from fallen saynte:
Ya know………
I have a grade ten education. A couple of years ago I decided I might want my grade 12 and had to take some tests to see where I scored in with the current curriculum. I scored in at a second year university level. Why? Cause I am so bright? No – I wish – but its because I read. I read anything and everything. When we moved into this house my wife decided she would count how many books we have while she was unpacking. She gave up at 2500. They range from Kids books to Harold Robbins to Robert Ludlum to Terry Brooks to collections on Philosophy and Psychology and pretty much everything in between.
See the thing about reading is this.
It keeps your mind alive. It gives you peace, pisses you off, makes you cry makes you horny, makes you disgusted but in any case causes a response and that is good for you. There is no bad reading. Even reading bad writers is good for you because it enlightens you on how much you understand about either the subject matter or just your own reading comprehension. It all comes down to what you expect out of the book.
When i read the Merideth Gentry Series I certainly am not looking for some great enlightenment about Fae culture but I am amused at it being brought into a modern world and being given an erotic twist. But that in itself makes me look outside of the boundaries the subject matter normally stays within. When we see someone on a pagan board like this post a review of some horrible book they read from Llewellyn – I think its good they read it. It incites conversation and debate and it makes us all know better where we stand on our own personal beliefs. That alone makes it worth it.
Something I find funny about the whole Kentucky Library debate is this though. They are flipping out about sexual content. Because this book was near the other graphic novels. Ya know the ones depicting massive violence and death. But a dude fondling a naked chick? OH MY MUTHA FUCKIN GOD!!! LETS GET RID OF THAT!!! THE GOSH DARN KIDS MIGHT LEARN ABOUT FOREPLAY AND THAT AIN’T IN THE GOOD BOOK!
Crazy world we live in.
There are libraries across the country – especially in the Bible belt – that have banned books like Tom Sawyer, Catcher in The Rye, etc. In fact there are spates of book-burning, almost anything but the Christian Bible.
I hate this!
Book banning is not new of course. James Joyces' Ulysses was banned until sometime in fifties (I don't remember exactly how that went). Ignorant people will go to great lengths to suppress knowledge. Knowledge scares the hell out of them.
There are books so sexually explicit I wouldn't want my grandchildren reading them. Some books are written simply for the sake of dirty words to satisfy dirty minds. These are just porn books, not a lot different than Internet porn.
But Tom Sawyer ain't porn.
This is the result of our Puritan forefathers. They left England for religious freedom, then suppressed it in this country.
I like "I believe in God, not religion." That sums it up for me.
Great post Mari.
When I first heard about Banned Book Week, I made it a point to check out a list and compare it to my high school's required reading list and our suggested (extra credit) reading list. Just about everything we were required to read was on the banned list – and a lot of the suggested list was there, too. I was appalled.