Literature is, so far from being the property of “guardians of culture,” now that of the politically motivated despoilers of traditional culture. Most of his fellow professors have no interest in the “great” works of the Western tradition—indeed, they reject the very idea of “greatness”—except to “deconstruct” it, along with the works to which it has been attributed, showing how their unexamined political assumptions have tended to reinforce the patriarchal, imperialist, racist, and homophobic foundation on which traditional societies have been built. Only now, in the work of our most advanced theorists, have these assumptions finally been brought to light and exposed for what they are.
Yesterday, I had lunch with Jen Berger, the high school student who was my intern during the final month of my tenure as book-review editor at The Inquirer. She likes Willa Cather less than I do. She found My Ántonia a slog, and thought O Pioneers! better. She thinks (as I do) that Slaughterhouse Five is overrated and that Elizabeth Gilbert's Eat, Pray, Love is repellently self-centered. She was very impressed, though, by Brave, New World. These are just some of the books she has read recently and that we talked about. Now Jen is an exceptional young lady. But she is far from being the only person her age that I know who is passionate about reading books.
Jenny (age 13 a couple of weeks ago) went back to school today. The first book she'll be reading? Of Mice and Men. Can't be all bad.
ReplyDeleteThe Google generation is getting all the world's libraries of books digitised for free. It's a cornucopia. There will always be people who love reading (of whatever age) and civilisation will continue. I hope.
Brave New World?
ReplyDeleteOne of the books Sarah Palin wanted banned from the Wasilla Public Library when she was mayor. Geez, I can't wait til SHE'S Vice-President!
-blue
Unfortunately, Blue, that is a book on the list of books that have been banned in the U.S. as a whole over time, not the list of any books Palin asked to have banned. In fact, I can't find any such list of books, though there is a story that she did discuss banning books. Being an old-time newsguy, I like to have everything nailed down before making accusations.It does wonders for your credibility.
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ReplyDeleteNot being any kind of newsguy, I was taking a news story out of Boston and another from a Poetry Facebook group and smashin' 'em together.
ReplyDeleteSo BNW wasn't one of the books? Which books were on her list?
-blue
To understand further why it is useful to nail down all the details before firing off an accusation, see The Trail of a Comment(courtesy of Dave Lull). I didn't link to this in the main portion of the blog because this is not a political blog! I will not be endorsing any candidate here (who would give a damn if I did?).
ReplyDeleteSorry, Judith, that is the list I just linked to. It is not a list of books that Palin wanted banned. It is the list of all books that have been banned in the U.S. at one time or another. The list you post was lifted from the one I linked to and falsely attributed to Palin.
ReplyDeleteI can find no list of books she wanted banned. She apparently raised the question in a discussion (some people do think some books are inappropriate for certain age groups, so it possible the question was raised neutrally). I don't approve of banning books, but I'll discuss it with anybody. Geez.
ReplyDeleteWeird; I didn't check the link cited; but, it seemed credible to me because of what the rarin peeps wrote:
ReplyDeletenote: there’s some buzz being generated that says that this post contains a comment that lists the books that Palin supposedly wanted banned. The list is here, but there appears to be no truth to the claim made by the commenter, and no further documentation or support for this has turned up.
Hence, I assumed it was just simply a kind of legalistic "allegedism" or covering-its-ass caveat; and, of course, the road to help is paved with good preventions.
No, of course this isn't a political blog, Frank; that would be dull. I'm simply relieved you caught the error so quickly because a claim is not the same as a fact.
ReplyDeleteIf the list were real, the focus would have been literary (not moral, ethical, nor political).
As best as I can understand it, now I've done some reading on this bugabrouhaha, during her tenure as mayor, she asked the town's public librarian how to remove a book from the institution's holdings. She said it was a rhetorical question (but, she meant it was a theoretical one), not a practical one.
The librarian was "aghast" that she would even ask about such an action; but, I don't see why the librarian would be offended (given she had no knowledge of Palin's motivation for asking in the first place; i.e., she might have been asking in someone else's behalf, right?).
Anyway, it appears this trumour started with a poster on librarian.net and, again, I am glad you were on it so quickly (because no self-respecting person would want to be attached to furthering a falsehood). Feel free to correct me if I'm still misunderstanding it.
Generally, the issue of censorship and its attendant balls of worms interest me since, again, it's a local, not a universal, experience. The question wasn't asked of a school librarian; rather, she posed it in a community repository.
All these issues line up on the slippery slope, IMO, and each has its own lobby group and slant; but, when does protection cross that line to become a Big-Brother-Is-Catching conundrum? In some communities, comic books would be on a list of banned materials, e.g. (And, it's cross-genre relevant, as well, affecting all expressions of art, not just literature.)
At any rate, no offense intended nor taken. Thanks for setting the record straight so quickly.
Hey, Judith, that's what makes blogging so much fun: the risk factor! What is amazing is that the Boston Globe didn't check better. Remember, I used to be a newspaper copy editor. One of our jobs was to flag anything we had doubts about (I remember being the subject of a scolding note for missing something about a building that was alleged to be the highest in a certain area and wasn't - always check anything with the -est suffix). That's what I meant being an old-time newsguy. The new ones seem to jump to conclusions a lot. For now, once more into the breach, dear friend ...
ReplyDeleteThe Google generation is indeed getting a cornucopia, but whether most of them will make use of it remains to be seen. I'm not too optimistic, but perhaps that's just my mindset. The young adults I know personally who read books are indeed passionate about them, but they're in the the minority. In any case, here's an example of the sort of thing the net can do:
ReplyDeletehttp://lowebrow.blogspot.com/2008/09/adventures-in-immediate-unreality.html