Lately, the local library has found itself involved in some bad publicity and I am not talking just local, but on the national stage. The zealots on the library board passed a resolution that no book that contains violence, sex, curse words, or racism could be housed in the Young Adult section. Currently the library has spent hundreds of hours in overtime and removed thousands of books from the teen section. Of course, there has been malicious compliance. But the library staff is following the letter of the law, so to speak. I am not sure I blame them. I would not want to get fired because I missed the word "damn" in The Outsiders.
Here is the thing, the whole exercise is ridiculous. Little Jennifer is not going to get the vapors if she accidentally reads about sex, or a curse word. That wasn't true in 1923 and is not true today. Overwrought Karens at the library board need not be concerned little Johnny is going to read a book about teenagers with terminal cancer having intercourse and becoming a raging ball of hormones who only thinks about sex every thirteen seconds. He already is.
I grew up in the sixties and seventies, arguably a time far less enlightened than today. Besides, we are talking teens here. By the time I was thirteen I doubt there was a curse word I had not heard and probably said, even if I did not hear it at home. I also had a pretty good idea what was what when it came to S-E-X. Your milage may vary, but I am willing to bet the same was true for you. Today, any kid with a smart phone or computer can merely type the word Dicks and forget to add the "Sporting Goods" part or enter another word for cat and find more pictures than they can look at in a day on Google. Accessing any number of porn sites is as easy. Sure, I swear I am 18...
Here is a little-known fact. The librarian does not sit and read every book that comes into the library and determine where it should be shelved. The author, the publisher, and the Library of Congress provide that information. The cataloger has the info on a computer and the designated category is provided based on the ISBN. Non-fiction is assigned a Dewey Decimal number, Fiction a category. Young Adult books come already classified.
Determining what your kids read and watch is the role of the parent, not some public or semi-public official. Those who propose they should expose your six-year-old to sex and gender are just as evil as those who would determine what your teen should not read. It is hard enough to get kids to pick up a book, why make it more difficult?
Reactionary nuts wanted to ban dancing and burn books in the eighties classic Footloose. I thought we had moved beyond that kind of nonsense here in the suburbs long, long ago.
By all accounts, The Fault in Our Stars is a pretty good book. And I wouldn't have a problem with my grandchildren reading it when they get a little older. (They're 8 and 6.)
ReplyDeleteAnd I don't say that because it happened to be set mostly in the neighborhood where I grew up, even if the film itself was shot in Pittsburgh. I say that because it got good reviews and as an author myself, I'm sympathetic to the author.
The library board was stupid. As library boards tend to be in this third year of the third term of 0bama. (I gather, however, they got so much crap over this, they ended up putting it back in the teen section.)
I was tasked with bowdlerizing a book for fourth graders. I had to replace words like 'damn' with 'gosh.' The words I changed did not even belong in the book to make it a better book. And, the words I added were just tamer.
ReplyDeletebowdlerize definition.
emove material that is considered improper or offensive from (a text or account), especially with the result that the text becomes weaker or less effective:
"every edition of his letters and diaries has been bowdlerized"
I felt like it was good thing i did, yet I betrayed the author.
I am dead set against banning books.
If you admit you betrayed the author, it was by definition not a good thing.
ReplyDeleteI agree heartily.
ReplyDeleteWhen I was in 4th grade and read and comprehended at 16.4 college year the nuns took me to public library to obtain a Adult library card. Librarian asked what book I wanted to read so I went and pulled out Nero Wofe. She looked at nun and shook her head and said you can take 2 books. Both were that series. Brought them back on Saturday and she asked me to give her a verbal book report. Reported on both. She sighed and said I could take 3. No monitoring for "bad" words. Little did they know I had already read all my uncle's westerns. Bad guys, shoot em up's, soiled doves. And at 9 in 1950 I knew what soiled dove was.
ReplyDeletePP an author's work is like their child. It probably took them a year or more to birth it. Good or bad it's her child and every word change is a knife to her soul. Supreme Court decreed that porn could be watched in the public library on community computers in view of any one walking by. We had to take the Adult marking off every book in the library. And yes dirty old men come in and watch porn almost every day. Teen's only do it in groups so they can giggle together.
Let us go henceforth and banish thine Bible as it containeth many vile and horrendous passages!
ReplyDelete