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Hey all, it's BBW (no, the other one)!!
You probably know this already, but it's Banned Book Week once again. What are we banning? Mostly Harry Potter, but that's not all. I don't mind telling you that I find the very idea of banned books funny, even as it is a microcosm for much that is wrong with American today.
I've heard people say What's so wrong with wanting to keep offensive material out of the hands of children? Nothing really, except that "offense" is in the eye of the beholder. Some parents think very moral books about kids away at school are utter blasphemy because the children have magic wands. Others think The Bible is far too violent or sexually explicit for anyone under say, 16. So, like most things, the responsibility falls on parents to monitor what their children read. But, there always seem to be those types who aren't content to monitor their OWN children, and want to decide what EVERYONE's children are allowed to check out of a library, bring to school, or even be allowed to purchase without a parent. I am pleased to say that even with all of my own youthful nuttiness, I have never, EVER been told I couldn't read a specific book.
I read The Love Machine by Jacqueline Susanne in junior high!! While reading it at lunchtime, a nun confiscated it from me, and called my mom. Mom told her to mind her own business and give me my book back--and didn't she know that while there was no commandment about what not to read, there was a rule against stealing. Ha HA! That's the thing about bi-polar parents, sometimes they are alarmingly cool.
I have to wonder if there's anything you could put in a book that would really, truly need to be banned. Some peice of knowlege or an idea so destructive that the world really is better off not knowing about it. I doubt it. I don't think there is any knowlege that lessens us simply by knowing it. But I'd be interested to know of a legitimate reason for book banning; something other than I don't want my kid to hear about that until I've brainwashed them enough that I'm sure they'll disregard/mock/deny it when they do hear it, which is pretty much how book banning feels to me.
H and I went to the craft store today so I could get some embroidery floss, hoops, cross-stitch cloth and a couple of those little counted cross stitch kits because it always feels like cheating to follow the lines. I may well end up doing some crewel work for holiday gifts since I already know I don't suck at it. But if![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
sleazeanna or sexyrockgoddess want to get together this week or next, I can totally clear some time for you's. I really do want to be able to do some simple knits and crochets. As I keep telling myself: I can do anything a blind old lady with arthritis can do! YEAH!!!
I will make H a scarf this year if I have to learn fuckin' macrame to do it. Maybe I can just tie a long succession of square knots until it looks like a scarf. That would be hilarious. Anyway, I'm not sure how we spent $60 on just a few small things at Michael's...it's a special skill of mine, I guess.
Then H and I rode the bus to Meijer so we could catch the #5 bus home. But that bus stopped running at 6 so we had to take a cab, even though we had already taken the bus farther away from where we live. At Meijer, they had this giant, inflatable gargoyle. It was bad ass. I wish I had room for it, because I would totally get one.
And now, I'm off to make a spicy potato soup with keilbasa. I love a nice homemade soup on a chilly day.
I've heard people say What's so wrong with wanting to keep offensive material out of the hands of children? Nothing really, except that "offense" is in the eye of the beholder. Some parents think very moral books about kids away at school are utter blasphemy because the children have magic wands. Others think The Bible is far too violent or sexually explicit for anyone under say, 16. So, like most things, the responsibility falls on parents to monitor what their children read. But, there always seem to be those types who aren't content to monitor their OWN children, and want to decide what EVERYONE's children are allowed to check out of a library, bring to school, or even be allowed to purchase without a parent. I am pleased to say that even with all of my own youthful nuttiness, I have never, EVER been told I couldn't read a specific book.
I read The Love Machine by Jacqueline Susanne in junior high!! While reading it at lunchtime, a nun confiscated it from me, and called my mom. Mom told her to mind her own business and give me my book back--and didn't she know that while there was no commandment about what not to read, there was a rule against stealing. Ha HA! That's the thing about bi-polar parents, sometimes they are alarmingly cool.
I have to wonder if there's anything you could put in a book that would really, truly need to be banned. Some peice of knowlege or an idea so destructive that the world really is better off not knowing about it. I doubt it. I don't think there is any knowlege that lessens us simply by knowing it. But I'd be interested to know of a legitimate reason for book banning; something other than I don't want my kid to hear about that until I've brainwashed them enough that I'm sure they'll disregard/mock/deny it when they do hear it, which is pretty much how book banning feels to me.
