine mannerisms and actions. The book also introduced me to Hemingway's more radical writing style -- using dialogue more often than narrative to tell a story. It was cool to see his style adopted by the more modern writers I'd been used to reading. There is even a third influence in this book for me. It brought history much closer for me. I felt like I could have been there myself while I read this book, in the salons on the Left Bank, having tea with Sylvia Beach and Gertrude Stein. And with the war in Iraq being reported on more and more at the time, the sentiment of Hemingway's novel definitely transcended the decades, still making relevant points after all that time.
- The Vagina Monlogues, Ensler. This play showed me womanhood. Period. I'd never fully understood the beauty of women, the power of women, the multifaceted-ness of women, until I saw this performed, and then read it shortly afterward. I can't even describe the cultural importance this play has for me. It's so empowering, and changed my view to help me believe in myself even more.
- The Lost, Mendelsohn. This book showed me a much darker side of history, and of human nature. It also showed me the perseverance we are capable of as human beings, and taught me to appreciate the present. It taught me that there is no such thing as no legacy.
- The Bible. It's corny, it's overdone, it's cliche, but how could I not? I grew up in a Catholic household, I went to church every Sunday until I was seventeen (by choice or by force), and the only non-Catholic school I've ever attended was my kindergarten. This book has had an enormous impact on me, whether or not I was resisting it at any point in my life. As a child, I viewed it as a place for answers...sometimes even magical ones, if I played the game correctly. (Did you ever do that, where you ask a burning question to God, flip open the Bible, and whatever verse your eyes land on, that's your answer?) These stories pervaded my education every single year of my life. I've drawn on them for symbolism in my own writing, I've rejected them as the absolute truth, I've accepted most as myth, I've relied upon them for morals, I've debated their immorality, I've let them act as a comfort, I've kept their more uncomfortable teachings at bay, I've proclaimed the work unfinished, and I've even found through them a pathway to education and even feminism. How. Could. I. Not.
- Blonde, Oates. My obsession with Marilyn Monroe began with this book. How could I understand what I do about pop culture without learning a thing or two about this icon? Although this book is a novel, I eventually learned from Marilyn (and Oates, who writes beautifully) the value of art, compassion, gentility, and identity in places even like the silver screen. So much changed after Marilyn. Maybe even because of her. She's certainly made an impression on me.
- Dead Man Walking, Prejan; Forgiving the Dead Man Walking, Morris. I'm combining these two books because they both taught me to love social justice, even though Prejan's book wasn't what I was expecting (lots of legal jargon), and Morris' account seemed to go on a bit too long. However, both addressed the U.S. court system and its flaws, and made me a more firm proponent of civil and human rights. It was hard to think of a failing system up until I'd read these books.
- The Sense of Structure, Gopen. Where do I begin with this masterpiece? Almost a textbook, this guide to language and writing is my literary bible. After reading it, I had gained such a focused perspective on my own writing style. It taught me how I could better hone my craft to make my readers understand the feelings behind my words. There is so much good stuff in this book. Who could have fathomed writing from the reader's perspective?
- A Light in the Attic, Silverstein. This book introduced me to poetry, and kept the lighthearted side of me alive while I was growing up. It showed me that poetry is not always dark and sinister and depressing, like it was rumored to be around my classrooms. Poetry shaped a lot of who I am as a person, symbolic poetry especially. I think it was good for me to keep the rhythm to my life, and to find it in my subject matter.
- The Bhagavad Gita. Another religious text that expanded my cultural view. I loved how it connected to so many things I'd already been taught, and made me feel so close to the rest of humankind. In studying the Gita, I ended up studying so many other wonderful philosophers. It truly expanded my reach into so many other areas.
- The Outsiders, Hinton. Classic themes of the search for identity, gallantry, and social divisiveness. It's got it all. "Nothing gold can stay."
Showing posts with label Awareness. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Awareness. Show all posts
Influential
not undecided recently shared a list of the top ten books that have influenced her view of the world. I thought I'd try my own hand at the exercise, although I tend to read more for pleasure than anything else. I hope you'll try it, too. Consequently, if you're looking for more intellectual answers, not undecided's post has many many links that will take you to some indirect recommendations. This one was really hard for me, because I first had to ask myself: What is my view of the world? Of course I still don't have a concrete answer. I apologize, my answers start to get a little lax towards the end. I'm pretty sleepy. But here they are, in a possibly particular order:
Share Stuff Saturday: Texas Textbooks
(Title links to a NYT article about the new standards of education in Texas. I am opening this one up for discussion. I am appalled, but what say you?)
