Rewriting books is doubleplusungood

[mldavis2]

How do we know where we're going when we can't see where we've been? If we excise every distasteful word, concept, topic and description from our literature, there is nothing left. The Old Testament books of the Bible will fall as well. Great editorial in the NY Times this morning about the issue.....

[Redcard]

Originally Posted by analogdrift

Is there evidence to support that argument? I do see Huckleberry Finn at number five on the American Library Association's list of The 100 Most Frequently Challenged Books of 1990–2001, but how often does a challenge result in the removal of a book from a library or a curriculum? An attempt to bar Huckleberry Finn from a public school would fall to a challenge in court.

Bowdlerization of books is pathetic, but let people do what they will.

Truncate your text,
Bind your own mind—
Literature soars,
Leaves you behind.

Honestly? I'd suspect it happens a lot more than you think. Schools don't have money to pay teachers reasonably nowadays, much less fight expensive lawsuits in court, and they'd rather just ban the book and move on to something else. Nobody really has standing to sue the school for banning a book from its curricula (it may still be in the library, may not) except the students, and the parents through being the students guardians. And they tend not to sue.

Many schools around here ban books in a more insidious manner, having the "reading list" from which students pick ten or twelve books a year and read them. If the book is not on the list, no matter the level, it doesn't "count." That is what happened to Harry Potter in many of the schools around where I live. The books remained in the school libraries, until a bunch of christian kids checked them out, and they were never seen again. It's suspected they burned the books. The library, getting a budget check and making the big purchase at the beginning and the end of the year, had no other options. Money is tight.

[abookreader]

Where I currently live I hardly ever hear of books being banned from schools in the form of The School Board has a meeting and takes a vote to have it removed from the School Library and all Teachers are Forbidden to assign it, mention it, or put it on their classroom shelves.

I do often talk to Teachers and if I ask them "Why do you choose this book? Do you ever use that book in your classroom?" I find that they are extremely aware of certain books or issues that are likely to cause trouble and they consciously make an effort to only utilize literature which will not cause a fuss.

Purchasing decisions for the library are much the same way. The Librarian has $XXXX and a list of books and she has to choose what will make it to the shelves. Controversial is a reason to exclude.

[rogue_librarian]

Originally Posted by Redcard

The books remained in the school libraries, until a bunch of christian kids checked them out, and they were never seen again. It's suspected they burned the books.

That reminds me of the Suicide Bunnies Incident... (If you're unfamiliar with Andy Riley's work and possess even one ounce of dark humor you owe it to yourself to check them out.)

[rogue_librarian]

Originally Posted by abookreader

I do often talk to Teachers and if I ask them "Why do you choose this book? Do you ever use that book in your classroom?" I find that they are extremely aware of certain books or issues that are likely to cause trouble and they consciously make an effort to only utilize literature which will not cause a fuss.

Yeah, lovely case of applied self-censorship. The Germans call it, literally "scissors in the head". We've always been at war with Eurasia.

[MrsJoseph]

Originally Posted by boxcorner

So, depending in which era and state someone was living, if they shouted, "There's a red under the bed", upon opening their front door they might be faced with either a lynch-mob, the FBI, or a CSI forensics team - having misheard "there's red" - arriving to determine its nature. The subtleties of the English language never cease to astound me.

LOL! Just to make it more confusing, "red" can also describe a light skinned black person (when short for "redbone") or a communist.

[mldavis2]

It is instructive, and somewhat pathetic, to scan a list of books that have been subject to censure by American schools and the American Library Association. A very partial list includes Uncle Tom's Cabin, A Farewell to Arms, The Grapes of Wrath, For Whom the Bell Tolls, Animal Farm, 1984, Doctor Zhivago, Lord of the Rings trilogy, Harry Potter, The Scarlet Letter, As I Lay Dying, Brave New World, Of Mice and Men, Diary of Anne Frank, The Catcher in the Rye, Fahrenheit 451 (book burning), To Kill a Mockingbird, Catch-22, The Color Purple, the list goes on, and I've left out the obvious sex of Peyton Place, Lady Chatterly's Lover, et. al. What trash! What second-rate authors!

Virtually every one of these is either on my to-read list or has been read. Am I now corrupted, having allowed these 'second rate' works into my impressionable mind? The real question, in keeping with the intent of this thread, is to ask the question, 'how could these books be re-written in such a way as to avoid the censors, yet still retain the essence of the literature?' When reading for college english classes, I did not rely on Cliff Notes or secondary analysis, or Reader's Digest summaries. I read the original, uncut version, and I still do. Altering even single words for a purpose is censorship of the original context and idea.

"As to the evil which results from a censorship, it is impossible to measure it, for it is impossible to tell where it ends." --Jeremy Bentham


"Censorship ends in logical completeness when nobody is allowed to read any books except the books that nobody reads." --George Bernard Shaw


If ultra-conservative parents, school districts and librarians choose to deny a child access to specific titles, I can assure you that, given a chance, those are the very first books they will seek when given a chance. If you don't like what's in a book, simply avoid it. I don't like a lot of what I see in the news about war, homicides, politics, traffic accidents and catastrophic events, but I read or listen to it to be more fully aware. We don't re-write the uncomfortable parts of Dante, Shakespeare or the Bible, nor should we replace with "N" word with 'slave' in Twain -- they have different meanings.

"Censorship, like charity, should begin at home, but, unlike charity, it should end there."--Clare Boothe Luce

[Redcard]

Originally Posted by abookreader

I do often talk to Teachers and if I ask them "Why do you choose this book? Do you ever use that book in your classroom?" I find that they are extremely aware of certain books or issues that are likely to cause trouble and they consciously make an effort to only utilize literature which will not cause a fuss.

