so it appears
The big stink over a teacher giving a student a "pornographic" comic book is actually a Dan Clowes Graphic Novel of some sort. The school won't give details, probably fearing a first amendment backlash.
I have never seen a Clowes book with anything coming close to pornography (though the definition of the word in these conservative times seems as pliable as the scientific definition of the word 'theory' to creationists). But a good bit of Clowes work is also not suitable for 13 year olds. There maybe some 13 year old clowes fans out there, lord only knows, you can correct me... but I can sort of see the schools stance if this teacher gave a mature readers book to a 13 year old.
It would be easier to understand if we knew what the book in question was. The school is probably not going to tell. Some people are savvy enough to know what is art and what is not, and they don't want a bunch of New York liberals coming down to tell them how to run a Connecticut school.
I have to say, when I first heard this, I knew it was going to be something weird but not true porn. I just expect it in this day and age...
(Of course I was the geek hero of my High School for sneaking in Faust and Black Kiss comics to class. You didn't even see porn that 'far out' under your dad's bed in the wilds of Kentucky, so even the football team guys and the popular kids were curious enough to want to take a look. There is probably a lesson I should've learned from that too. But I was having too much fun showing people demon sex and snakes in ver-jay-jay's)
I have never seen a Clowes book with anything coming close to pornography (though the definition of the word in these conservative times seems as pliable as the scientific definition of the word 'theory' to creationists). But a good bit of Clowes work is also not suitable for 13 year olds. There maybe some 13 year old clowes fans out there, lord only knows, you can correct me... but I can sort of see the schools stance if this teacher gave a mature readers book to a 13 year old.
It would be easier to understand if we knew what the book in question was. The school is probably not going to tell. Some people are savvy enough to know what is art and what is not, and they don't want a bunch of New York liberals coming down to tell them how to run a Connecticut school.
I have to say, when I first heard this, I knew it was going to be something weird but not true porn. I just expect it in this day and age...
(Of course I was the geek hero of my High School for sneaking in Faust and Black Kiss comics to class. You didn't even see porn that 'far out' under your dad's bed in the wilds of Kentucky, so even the football team guys and the popular kids were curious enough to want to take a look. There is probably a lesson I should've learned from that too. But I was having too much fun showing people demon sex and snakes in ver-jay-jay's)