Global Literacy -- I'll Drink to That
Ah, February! Valentine's Day, Library Lovers' Month, Black History Month, Condom Week???, Groundhog Day, Chinese New Year, Presidents' Day, Mardi Gras and Ash Wednesday, Daytona 500...there is a lot to celebrate this month. Today I wanted to celebrate something else: my literacy.
I was lucky enough as a kid to have educated parents who cared enough about my education to teach me to read. It seems so standard now in 2010. It's bizarre to even imagine kids out there who don't recognize D-O-G. Or L-O-V-E.
I love language, and I loved reading even before I could muster enough brainpower to sound out the words on the pages. I don't know where I would be without words, and the power of literacy.
I do really cherish it as power. And I believe it is a human right. We all deserve to know what thoughts are being communicated in our societies and in our cultures, and we deserve a chance to enter the conversation ourselves. Reading and writing get us there. When I was younger, I was always so enthralled by the stories of Southern whites teaching Black slaves to read -- the fictional account of Bethlehem and Susannah in Jennifer Armstrong's Steal Away particularly made an impression on me. It shook me to realize someone could actually (in my child's mind) get in trouble for teaching someone how to spell cat. And that someone else could get in trouble for learning. My parents always put such a high value on education. Knowing what some people went through just to learn how to read kept me from taking my own literacy for granted. Those stories helped me understand the importance of literacy, and they fully expanded my idea of true freedom. Freedom really was knowledge. Power, and empowerment, really could be found in education.
This is why I wanted to share with you a new initiative to expand literacy for children across the world. Room to Read, Crushpad, and Twitter have all joined up to create The Fledgling Initiative, a campaign for positive change in the lives of children all over the globe. Room to Read, a global nonprofit, is an organization that has to date "established more than 700 schools and over 7,000 bilingual libraries with five million books, and supports the education of nearly 7,000 girls. Room to Read’s programs have already reached more than three million children..."
Twitter, of course, is one of the Web's leaders in social networking/microblogging. By teaming up with Crushpad, a DIY winery in San Fran, Twitter has created and branded its own label (Fledgling wines), which will be sold to benefit Room to Read. And, because it's Twitter, The Fledgling Initiative now has one of the best venues in communication to help spread the word. Follow @Fledgling to stay up to date on Twitter's wine-making. There will even be times where you can participate in the creation.
Crushpad, based in San Francisco, is a winery that specializes in consumer customization. For The Fledgling Initiative, they've helped Twitter come up with two limited edition wines (a Pinot Noir and a Chardonnay). For every bottle sold, $5 will be donated to Room to Read. Buying a whole case is equal to providing 60 local-language books to the children who need them most.
For more information on this amazing effort, check out this article and video at ServiceNation.org. Or, head straight to the source: visit http://www.twitter.com/fledgling, http://www.fledglingwine.com, or http://www.roomtoread.org.
I'm not really a wine-o, but this kind of thing I can get behind. I can't wait to get my wine. Finally, drinking to help the kids.
I was lucky enough as a kid to have educated parents who cared enough about my education to teach me to read. It seems so standard now in 2010. It's bizarre to even imagine kids out there who don't recognize D-O-G. Or L-O-V-E.
I love language, and I loved reading even before I could muster enough brainpower to sound out the words on the pages. I don't know where I would be without words, and the power of literacy.
I do really cherish it as power. And I believe it is a human right. We all deserve to know what thoughts are being communicated in our societies and in our cultures, and we deserve a chance to enter the conversation ourselves. Reading and writing get us there. When I was younger, I was always so enthralled by the stories of Southern whites teaching Black slaves to read -- the fictional account of Bethlehem and Susannah in Jennifer Armstrong's Steal Away particularly made an impression on me. It shook me to realize someone could actually (in my child's mind) get in trouble for teaching someone how to spell cat. And that someone else could get in trouble for learning. My parents always put such a high value on education. Knowing what some people went through just to learn how to read kept me from taking my own literacy for granted. Those stories helped me understand the importance of literacy, and they fully expanded my idea of true freedom. Freedom really was knowledge. Power, and empowerment, really could be found in education.