And, in defense of teachers here, as my mom is one, they are told that they must do so many things. They must be on site at 6:00AM for when the busses show up and for breakfast duty two days a week. They must be on site after 4PM for meeting with parents one day every two weeks. They must be available 2 weekends a year without question. They must attend school the week before and the week after for in-service. They must take 3 weeks of education , of some type, UNPAID, during the summer months. They must teach 3 weeks of summer school, unpaid, during the summer months. They must do recess duty 2 times a week. They must submit to FBI and state BI background checks 3 times a year.

There's a ton of hassle and expectation already placed on them, and if they have two books, both of which equally teach a subject, they will always go for the one that results in less parents calling them at night and screaming at them for being godless heathens. They will always go for the one that won't have a lawyer trying to serve them papers for contributing to the delinquency of a minor. They'll go for the one that will not have unsigned envelopes appearing in their mailboxes telling them to stop teaching about "nigger lovers" or "dirty jews" or what not. Ahh, the south.

So it's hard to place blame on teachers here. The real problem is that school boards are elected officials, representatives of their communities, and therefore are unable to act in any interest outside the will of the mob. Therefore, they push the hard decisions down to the administrators.. who push it down to the teachers.. who punt.

[nashira]

Is anyone else getting the urge to read Twains works? >.>

The difference between the almost right word & the right word is really a large matter--it's the difference between the lightning bug and the lightning.
- Mark Twain.

He's an excellent man to quote.

[elcreative]

Hmmm, the only problem with this thread, is it's pretty much preaching to the converted... I doubt many people on this forum agree with re-editing for so-called Political Correctness. Trouble is we're not reaching the people who do these things... they may or may not be religious in their beliefs but what they are is absolutely convinced of the "rightness" of their position/ideas and anyone who disagrees must be wrong...

[MrsJoseph]

Originally Posted by abookreader

I do often talk to Teachers and if I ask them "Why do you choose this book? Do you ever use that book in your classroom?" I find that they are extremely aware of certain books or issues that are likely to cause trouble and they consciously make an effort to only utilize literature which will not cause a fuss.

When I was in school (both HS and college) we constantly discussed the reasons for book choices. I was always advocating for more interesting (thus harder) text than we were assigned. We were told that the major factor in deciding which books to teach was the length. Most of the books taught were under 200 pages. So instead of reading interesting subjects (at the time I was heavily into epic poetry and Greek/Roman mythology), I was forced to endure The Awakening, The Scarlett Letter, and Bartleby the Scrivener multiple times.
I finally got ONE teacher to work me through ONE epic poem, Childe Roland to the Dark Tower Came by Robert Browning, but she was very surly about the whole thing (I guess she had to brush up on her Browning).

[nashira]

Originally Posted by elcreative

Hmmm, the only problem with this thread, is it's pretty much preaching to the converted... I doubt many people on this forum agree with re-editing for so-called Political Correctness. Trouble is we're not reaching the people who do these things... they may or may not be religious in their beliefs but what they are is absolutely convinced of the "rightness" of their position/ideas and anyone who disagrees must be wrong...

A lot of them you could probably talk right too and it wouldn't process. In one ear, out the other. Or they'd just do what they want, anyway. It's the nature of the beast.

[MrsJoseph]

Originally Posted by Redcard

And, in defense of teachers here, as my mom is one, they are told that they must do so many things. They must be on site at 6:00AM for when the busses show up and for breakfast duty two days a week. They must be on site after 4PM for meeting with parents one day every two weeks. They must be available 2 weekends a year without question. They must attend school the week before and the week after for in-service. They must take 3 weeks of education , of some type, UNPAID, during the summer months. They must teach 3 weeks of summer school, unpaid, during the summer months. They must do recess duty 2 times a week. They must submit to FBI and state BI background checks 3 times a year.

There's a ton of hassle and expectation already placed on them, and if they have two books, both of which equally teach a subject, they will always go for the one that results in less parents calling them at night and screaming at them for being godless heathens. They will always go for the one that won't have a lawyer trying to serve them papers for contributing to the delinquency of a minor. They'll go for the one that will not have unsigned envelopes appearing in their mailboxes telling them to stop teaching about "nigger lovers" or "dirty jews" or what not. Ahh, the south.

So it's hard to place blame on teachers here. The real problem is that school boards are elected officials, representatives of their communities, and therefore are unable to act in any interest outside the will of the mob. Therefore, they push the hard decisions down to the administrators.. who push it down to the teachers.. who punt.

My mom taught for years, so I understand the plight. This is why just anyone can not be a teacher. It is unfortunate that teaching, which used to be the one of the hardest professions to get into (as well as the most respected), has now been reduced to what we currently have.

That being said, the plight of teachers does not change their duty.

[Redcard]

Originally Posted by MrsJoseph

My mom taught for years, so I understand the plight. This is why just anyone can not be a teacher. It is unfortunate that teaching, which used to be the one of the hardest professions to get into (as well as the most respected), has now been reduced to what we currently have.

That being said, the plight of teachers does not change their duty.

No, but if the duty can be achieved with less resistance, they'll take it.

[elcreative]

Exactly... true believers (of whatever) always know they're right... because they are...

Originally Posted by nashira

A lot of them you could probably talk right too and it wouldn't process. In one ear, out the other. Or they'd just do what they want, anyway. It's the nature of the beast.