Well, I'm back. Those of you optimistically hoping for an announcement of my untimely demise or incarceration can pour two fingers and celebrate, one way or another. Actually, I've been in a bit of a writing slump and just didn't care to get off my lazy ass and write something.
Back in the bad old days (1958 or so) there was a children's book entitled The Story of Little Black Sambo, written and illustrated by Scottish author Helen Bannerman and published by Grant Richards in October 1899. Over the years the NAACP and all kinds of other groups either objected to it as being racist, or supported it as being a nice children's story. I owned a copy, an old one, and didn't find it racist at all. As it turned out, the story is about a child from India, not Africa, who outwits a bunch of tigers who want to eat him, but fail to do so due to Sambo's bravery and intelligence. Our local library banned it, which my parents thought was wrong. It was then that I learned about banned books and the importance of being able to read.
I ran across this someplace or other, and the book burners are still at it.
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| Short Banned Books List |
I've read most of these books, but somehow never got around to reading Go Ask Alice by Anonymous, published about 1974. I picked up a copy and am about two-thirds of the way through. I'll post a review once I've finished, but so far I've found it mildly interesting.
Years ago I read Lord of the Flies by William Golding, and it made quite an impression on me. I was about the same age as the main characters in the story, and was in junior high (middle school to some) when I read it. I looked my classmates over carefully, wondering how they would do if they were marooned on a desert island. I concluded that society would develop much like the it did in the novel, and would continue to become more violent until someone inevitably murdered someone else. The killing would eventually cease, and the rest would starve to death unless rescued.
Ah, well. Such is life.
4 comments:
I have only read all of 2 of 'em. One was #1, and I frankly found it stupid. The other was five, and I was fascinated how the use of language could make what should have been a boring story interesting.
#4, 10, 12, and the first two of them multiple times.
Read Lord of the Flies in 7th grade and then saw an UK film of the book. Our English honors teacher asked what we thought of book. The boys all loved it. Live on a tropical island, fish and hunt all day, no school. Not what we were supposed to get from the novel at all I guess. Piggy was jerk IMHO.
CW: I agree about The Catcher in the Rye, which is either beyond me or dry as dust. I liked The Grapes of Wrath and thought it was pretty realistic.
Neon: You probably read Tom Sawyer as well. Years ago I briefly dated a single mother of three boys (8, 6, and 5) and discovered three things: 1, why she was single; 2, when I gave her Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn, she refused to read them to her kids who were just at the right age to enjoy the stories; 3) there are times when you leave with your hat in your hand because it's faster that way. She objected to the ideas of slavery and - whatever. She was stupid. 1984 made an impression on me, and I read it twice. The trouble I had was that I could see it happening.
Gerry: I bet the English teacher had a fit, but that was one of the things that struck me about the book - no school, no asshole adults screaming at you day and night, hunt, fish, and explore the island. Yeah, things could be a whole lot worse. While many of the kids in my school would have starved to death, I could actually build a fire and cook stuff. I'd have paid a double sawbuck for a seat in your class just to watch the teacher and the girls. No flush toilets?! Ewwwwww!!!!
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