This is why I wanted to share with you a new initiative to expand literacy for children across the world. Room to Read, Crushpad, and Twitter have all joined up to create The Fledgling Initiative, a campaign for positive change in the lives of children all over the globe. Room to Read, a global nonprofit, is an organization that has to date "established more than 700 schools and over 7,000 bilingual libraries with five million books, and supports the education of nearly 7,000 girls. Room to Read’s programs have already reached more than three million children..."
Twitter, of course, is one of the Web's leaders in social networking/microblogging. By teaming up with Crushpad, a DIY winery in San Fran, Twitter has created and branded its own label (Fledgling wines), which will be sold to benefit Room to Read. And, because it's Twitter, The Fledgling Initiative now has one of the best venues in communication to help spread the word. Follow @Fledgling to stay up to date on Twitter's wine-making. There will even be times where you can participate in the creation.
Crushpad, based in San Francisco, is a winery that specializes in consumer customization. For The Fledgling Initiative, they've helped Twitter come up with two limited edition wines (a Pinot Noir and a Chardonnay). For every bottle sold, $5 will be donated to Room to Read. Buying a whole case is equal to providing 60 local-language books to the children who need them most.
For more information on this amazing effort, check out this article and video at ServiceNation.org. Or, head straight to the source: visit http://www.twitter.com/fledgling, http://www.fledglingwine.com, or http://www.roomtoread.org.
I'm not really a wine-o, but this kind of thing I can get behind. I can't wait to get my wine. Finally, drinking to help the kids.
Share Stuff Saturday: They Banned the Dictionary
(And I thought California was the "liberal" state. This Share Stuff Saturday is in part thanks to Five Star Friday! Title links to a meaningful blog post by Great Big Nerd, which was featured in this week's edition.)
Share Stuff Saturday: Math is Important
I was just reading through yesterday's edition of Five Star Friday, and happened across this blog post from Centre of the Universe - The Dreaming. It breaks down the cost of publishing a book (in Canada). Just in case any of you (and by "any of you" I mean "me") forgot what it takes to make it in this industry, here's some interesting reading that should jog your memory. I am definitely never going to complain about retail prices ever again...at least, not in Canada. I also learned that publishers are pushing more and more for their printers to use "greener" paper stock -- but of course, this insistence to do the world good is still coming at its explosively high price, since a lot of printers don't keep this stock on the floor. How Catch-22 of everything. Anyway. Enjoy.
http://www.cenobyte.ca/words/2009/12/math-lesson-about-books.html
http://www.cenobyte.ca/words/2009/12/math-lesson-about-books.html
Ohio for Libraries!
I have not been feeling well recently, and so did not get out to vote this week...but seeing this article has revived my spirit, if not my physical health:
Library Levy Landslides Make History in Ohio
I'm especially excited for Hamilton County in Cincinnati, which is where I'm originally from. I hope the favorite "Don't Trash the 'Nati" slogan was appropriately expanded to apply to this campaign. Whatever they did, it worked.
Let's also keep our hopes up for Paulding County Carnegie Library, who is going through a recount. Power of bookworms, unite!
Library Levy Landslides Make History in Ohio
I'm especially excited for Hamilton County in Cincinnati, which is where I'm originally from. I hope the favorite "Don't Trash the 'Nati" slogan was appropriately expanded to apply to this campaign. Whatever they did, it worked.
Let's also keep our hopes up for Paulding County Carnegie Library, who is going through a recount. Power of bookworms, unite!
These People are Serious
Browsing Google Reader today turned up a post at myliblog, which happened to mention nothing other than a good ol' fashioned, annual Halloween book burning. Annual.
The North Carolina Baptist church, Amazing Grace, will be hosting a book burning/barbeque (who knew that spiritual cleansing could double as the social event of the season?) on October 31 to destrroy what the congregation believes to be the works of Satan and the perversions of God's Word. That allows for any religious books or works that are not the old version of the King James Bible...meaning the new version of the King James Bible is gonna be choking on smoke. The believers will also burn samples of most genres of music, including contemporary Christian and Southern gospel.
