Skip to main content

Harrowing Acts of Courage (not really)

It's apparently Banned Books Week. 

I've never gotten my knickers in a twist about banned books. I dunno, I just don't really mind. There're a ton of books out there to read, and you can TRY to ban something, but people'll get it anyway, and probably be more likely to look at it because it was banned. Soooo I don't really see the harm. Other than letting the idiots win. But those idiots aren't going to learn anyway; they'll just see themselves as martyrs up against a morally profligate age if the books remain unbanned, so let them feel that way, don't ban books, and everyone's happy.

That all being said, I have indeed suffered for the cause of banned books. *looks heroic* I went to a Christian high school whose (unofficial) policy was that if anything was controversial, it was banned. I tend to be somewhat contrarian (not you, Alice!), so I was moved to extreme teenage anger anytime something new got banned.

Being a Christian/Pentecostal school, and me being in high school during the time the Harry Potter craze reached fever pitch, those books swiftly became an issue. And without much discussion, our principal banned them. She's a lovely woman, but I obviously disagreed with her. You weren't allowed to bring the books into the school, our library definitely couldn't carry them (although I heard a rumor that our school librarian had secret copies she passed out), and any kind of Harry Potter merchandise was banned.

How did I suffer for this? In the lamest way possible. Because I have a Hogwarts t-shirt that I've owned for probably ten or eleven years. It just has the Hogwarts crest on it, meaning if you hadn't read the books, you couldn't be sullied by it. But someone told my English teacher it had to do with Harry Potter and I got a detention. A DETENTION. Boo. But at least the students of my school would be safe from my controversial shirt.

There were two other delightful school interactions, both with idiot boys. One of them I remember hadn't read the books, and we had this exchange:

"ONE OF THE CHARACTERS DRINKS UNICORN BLOOD."
"YEAH, THE EVIL CHARACTER."

The other one stamped on a copy of one of the books and I jumped on his back. I was a lot more sprightly back then.

Don't ban books. Unless you totally know what's right for everyone else. Then you're good.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Harry Potter 2013 Readalong Signup Post of Amazingness and Jollity

Okay, people. Here it is. Where you sign up to read the entire Harry Potter series (or to reminisce fondly), starting January 2013, assuming we all survive the Mayan apocalypse. I don't think I'm even going to get to Tina and Bette's reunion on The L Word until after Christmas, so here's hopin'. You guys know how this works. Sign up if you want to. If you're new to the blog, know that we are mostly not going to take this seriously. And when we do take it seriously, it's going to be all Monty Python quotes when we disagree on something like the other person's opinion on Draco Malfoy. So be prepared for your parents being likened to hamsters. If you want to write lengthy, heartfelt essays, that is SWELL. But this is maybe not the readalong for you. It's gonna be more posts with this sort of thing: We're starting Sorceror's/Philosopher's Stone January 4th. Posts will be on Fridays. The first post will be some sort of hilar

Minithon: The Mini Readathon, January 11th, 2020

The minithon is upon us once more! Minithons are for the lazy. Minithons are for the uncommitted. Minithons are for us. The minithon lasts 6 hours (10 AM to 4 PM CST), therefore making it a mini readathon, as opposed to the lovely Dewey's 24 Hour Readathon and 24in48, both of which you should participate in, but both of which are a longer commitment than this, the Busy Watching Netflix person's readathon. By 'read for six hours' what's really meant in the minithon is "read a little bit and eat a lot of snacks and post pictures of your books and your snacks, but mostly your snacks." We like to keep it a mini theme here, which mainly means justifying your books and your snacks to fit that theme. Does your book have children in it? Mini people! Does it have a dog! Mini wolf! Does it have pencils? Mini versions of graphite mines! or however you get graphite, I don't really know. I just picture toiling miners. The point is, justify it or don't

How to Build a Girl Introductory Post, which is full of wonderful things you probably want to read

Acclaimed (in England mostly) lady Caitlin Moran has a novel coming out. A NOVEL. Where before she has primarily stuck to essays. Curious as we obviously were about this, I and a group of bloggers are having a READALONG of said novel, probably rife with spoilers (maybe they don't really matter for this book, though, so you should totally still read my posts). This is all hosted/cared for/lovingly nursed to health by Emily at As the Crowe Flies (and Reads) because she has a lovely fancy job at an actual bookshop ( Odyssey Books , where you can in fact pre-order this book and then feel delightful about yourself for helping an independent store). Emily and I have negotiated the wonders of Sri Lankan cuisine and wandered the Javits Center together. Would that I could drink with her more often than I have. I feel like we could get to this point, Emily INTRODUCTION-wise (I might've tipped back a little something this evening, thus the constant asides), I am Alice. I enjoy