Fearless Friday - Banned Book Week

[wordsrmylife]

After a weekend spent celebrating the book (Burlington Book Festival, 9/23-9/25), it's been odd to think about people saying no to books. But that's what banning books is. Censorship is also a form of bullying, because it's about applying power to control, or at least to try to control others. That's not what this country is about; that's what

Comments

[rymrytr]

In one of Ray Bradbury interviews, he indicated that the jist of Fharenhite 451 was not so much censorship, but how Television would cause people to drop away from "reading" and start to accept what they viewed, as the truth. Sort of a, "if they say it on TV, it must be true". (my thought: And of course, TV would be World Government controlled

[wordsrmylife]

That's a fascinating thought, especially since we're so close to it. At least, for me, once I have read a book that strikes me deeply, it is in my mind, and remains there, even when I return the printed book to the library or my shelf.

[jbknowles]

*applauds*

[wordsrmylife]

:-}

[patesden]

Great post. It makes me grateful that I had fantastic open-minded teachers when I was young.

[wordsrmylife]

Hmm. I'm trying to remember if I had open-minded teachers. Probably, at least in high school, because several of them were straight out of Goddard College, bastion of hippie-dom. But I think the others were more about encouraging us to think than about wanting us to think something in particular. I certainly do remember being extremely put off when my younger sister had a Christian Scientist for 1st grade and she came home and reported that the class had prayed for my paper cut to heal (this was back in the '60s). So I guess I was lucky.

[patesden]

LOL. The praying over a paper cut would make a great story.

I recall in 8th grade one English teacher had us study the Beatle's music for class. I actually didn't like that. I recall thinking: yeah, Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds is LSD, now let's move on to something more challenging, like real poetry.

Oh, well. I'm moving off topic here.

[wordsrmylife]

You're right about the story possibility. Someday.

Let me see--in 7th grade English I had a teacher who made us a) memorize the Greek alphabet and b) memorize the prologue to the Canterbury tales. Both of them were odd and yet I didn't mind. I don't remember a single thing about 8th grade English, including who the teacher was. That says a lot right there. Studying the Beatles would have been cool and memorable (and completely out of keeping with any of my encounters with the education system).