Now, I am not writing this post to criticize these people's beliefs (although I really do have to openly and respectfully disagree with their position. I don't believe burning the offensive material is really accomplishing anything, especially in 2009, when probably 3,000,000 more copies of the "perversions" have already been distributed by the time you've dug the fire pit. But, I guess it's the principle of the thing). I was really just sort of surprised that people are still out there burning books. Like really, truly, burning them. I mean, who does that? I've never been to any kind of burning, not even a bra burning. Should I have met people like this by this point in my life? So I'm more intrigued by the idea of book burnings and the history behind them. It's very Farhenheit 451. Time to consult my dear friend Wikipedia. And Google, too. There's always room for you, Google.
Amazing Grace claims their tradition is just that -- a Christian tradition. They quote Acts 19:18-20 as their basis. Wikipedia says:
(Really, I can't stand it with the hyper-hyperlinking. Why did we ever give up on books? I long for a simpler time.)
Apparently there have been a great many traumatic book burnings throughout history. Wikipedia cites several major book burnings that have happened over the course of centuries, the most famous probably being the Nazi book burnings (these were carried out by chapters of the German Student Association, which I did not realize). All citations refer to book burnings as horrific acts of war, as forms of violence against a people and culture, and "emblematic of a harsh and oppressive regime." They are efforts to suppress a viewpoint that challenges the prevailing order.
The earliest reference Wikipedia has to a book burning is from 367 AD, commissioned by the bishop of Alexandria. How many years ago was that? And we're still lighting matches.
Anthony Comstock founded The New York Society for the Suppression of Vice in 1873, and boasted the destruction of "15 tons of books, 284,000 pounds of plates for printing such 'objectionable' books, and nearly 4,000,000 pictures." His reasoning? They were lewd.
In 1842, early books coded with braille were burned in Paris, France. At the city's school for the blind.
In 2001, a church in New Mexico invited its congregation to a book burning party. The guest of honor? Harry Potter. And God. The pastor hadn't read even one of J.K. Rowling's books.
What is it that gives books such power that we are so motivated to destroy them? They have to have power, because power is what makes us feel threatened. And what makes us so eager to blame the books? Why are the books the first thing we seek out when we're looking to quash ideas? I personally think it's because they are the physical manifestation of a person's opinions, theories, and maybe sometimes facts. Pieces of knowledge we don't agree with. And a book burning has got to be the easiest way to hurt and humiliate an author. Even today, it's not enough for people to just speak their minds. Humans are a species of action. We have to get as close as we can to destroying our perversions at their source.
But I guess author burning would be illegal.
The North Carolina Baptist church, Amazing Grace, will be hosting a book burning/barbeque (who knew that spiritual cleansing could double as the social event of the season?) on October 31 to destrroy what the congregation believes to be the works of Satan and the perversions of God's Word. That allows for any religious books or works that are not the old version of the King James Bible...meaning the new version of the King James Bible is gonna be choking on smoke. The believers will also burn samples of most genres of music, including contemporary Christian and Southern gospel.
Now, I am not writing this post to criticize these people's beliefs (although I really do have to openly and respectfully disagree with their position. I don't believe burning the offensive material is really accomplishing anything, especially in 2009, when probably 3,000,000 more copies of the "perversions" have already been distributed by the time you've dug the fire pit. But, I guess it's the principle of the thing). I was really just sort of surprised that people are still out there burning books. Like really, truly, burning them. I mean, who does that? I've never been to any kind of burning, not even a bra burning. Should I have met people like this by this point in my life? So I'm more intrigued by the idea of book burnings and the history behind them. It's very Farhenheit 451. Time to consult my dear friend Wikipedia. And Google, too. There's always room for you, Google.
Amazing Grace claims their tradition is just that -- a Christian tradition. They quote Acts 19:18-20 as their basis. Wikipedia says:
Book burning (a category of biblioclasm, or book destruction) is the practice of destroying, often ceremoniously, one or more copies of a book or other written material. In modern times, other forms of media, such as phonograph records, video tapes, and CDs have also been ceremoniously burned, torched, or shredded. The practice, usually carried out in public, is generally motivated by moral, religious, or political objections to the material.
