re: #147 wheat-dogghazi

Some of the challenges and bans usually result from one or two soreheads reading an offensive word, sentence or paragraph in a book, and outrageous outrage ensues, and they want the whole book removed forever from everywhere. 11ty1!! Seldom do these people bother reading the whole book.

Literature expresses the culture in which it was written. Shakespeare’s Shylock was an acceptable stereotype in the 17th century, though not now. Mark Twain’s use of the n-word was typical for the location and the time period, but now that same word is verboten, in most situations. Does this mean kids shouldn’t read Huckleberry Finn or The Merchant of Venice? I would argue no, because they can learn something about history and how culture and language change over time.

Some of the latest books get into trouble because of sexual situations or four-letter words — oh, the horror! — as if today’s kids don’t know about any of that stuff. But the Nervous Nellies wanting to ban these books feel they are protecting their kids, and everyone else’s kids, from eternal damnation — or something.

Tell a kid she can’t read something, and it guarantees she will. These parents just don’t get that concept.

A couple years ago there was some parent who was trying to get dictionaries banned from an elementary school because they contained definitions for the proper names of genital anatomy.