Personally, I try to keep my politics to myself. I’m well aware of the fact that most people will disagrees with me on at least one major issue. There are plenty of controversial issues that are difficult, if not impossible, to sway people on, and only lead to angry, unhappy arguments. So, I’m okay having some idea of what way my friends lean politically, and letting them be.
But when you mess with libraries, you cross the line.
From an article at Time on Sarah Palin:
“She asked the library how she could go about banning books,” he says, because some voters thought they had inappropriate language in them. “The librarian was aghast.” That woman, Mary Ellen Baker, couldn’t be reached for comment, but news reports from the time show that Palin had threatened to fire Baker for not giving “full support” to the mayor.
The New York Times has a similar report. Now, I’m sure that Mike won’t worry too much- no one uses libraries, right? But the issue of censorship is one of those things that really bothers me. Hundreds of books, across history, have been banned, many for pointless reasons that ignore the deeper value of the literature. For the government to try to block literature that a small minority objects to is abhorrent to me. Very disappointing.
Besides, claiming Palin’s the first candidate in the history of either party who knows how to field dress a moose? Teddy Roosevelt harumphs in disapproval at your claims, sir.
Okay, enough about that. For better book news, Harper Collins has put up another one of Neil Gaiman’s books online for a limited time. This time, they’re offering Neverwhere, the story of a man living a regular life who gets caught up in a mysterious, hidden world buried deep below the streets of London. I first found Neil Gaiman’s writing through Terry Pratchett and Good Omens, but Neverwhere was the first solo work of his that I read, and it is still one of my favorite books of all time. Gaiman does a great job of creating a fantasy world, and using the geography of London as a framework for it. Gaiman originally wrote the story as a BBC miniseries, and then wrote it into a novel as they were filming. It’s out on DVD now, but I recommend the novel- the miniseries is good, but there’s no budgetary restrictions in the special effects of literature.
Finally, there was a nice letter in the Arizona Republic letters to the editor today, praising the necessity of librarians in schools today. Booyor, your fanclub grows each day.
Semi-related posts:
It’s also funny the “scoop” (blah! to puns) that the L.A. Times puts forth. Do I really need to know that John McCain eats sorbet? That should be on TMZ.
Woo to free ebooks! Woo times two for Neil Gaiman ebooks! Thanks for the score.
Fan club? Dark Legion!
Yeah, the sorbet thing seems like it’s not even significant enough to be classified as a non-issue. Should Arizonans be upset everytime McCain or Obama eats something other than Mexican food? Wait, or would eating Mexican food indicate that they’re too soft on illegal immigration? Does all foreign food mean they’re not loyal enough to America? Now I’m confused.
Besides, sorbet is delicious. His bold choice of refreshing frozen treat shows he’s not tied down to the traditional roles that are holding our country back. John McCain- Dessert Maverick.
Did you see the list of books she supposedly tried to have banned? It’s been circulating all over the web:
A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess
A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle
Annie on My Mind by Nancy Garden
As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner
Blubber by Judy Blume
Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
Bridge to Terabithia by Katherine Paterson
Canterbury Tales by Chaucer
Carrie by Stephen King
Catch-22 by Joseph Heller
Christine by Stephen King
Confessions by Jean-Jacques Rousseau
Cujo by Stephen King
Curses, Hexes, and Spells by Daniel Cohen
Daddy’s Roommate by Michael Willhoite
Day No Pigs Would Die by Robert Peck
Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller
Decameron by Boccaccio
East of Eden by John Steinbeck
Fallen Angels by Walter Myers
Fanny Hill (Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure) by John Cleland
Flowers For Algernon by Daniel Keyes
Forever by Judy Blume
Grendel by John Champlin Gardner
Halloween ABC by Eve Merriam
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone by J.K. Rowling
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets by J.K. Rowling
Harry Potter and the Prizoner of Azkaban by J.K. Rowling
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire by J.K. Rowling
Have to Go by Robert Munsch
Heather Has Two Mommies by Leslea Newman
How to Eat Fried Worms by Thomas Rockwell
Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou
Impressions edited by Jack Booth
In the Night Kitchen by Maurice Sendak
It’s Okay if You Don’t Love Me by Norma Klein
James and the Giant Peach by Roald Dahl
Lady Chatterley’s Lover by D.H. Lawrence
Leaves of Grass by Walt Whitman
Little Red Riding Hood by Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm
Lord of the Flies by William Golding
Love is One of the Choices by Norma Klein
Lysistrata by Aristophanes
More Scary Stories in the Dark by Alvin Schwartz
My Brother Sam Is Dead by James Lincoln Collier and Christopher Collier
My House by Nikki Giovanni
My Friend Flicka by Mary O’Hara
Night Chills by Dean Koontz
Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck
On My Honor by Marion Dane Bauer
One Day in The Life of Ivan Denisovich by Alexander Solzhenitsyn
One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest by Ken Kesey
One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Ordinary People by Judith Guest
Our Bodies, Ourselves by Boston Women’s Health Collective
Prince of Tides by Pat Conroy
Revolting Rhymes by Roald Dahl
Scary Stories 3: More Tales to Chill Your Bones by Alvin Schwartz
Scary Stories in the Dark by Alvin Schwartz
Separate Peace by John Knowles
Silas Marner by George Eliot
Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.
Tarzan of the Apes by Edgar Rice Burroughs
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain
The Bastard by John Jakes
The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger
The Chocolate War by Robert Cormier
The Color Purple by Alice Walker
The Devil’s Alternative by Frederick Forsyth
The Figure in the Shadows by John Bellairs
The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck
The Great Gilly Hopkins by Katherine Paterson
The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood
The Headless Cupid by Zilpha Snyder
The Learning Tree by Gordon Parks
The Living Bible by William C. Bower
The Merchant of Venice by William Shakespeare
The New Teenage Body Book by Kathy McCoy and Charles Wibbelsman
The Pigman by Paul Zindel
The Seduction of Peter S. by Lawrence Sanders
The Shining by Stephen King
The Witches by Roald Dahl
The Witches of Worm by Zilpha Snyder
Then Again, Maybe I Won’t by Judy Blume
To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee
Twelfth Night by William Shakespeare
Webster’s Ninth New Collegiate Dictionary by the Merriam-Webster Editorial Staff
Witches, Pumpkins, and Grinning Ghosts: The Story of the Halloween Symbols by Edna Barth
The funny thing is, Harry Potter wasn’t even Published when she is said to have asked about banning books these books.
According to the Alaska Library Association’s Intellectual Freedom Committee, no books were banned. The chairwoman of the ALAIFC (since 1984) also said that she never heard anything about this from the librarian in question regarding Palin’s “request.” The librarian (Mary Ellen Emmons (now actually Mary Ellen Baker) was actually the president of the Alaska Library Association at the time. It seems if the president of the state’s library association was feeling pressured to ban books, she would have contacted the ALAIFC, right? FURTHERMORE, it has been reported by a local Alaskan paper that Palin later tried to fire the librarian (as well as other members of the city staff who were hired by the previous mayor) because she didn’t think the librarian (who campaigned for the past mayor and against Palin) supported her. Palin later decided to let Emmons keep her job after the “loyalty test.”
And just because Teddy Roosevelt was in the Bull Moose Party doesn’t mean he could field dress a moose. Shoot a moose, yes.
Devin, rest assured, books will not be banned in a McCain/Palin administration. But more libraries will probably go digital…as they will in an Obama/Biden administration.