(Really, I can't stand it with the hyper-hyperlinking. Why did we ever give up on books? I long for a simpler time.)
Apparently there have been a great many traumatic book burnings throughout history. Wikipedia cites several major book burnings that have happened over the course of centuries, the most famous probably being the Nazi book burnings (these were carried out by chapters of the German Student Association, which I did not realize). All citations refer to book burnings as horrific acts of war, as forms of violence against a people and culture, and "emblematic of a harsh and oppressive regime." They are efforts to suppress a viewpoint that challenges the prevailing order.
The earliest reference Wikipedia has to a book burning is from 367 AD, commissioned by the bishop of Alexandria. How many years ago was that? And we're still lighting matches.
Anthony Comstock founded The New York Society for the Suppression of Vice in 1873, and boasted the destruction of "15 tons of books, 284,000 pounds of plates for printing such 'objectionable' books, and nearly 4,000,000 pictures." His reasoning? They were lewd.
In 1842, early books coded with braille were burned in Paris, France. At the city's school for the blind.
In 2001, a church in New Mexico invited its congregation to a book burning party. The guest of honor? Harry Potter. And God. The pastor hadn't read even one of J.K. Rowling's books.
What is it that gives books such power that we are so motivated to destroy them? They have to have power, because power is what makes us feel threatened. And what makes us so eager to blame the books? Why are the books the first thing we seek out when we're looking to quash ideas? I personally think it's because they are the physical manifestation of a person's opinions, theories, and maybe sometimes facts. Pieces of knowledge we don't agree with. And a book burning has got to be the easiest way to hurt and humiliate an author. Even today, it's not enough for people to just speak their minds. Humans are a species of action. We have to get as close as we can to destroying our perversions at their source.
But I guess author burning would be illegal.
October is a Busy Month
Just a short post here, as I need to get back to my book!! and the Internet connection in this beach house is sketchy.
President Obama named October 2009 National Information Literacy Awareness Month. I could dedicate this whole post to covering why I'm going to add "Holiday/Month Namer" to my list of dream jobs (following Street Namer and Menu Writer), but I'll focus on the positive here instead.
The long title really did help me break down what the month will be all about, however. This is no ordinary war on illiteracy. Drawing awareness to the issue of illiteracy in the United States is a great step forward, and one we can all support. There is no downside. But extending support for information literacy (and for now I'll just umbrella that under "evaluating Internet technology," because even I need to bone up on my information) really knocked into me how much the world is changing.
When I was in first grade, we had the Book-It! program. What do kids today have? How are they learning to succeed, and what tools are going to be more useful to them? The ALA is encouraging Americans (and I'm encouraging everyone) to visit their local libraries and really reap the benefits of the information services provided there. I have always been one to live in the past, but it is so important that we all know how to navigate through the jargon. With the growth of the Information Age, we need to adapt our literacy skills, no matter what our age. Please read the President's statement, linked above, and let's commit ourselves to learning...no matter the shape, form, or variety.
President Obama named October 2009 National Information Literacy Awareness Month. I could dedicate this whole post to covering why I'm going to add "Holiday/Month Namer" to my list of dream jobs (following Street Namer and Menu Writer), but I'll focus on the positive here instead.
The long title really did help me break down what the month will be all about, however. This is no ordinary war on illiteracy. Drawing awareness to the issue of illiteracy in the United States is a great step forward, and one we can all support. There is no downside. But extending support for information literacy (and for now I'll just umbrella that under "evaluating Internet technology," because even I need to bone up on my information) really knocked into me how much the world is changing.
When I was in first grade, we had the Book-It! program. What do kids today have? How are they learning to succeed, and what tools are going to be more useful to them? The ALA is encouraging Americans (and I'm encouraging everyone) to visit their local libraries and really reap the benefits of the information services provided there. I have always been one to live in the past, but it is so important that we all know how to navigate through the jargon. With the growth of the Information Age, we need to adapt our literacy skills, no matter what our age. Please read the President's statement, linked above, and let's commit ourselves to learning...no matter the shape, form, or variety.
