Once upon a time, when my dad was young, he fought against book banning.
During the Jim Crow era, which did not end in our county (in Iowa) until 1964, he, along with other courageous folk (all fighting for civil rights), fought the good fight to keep books like To Kill A Mockingbird, by Harper Lee in our library.
Now I hear that the new-style progressives, which as far as I’m concerned are nothing more than old-style fascists, once again (seems like we must fight this same fight over and over) want books like To Kill A Mockingbird either banned from our public schools, our libraries and our universities or edited because the book uses the ‘N’ word, which is not PC.
Of course the word is not PC. We all know the word is not PC.
But the book reflects the time in which it was written. It’s a mirror, shows us the worst of us AND the best of us. There is nothing gratuitous about the use of the ‘N’ word in To Kill A Mockingbird.
If you’re interested, here’s a great discussion begun by a teacher: N-Word Or No N-Word, That Is The Question, by Debra Solomon Baker
I think we must be sensitive to every individual but at the same time we must know and understand our history. We must come to terms with bad stuff. And literature is literature. Great writers can be great teachers. Heck, the composer, Wagner, was a notorious Jew-hater and a racist. Hitler adored his music. I like his music. Think- Das Rheingold, Die Walkure, and Gotterdammerung. Does this mean Wagner should be banned worldwide? As a Jew and a person whose ancestors were mixed race, I don’t think so.
George Santayana: Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.
Let’s not repeat it. I’m opposed to book burning or book banning and I think we must always be cautious when it comes to censorship.
Otherwise we risk this-
I was a freshman English major sitting in a college literature class when Dr. Brunk gave reasons why Steinbeck’s works should not be altered to fit readers’ (and their parents’ and critics’) sensibilities.
My problem was not about altering books at that time. It was with Steinbeck; I’d never read anything by him. In our small south-eastern Kansas town (emphasis on the ‘south’ part), his books were banned from the school library and entirely left out of the course curriculums.
I spent that year, on my own, reading everything Steinbeck wrote, struggling to make up for the attitude of my hometown 250 miles away. In addition to those memories of my undercover catch up work, I still to this day agree with Dr. Brunk’s assessment that his works-and all writer’s works-should not be altered to fit changing sensibilities. If parents and schools and critics don’t like what’s between the pages, they can choose another book.
Fortunately, I spent most of my teaching career in a progressive h.s. where we English teachers could hand out lists of all the banned books and assign students to choose one book off the list to read and discuss each semester. Now THAT upset some parents and critics! But they never stopped us.
So courageous, Marylin! By the time I was in high school, if there were banned books we didn’t really know about them. My teachers insisted we read the books as written because they believed it was important to understand exactly what an author said, why he said it, what he meant, and the context of a story. I love Steinbeck. I believe he IS the great American novelist.
Yes, Kansas and Iowa. Similar attitudes back in the day - but people got over themselves pretty quick.
Diary of Anne Frank, 1984 (which was twenty years in the future when I was in high school), Jude the Obscure, Jungle, Grapes of Wrath…all required reading when I was in High School. No one thought of updating them so we could understand them. That was the purpose of classroom discussion…
Oh totally Anny. Discussion is the word. Except the issue today isn’t understanding, it’s politically correct speech. I just read a tweet- there is not law that says we must never be offended. Sometimes we are offended. Boo-hoo. Diary of Anne Frank was quite controversial, as I recall. Still is. I also recall reading that her father edited it and left out some of the more personal material. Perhaps he had the right to do so, considering his entire family was murdered.
Well said Ladies, shit my 10 year old grand daughter borrowed my copy of ‘To Kill a Mockingbird and said granddad, Atticus really was a nice man wasn’t he, Marylin you’ll remember you reminded her it was not ‘HOW TO KILL A ….’ still makes me chuckle.
We had a chat about the N word after she looked it up and thought it was horrible. Should the word be there I asked.
“It’s important I think,” she replied after a while, “to know what people said and how they said it, so we can learn, so yes I think it should be there and it is an old book” there’s always a sting in the tail from kids ……
From the mouths of babes, Tom. Brilliant observation by your granddaughter.
I can’t believe this stupid idea is rearing its ugly head again. A few tears ago some folk wanted to delete the “n” word from mark Twain’s books. How dumb!!!
Give me a break!
The people who use the “n” word today in their every day language are blacks.
Censorship is censorship! Period.
I am really starting to get very worried about my beloved country!
Yeah Roberta. Seems this crap never goes away. I’m pretty worried as well.