H and I went to the craft store today so I could get some embroidery floss, hoops, cross-stitch cloth and a couple of those little counted cross stitch kits because it always feels like cheating to follow the lines. I may well end up doing some crewel work for holiday gifts since I already know I don't suck at it. But if
sleazeanna or sexyrockgoddess want to get together this week or next, I can totally clear some time for you's. I really do want to be able to do some simple knits and crochets. As I keep telling myself: I can do anything a blind old lady with arthritis can do! YEAH!!!I will make H a scarf this year if I have to learn fuckin' macrame to do it. Maybe I can just tie a long succession of square knots until it looks like a scarf. That would be hilarious. Anyway, I'm not sure how we spent $60 on just a few small things at Michael's...it's a special skill of mine, I guess.
Then H and I rode the bus to Meijer so we could catch the #5 bus home. But that bus stopped running at 6 so we had to take a cab, even though we had already taken the bus farther away from where we live. At Meijer, they had this giant, inflatable gargoyle. It was bad ass. I wish I had room for it, because I would totally get one.
And now, I'm off to make a spicy potato soup with keilbasa. I love a nice homemade soup on a chilly day.
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One of my good friends is from Germany, where one must have at least graduated high school (I believe, either that or have a university degree) before being allowed to purchase/read Mein Kampf. This is not because the ideas are so destructive, per se, but because Hitler was just so damned persuasive of a speaker/writer, and anyone with a lesser education would not be able to think about it in context as completely as someone with higher education would.
Or at least that's my interpretation of that particular bit of law, and I'm sure it also has to do with the whole WWII sensitivity thing.
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the above argument is always trotted out as an excuse to ban things and is very patronising as it suggests that people can't make their own minds up
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I'd like to beleive that such a law is in place for the Greater Good. But that almost never happens, all laws have some kind of unsavory agenda--at least where I live.
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There isn't anything, in my opinion. But you probably knew that. ; )
Your soup sounds delish! Care to share the recipe?
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I rarely, if ever, use recipes for soup.
I browned a couple of big onions, Threw in some smooshed garlic, a few split chili's, and browned some polish keilbasa. Once that was browned I poured in some boxed chicken stock, added a goodly amount of yukon gold potatoes and some frozen broccoli. I then added some basamic vinegar and dry herbs (parsely, chives, celery), some crushed coriander seeds and peppercorns, Simmer for an hour and then I added some potato flakes just to thicken a bit and a bit of milk. Serve with sour cream.
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Yes! And it indicates a profound lack of trust for "the children" they are so keen on protecting. Children know when you don't trust them, and they resent it--as they should. Not to mention that banning something is the surest way to make sure kids want to read it. ;-]
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;-]
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;-]
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I prefer the method of expose and teach rather than hide...like parents that think their kids won't have sex unless they actually explain it to them!
Although, books like the Anarchist Cookbook scare me, not due to inherent evil...BUT, because kids can be idiots and blow themselves up.
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It is true, information is inherently dangerous. This is why all freedom comes with responsibility.
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when I was in fifth grade, a group of girls I hung out with at recess had been reading Forever by Judy Blume...I grew up reading Judy Blume books, and of course by that age you get curious about what sex and such is about...so I bought the book one day at Shopko...my mom read the first sentence (something about a person getting laid), and made me take it back...(and now that I think of it, she probably was aware of the book from when SHE was a teenager, since that's when it was first published)...that was her right as a parent, and now that I am older, I see how ten years old was too young...but even though I had to return it, I did find a way to read the forbidden book...I checked it out from the library when I was visiting my grandparents (and without parents) for a week...and then as an adult, I checked it out and read it again...and last year I bought it at a rummage sale that my old best friend that I had back at the time I first heard of the book, which is a neat way of getting a copy of my own...for some reason she had two...
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Judy Blume is pretty formative stuff, very frank compared to most other "children's books." But yeah...Forever is hardly Superfudge.
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