Ahira's Hangar

I liked the film adaptation of Of Mice and Men with Gary Sinise and John Malkovich. It was a very powerful story.

Looking over that big list...yeah, it's surprising how much people object to things like swearing and sexual content. As for the racial slurs: like you said, duchess, how are writers supposed to provide verisimilitude if their characters are all politically correct clones? And it's not like these books are hate literature.

Agreed.

--A

The thing is, some of these books that people want to ban for having racial slurs make very strong statements against racism. Of Mice and Men had that filthy "n" word with all of its historic weight of opression and racial hatred - but the book also took a very strong stand against racism. To Kill a Mockingbird and Huckleberry Finn also use the "n" word but are two of the books who have the strongest antiracism message out there anywhere. If you do not show how hideous racism is, it is difficult to send out a strong message against it.

Believe it or not, Catcher in the Rye is starting to grow on me. In about the fifth or sixth chapter it is revealed that the main character's beloved younger brother died. All of the alienation and rage and whining makes perfect sense now. This kid's heart is bleeding with unexpressed grief every minute of the day and night. He is slowly dying inside, and his parents keep sending him away to expensive boarding schools rather than address his very real and actual emotional issues.

Like Red Badge of Courage, this is intended to be a psychological portrait rather than a linear story.

Think I'll join the bandwagon and read a banned book despite the fact that I have already read quite a few on the list.

Damn, maybe I should reread Catcher...

--A

Which still means that there are facets to it I didn't see or appreciate at the time. *sigh* And I've so enjoyed not liking it...it'll be terrible to discover I was wrong...

--A

HAHAHAHHA! I'm sure you have been wrong before and will be wrong again, Av!

It happens less often than you'd think. But that might just be my ego talking.

--A

Banned Book Week starts on Saturday Sept. 26, 2009!

I have already started my choice this year - much as I enjoyed all of the banned novels in past years, yesterday I began Charles Darwin's Origin of Species.

Love this thread!

I wouldn't mind reading/re-reading a banned book, mostly because I can't remember most of the ones I've read (Lord of the Flies, Catch-22, Catcher in the Rye, Of Mice and Men etc) - and partly because I hated them as a teenager! I remember really enjoying Catch-22, but the rest I did read 1984 and Brave New World in my thirties, so appreciated them a bit more...

Problem is, I already have a large list of books on my "need to read" pile (and I'm a slow reader) - any relatively short ones you recommend?

Of Mice and Men was really short - to the point where it might be approaching being a novella rather than a novel.

Origin of Species is somewhat frustrating, as Darwin had great ideas and made these great detailed natural observations, but wrote the book before even simple Mendelian genetics was understood, much less all of our more advanced genetic knowledge of today. So it is driving me nuts when this obvious genius doesn't know as much as the average college bound high school student of today about some pretty basic biological ideas. He comes so close...but is still so far...

Not exactly on the topic of banned books; however, it does pertain a little. So in Florida around one month ago a you lady who was in a Tampa area High School and was enrolled in the school's International Baccalaureate Program (IBP). Her school had selected Murakami's Wind up Bird Chronicle as part of the IBP reading list and curriculum. The young lady in question protested this selection as a violation of her Christian morality, and she petitioned the school to remove this selection from the the school's IBP reading list. This seemed to generate some press in the local Tampa area. Many of the comments through letters to local newspapers said that maybe the student in question would have her perspectives expanded by reading something like WuBC; to which the student replied she does not her perspectives in the way Muakami would expand them.

It's one thing to object to reading a book due to your personal values, but it's quite another to demand that the book in question be removed from the reading list so that no others could have it (or even know about it). I think that's a step too far. That student may see herself as standing up for her religious values, but her attempt to effectively ban the book smacks of arrogance to me.

Was she not able to choose another book? Or did she have no choice but to accept that particular book or quit the program she was in? I might have more sympathy for her then. (Well, not very much. Any attempt by anyone, anytime, anywhere to ban a book rubs me the wrong way.)