More on Banned Books Week
I just wanted to draw a little more attention to the response letter I linked to in my previous post. It's from July of 2008, but still very relevant. After giving it a thorough read, I think it's important to give the letter its due, as it neutrally addresses several key points about this week's purpose. The library director from Douglas County, CO really did a fantastic job putting together his argument. It reads logically and professionally. I am also very grateful he addressed every issue the parent brought up. It shows he really does care about his work, and the concerns of his library's patrons.
These two passages especially resonated with me; I think they sort of reiterate what I was trying to say in my previous post:
"How then, can we claim that the founders would support the restriction of access to a book that really is just about an idea, to be accepted or rejected as you choose? What harm has this book done to anyone? Your seven year old told you, 'Boys are not supposed to marry.' In other words, you have taught her your values, and those values have taken hold. That's what parents are supposed to do, and clearly, exposure to this book, or several, doesn't just overthrow that parental influence. It does, of course, provide evidence that not everybody agrees with each other; but that's true, isn't it?...
"Finally, then, I conclude that 'Uncle Bobby's Wedding' is a children's book, appropriately categorized and shelved in our children's picture book area. I fully appreciate that you, and some of your friends, strongly disagree with its viewpoint. But if the library is doing its job, there are lots of books in our collection that people won't agree with; there are certainly many that I object to. Library collections don't imply endorsement; they imply access to the many different ideas of our culture, which is precisely our purpose in public life."
Happy Banned Books Week, everyone!
These two passages especially resonated with me; I think they sort of reiterate what I was trying to say in my previous post:
"How then, can we claim that the founders would support the restriction of access to a book that really is just about an idea, to be accepted or rejected as you choose? What harm has this book done to anyone? Your seven year old told you, 'Boys are not supposed to marry.' In other words, you have taught her your values, and those values have taken hold. That's what parents are supposed to do, and clearly, exposure to this book, or several, doesn't just overthrow that parental influence. It does, of course, provide evidence that not everybody agrees with each other; but that's true, isn't it?...
"Finally, then, I conclude that 'Uncle Bobby's Wedding' is a children's book, appropriately categorized and shelved in our children's picture book area. I fully appreciate that you, and some of your friends, strongly disagree with its viewpoint. But if the library is doing its job, there are lots of books in our collection that people won't agree with; there are certainly many that I object to. Library collections don't imply endorsement; they imply access to the many different ideas of our culture, which is precisely our purpose in public life."
Happy Banned Books Week, everyone!
Banned Books Week
Today marked the first day of Banned Books Week, a national celebration of the freedom to read. Every year, books are challenged by individuals or groups in an attempt to secure a ban on the material. According to the ALA (American Library Association), a challenge is "an attempt to remove or restrict materials, based upon the objections of a person or group"; a banning is "the removal of those materials." It is important to understand that challenges are not just expressions of different points of view. They are courses of action taken against teaching the reading material, and a conscious effort to remove the material from libraries and schools. It is my personal belief that this is a direct encroachment on our freedom of speech as Americans, and on our choice as readers.
Banned Books Week, held every year during the last week of September, is dedicated to raising awareness about the benefits of free access, as well as the harms of censorship. The efforts of teachers, librarians, booksellers, and communities have all come together each year to help prevent bannings, no matter what the material. The cornerstone of BBW is the freedom to express and allow access to ideas (especially ideas in print), no matter how "unorthodox" or "unpopular" those ideas are.
From ALA's web site:
I just can't fathom any reason why anyone would go to such lengths to keep books away from the public. The public. People they don't know. My mom wouldn't let me read books with boys and girls on the cover when I was a kid (this amounted to at least half of The Babysitters Club series), but she never told other people's children what was or wasn't good for them. She never once, in front of us, told our teachers how to do their jobs (granted, I guess we were enrolled in Catholic school for the majority of our lives -- essentially, an extenion of our home belief system). Still, she knew she couldn't control every aspect of our lives. I think she definitely wanted to know, and had a right to know, what we were being taught in school, but she knew it wasn't ultimately up to her to decide what information came to us and what was rejected. Instead, it was her role to teach us how to deal with our own perception of that information, and to help us understand our choices. This is not to say she didn't try her darnedest to instill her own values in us. She fought us pretty hard on a lot of things. But she was always so proud of me for loving books, and loving to read, loving to learn, loving to weigh different ideas. She was confident enough in her parenting that she trusted me to make the right decision about my beliefs. She had to be. And she loved books. She wanted my brother and me to become our own person, and she knew that what we read wasn't going to be the one deciding factor in how we turned out.
