{"id":13875,"date":"2013-12-10T14:24:33","date_gmt":"2013-12-10T21:24:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/?p=13875"},"modified":"2022-10-11T11:10:06","modified_gmt":"2022-10-11T18:10:06","slug":"you-cant-read-that-39","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/?p=13875","title":{"rendered":"You Can’t Read That! Banned Book Review Lookback: The Color Purple"},"content":{"rendered":"

You Can\u2019t Read That! is a periodic post featuring banned book reviews and news roundups.<\/p>\n

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YCRT! News:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Don’t know how I managed to miss it all these years, but last night I finally caught South Park’s banned book episode, the one where the kids are at first excited to read The Catcher in the Rye<\/em>, then disappointed because they can’t understand how anything so mild could ever have been banned, then energized to write their own ban-worthy books. You can stream the entire episode here<\/a>. Just for fun, here are Goodreads reader reviews of Leopold Butters Stotch’s two banned classics, The Tale of Scrotie McBoogerballs<\/a> and The Poop That Took a Pee<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Are you an educator facing parental challenges to books you’ve assigned? The Kids’ Right to Read Project<\/a> offers resources and even helps fight some challenges. Here’s a link<\/a> to one of the current actions the project is involved in, the banning of Bless Me, Ultima<\/em> from yet another school district … this one not in Arizona<\/a>, for a change.<\/p>\n

Speaking of Arizona, 48 Tucson Unified School District teachers have filed an amicus brief against HB2281<\/a>, the Arizona law banning Mexican-American studies programs, the law behind the infamous TUSD book banning<\/a> that took place in January 2012.<\/p>\n

“‘The back of the book is described as deliciously demented and a twisted tale from a teenaged psychopath and it’s all about killing,’ said Kassie Bennet. She was shocked when it was in her 15 year old’s back pack for a school assignment.” Barry Lyga’s YA novel I Hunt Killers<\/em> has been challenged by parents<\/a> in a Lexington, Kentucky school district.<\/p>\n

The seemingly unending war against Sherman Alexie’s prize-winning YA novel The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian<\/em> continues, this time in a West Virginia middle school where it has been banned<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Here’s a fascinating discussion<\/a> between an author and a reader who demands she delist her books on Amazon because Amazon also sells books by an Al Qaeda terrorist. Does this mean I have to quit driving my Volkswagen?<\/p>\n

So far, so good: Alice Walker’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel The Color Purple<\/em> will remain<\/a> on school reading lists in Brunswick County, North Carolina.<\/p>\n

YCRT! Book Review:<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

\"the<\/a>The Color Purple<\/a>
\nAlice Walker
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The Color Purple<\/em> is a story told in letters. Letters, at first, from a barely-literate Celie to God, letters that are little more than raw observations of a brutal, degraded, hopeless life. Letters, later, from Celie\u2019s sister Nettie, reminding Celie of their shared history, relating the progress of Celie\u2019s stolen son and daughter, and telling of Nettie\u2019s life as a missionary in Africa. Later still, letters from Celie to Nettie, tragically undelivered. Finally, letters once again from Celie to God.<\/p>\n

At the beginning Celie\u2019s life is so harsh and her writing ability so minimal it takes courage just to keep reading. But Celie grows and her life slowly becomes richer, especially when she meets Shug Avery, blues singer, former lover of Celie\u2019s uncommunicative husband, and eventual lover. Her life begins to open up when Shug helps her find Nettie\u2019s letters, which Celie\u2019s husband has kept hidden from her, and eventually becomes a happy life as she gains her independence and comes to understand people, including those she once hated. Page by page, letter by letter, Celie\u2019s story becomes readable, then engaging, then fascinating, then fulfilling. This is a marvelous book … I\u2019m so happy I finally read it.<\/p>\n

Why is The Color Purple<\/em> always near the top of every banned books list? Why do parents\u2019 groups still try to have it removed from school libraries and reading lists? Lots of reasons. Whites hate it because it\u2019s black-centric, and the few whites depicted therein are contemptuous figures. Blacks hate it because it paints a gritty, unflattering picture of poor southern black life, complete with shiftless men, uneducated women, and incest. Bluenoses of all races hate it because there\u2019s sex in it, specifically lesbianism. Oh, and then there\u2019s drugs. And alcohol. And juke joints. And Celie, though she writes to God, doesn\u2019t in fact believe in God, let alone Jesus.<\/p>\n

What follows is just a partial list of more recent challenges and bannings of The Color Purp<\/em>le, extracted from the excellent Banned Books Awareness<\/a> blog:<\/p>\n