Re: banning CATCHER
Camille Scaysbrook (verona_beach@geocities.com)
Fri, 18 Jun 1999 19:48:43 +1000
This all reminds me of an item I once read in `Mad' magazine (yes, as a
true postmodernist even I go lowbrow occasionally) which was a picture of a
teenage boy salivating over a copy of `Catcher in the Rye' with a caption
like `Do those people who ban books really believe kids are going to head
straight to their local libraries for a bit of titillation'? Book banning
is akin to book burning which is akin to fascism. I've seen the moral
minority at work in my own country via the `Lolita' crap (which in any case
was all a stunt to get a conservative independent MP onto the government's
side anyway) and it ain't pretty. Still, like Jason said it inspires you to
read a helluva lot of fine literature you may not have thought of otherwise
(:
Camille
verona_beach@geocities.com
@ THE ARTS HOLE http://www.geocities.com/Hollywood/Theater/6442
@ THE INVERTED FOREST http://www.angelfire.com/pa/invertedforest
> > Hello, all.
> >
> > I would like to come out in defense of the reoccuring plan to ban CITR.
It
> > is a dangerous book. Nevermind the languge; there's worse on
prime-time tv.
> > In fact, it is dangerous because of its subtlety and underlying
themes.
> > The same people who want to ban Salinger are the ones who find
independant
> > thinking frightening. People shouldn't be put through the ringer of
new
> > ideas and strange thoughts.
> > This is the same group that hated Wycliffe, because knowledge in the
hands
> > of the public is.... unpredictable.
> > We need to support the idea of banning. Not banning per se, just the
idea
> > of it. Do you think more than a handful of people would have read the
> > Bible's English trans. if the church hadn't fought it tooth-and-nail?
> > Thank god, (with a small g) for groups that directly affect my life due
to
> > their close proximity to me, like Coloradans for Family Values. Groups
like
> > this pointed my way as a youth towards books that I may have otherwise
> > neglected, thanks to their banning wish list.
> > The old saying "It takes all kinds" is so true: these bizarros work as
a
> > near-perfect inverse barometer.
> > Thank you, Jerry Falwell, Pat Robertson, et al., you freaks have shown
me
> > the light, or at least where I should be looking for it.
> >
> > Thor
>
> Have to agree with Thor on this one. In High School I considered the
> banned book list my summer reading list. In my high school we also had a
> pretty crafty English teacher who had the list posted on the wall. She
> kept the books in strong box in her closet. (she used to like to show
the
> covers to the class) Every year she'd recruit a few seniors to spread
the
> rumor that the combonation was 12-34-02 for the lock. Inevitably people
> stole books from the box. I stole _1984_. (isn't it funny our school
> banned this book) She later told me she has tons of copies of these
books
> in her garage at home that she gets from flea markets and the like. She
> hopes they get stolen. Thank you Mrs. Hornick, for understanding simple
> teen psychology.
>
> -j