In fact, I think I turned out pretty good. And I read all the smut I can get my hands on. Like Harry Potter. Loved me some Harry Potter. Or The Golden Compass. Because I always look to the fantasy genre as a solid substitute for church. Or Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry. Because I learn some good words in books, and once I learn a word, there's no stopping my mouth from repeating it. Or Captain Underpants. ...Really? Captain Underpants??? COME ON.
For more information on Banned Books Week, including events, please visit www.bannedbooksweek.org, or contact the ALA Office for Intellectual Freedom at 1-800-545-2433, ext. 4220, or bbw@ala.org.
(Upon reviewing the most recent lists, I've decided I absolutely HAVE TO HAVE this challenged book. Same-sex guinea pigs? It's like a dream come true! Read the Douglas County, Colorado library director's response here.)
Banned Books Week, held every year during the last week of September, is dedicated to raising awareness about the benefits of free access, as well as the harms of censorship. The efforts of teachers, librarians, booksellers, and communities have all come together each year to help prevent bannings, no matter what the material. The cornerstone of BBW is the freedom to express and allow access to ideas (especially ideas in print), no matter how "unorthodox" or "unpopular" those ideas are.
From ALA's web site:
Over the past eight years, American libraries were faced with 3,736 challenges.
- 1,225 challenges due to “sexually explicit” material;
- 1,008 challenges due to “offensive language”;
- 720 challenges due to material deemed “unsuited to age group”;
- 458 challenges due to “violence”
- 269 challenges due to “homosexuality”; and
Further, 103 materials were challenged because they were “anti-family,” and an additional 233 were challenged because of their “religious viewpoints.”
1,176 of these challenges (approximately 31%) were in classrooms; 37% were in school libraries; 24% (or 909) took place in public libraries. There were less than 75 challenges to college classes; and only 36 to academic libraries. There are isolated cases of challenges to materials made available in or by prisons, special libraries, community groups, and student groups. The majority of challenges were initiated by parents (almost exactly 51%), while patrons and administrators followed behind (10% and 8% respectively).
I just can't fathom any reason why anyone would go to such lengths to keep books away from the public. The public. People they don't know. My mom wouldn't let me read books with boys and girls on the cover when I was a kid (this amounted to at least half of The Babysitters Club series), but she never told other people's children what was or wasn't good for them. She never once, in front of us, told our teachers how to do their jobs (granted, I guess we were enrolled in Catholic school for the majority of our lives -- essentially, an extenion of our home belief system). Still, she knew she couldn't control every aspect of our lives. I think she definitely wanted to know, and had a right to know, what we were being taught in school, but she knew it wasn't ultimately up to her to decide what information came to us and what was rejected. Instead, it was her role to teach us how to deal with our own perception of that information, and to help us understand our choices. This is not to say she didn't try her darnedest to instill her own values in us. She fought us pretty hard on a lot of things. But she was always so proud of me for loving books, and loving to read, loving to learn, loving to weigh different ideas. She was confident enough in her parenting that she trusted me to make the right decision about my beliefs. She had to be. And she loved books. She wanted my brother and me to become our own person, and she knew that what we read wasn't going to be the one deciding factor in how we turned out.
In fact, I think I turned out pretty good. And I read all the smut I can get my hands on. Like Harry Potter. Loved me some Harry Potter. Or The Golden Compass. Because I always look to the fantasy genre as a solid substitute for church. Or Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry. Because I learn some good words in books, and once I learn a word, there's no stopping my mouth from repeating it. Or Captain Underpants. ...Really? Captain Underpants??? COME ON.
For more information on Banned Books Week, including events, please visit www.bannedbooksweek.org, or contact the ALA Office for Intellectual Freedom at 1-800-545-2433, ext. 4220, or bbw@ala.org.
(Upon reviewing the most recent lists, I've decided I absolutely HAVE TO HAVE this challenged book. Same-sex guinea pigs? It's like a dream come true! Read the Douglas County, Colorado library director's response here.)
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