{"id":15207,"date":"2014-08-31T11:23:28","date_gmt":"2014-08-31T18:23:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/?p=15207"},"modified":"2022-10-11T11:16:15","modified_gmt":"2022-10-11T18:16:15","slug":"you-cant-read-that-49","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/?p=15207","title":{"rendered":"You Can&#8217;t Read That! Banned Book Review: The Sandman"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>You Can\u2019t Read That!<\/strong> is a periodic post featuring banned book reviews and news roundups.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/farm4.staticflickr.com\/3785\/13571559914_1a911f5e4e.jpg\" alt=\"can't read_76\" width=\"500\" height=\"339\"><\/p>\n<p><strong>YCRT! Banned Book Links<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/wonkette.com\/558193\/texas-ministers-will-protect-teens-from-demonic-reading-habit\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Texas ministers will protect teens from demonic &#8220;reading&#8221; habit<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.ksl.com\/?sid=31235936&amp;nid=1268&amp;fm=most_popular&amp;s_cid=popular-4\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Ten books read in school that will change your life as an adult<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.businessinsider.com\/why-the-giver-is-banned-2014-8\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Why <em>The Giver<\/em> is one of the most banned books in America<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.buzzfeed.com\/simonschuster\/11-quotes-from-authors-on-censorship-banned-book-cpw7\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Eleven quotes from authors on on censorship and banned books<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.pnj.com\/story\/news\/education\/2014\/07\/21\/thomas-policy-followed-little-brother-dispute\/12957445\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Policy not followed in <em>Little Brother<\/em> dispute<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.waukeshanow.com\/news\/Waukesha-mother-seeks-to-have-two-novels-banned-from-schools-271908331.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Waukesha mom seeks to have two novels banned from schools<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/ncac.org\/blog\/the-popularity-of-john-greens-pornography\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">The popularity of John Green&#8217;s &#8220;pornography&#8221;<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/ncac.org\/blog\/your-censored-summer-reading-ncacs-top-40-books-for-the-beach\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Forty banned beach reads<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>YCRT! Censorship Links<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.moonhowlings.net\/index.php\/2014\/08\/29\/limiting-classroom-discussion-censorship-or-prudence\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Limiting classroom discussion: censorship or prudence?<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/freethoughtblogs.com\/dispatches\/2014\/08\/20\/archbishop-demands-censorship-of-satanists\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Archbishop demands censorship of Satanists<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.economist.com\/blogs\/democracyinamerica\/2014\/08\/facebook-censorship\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Facebook censorship: arbitrary and capricious<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/articles.philly.com\/2012-06-28\/news\/32442005_1_natalie-munroe-high-school-teacher-unannounced-observations\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Bucks County teacher whose blog made headlines is fired<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>YCRT! Banned Book Review<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.goodreads.com\/book\/show\/23754.The_Sandman_Vol_1?from_search=true\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft\" src=\"https:\/\/farm6.staticflickr.com\/5594\/14908763590_688c954ac2_m.jpg\" alt=\"the sandman vol I\" width=\"160\" height=\"240\"><\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/www.goodreads.com\/book\/show\/23754.The_Sandman_Vol_1?from_search=true\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">The Sandman, Vol. 1: Preludes and Nocturnes<\/a><br \/>\nNeil Gaiman (with Sam Kieth, Mike Dringenberg, Malcolm Jones III, Karen Berger)<br \/>\n<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/farm9.staticflickr.com\/8210\/8231735415_bae9f435e9_o.jpg\" alt=\"1_5\" width=\"74\" height=\"16\"><\/p>\n<p>My book club selected this under the graphic novel category. We&#8217;ll be discussing it during <a href=\"http:\/\/www.ala.org\/bbooks\/bannedbooksweek\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Banned Books Week<\/a> in September. It&#8217;s not coincidental that our selection dovetails with the graphic novel theme of this year&#8217;s Banned Books Week.<\/p>\n<p>I&#8217;m not anti-graphic novel (see my review of Alison Bechdel&#8217;s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.goodreads.com\/review\/show\/975520308\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><em>Fun Home<\/em><\/a>); I&#8217;m just not interested in fantasy, especially self-consciously dark fantasy. This collection of fantasy and horror conceits reminded me of the proto-Goth phase I went through as a teenager. The grotesque faces gracing every third or fourth page were almost identical to the grotesque faces I drew in my school notebooks when I should have been doing homework.<\/p>\n<p>This collection hit me as much more of a comic book than a graphic novel. There are even a couple of dream characters wearing what look like skin-tight superhero outfits, posed in&nbsp;Spiderman-style crouches. It put me off. <em>The Sandman<\/em> is for kids, not&nbsp;grownups\u2014such&nbsp;was my reaction, at any rate (call me a snob all you want, I can take it).<\/p>\n<p><em>The Sandman<\/em> is listed by the ALA as one of the top banned and challenged graphic novels. I&#8217;m interested in the reasons people try suppress books, and I read this graphic novel with an eye to that. The ALA says the most frequent complaints about <em>The Sandman<\/em>&nbsp;refer to anti-family themes and offensive language. Others complain that it&#8217;s&nbsp;unsuited for its intended age group.<\/p>\n<p>Unsuited for its intended age group? The theme of dream and nightmare is a dark one, and the preponderance of illustrations are likewise dark (the printer probably goes through a year&#8217;s supply of black and purple ink with every issue). Since <em>The Sandman<\/em> presents itself as a comic book, and indeed was originally marketed&nbsp;as a series of individual comic books that were later assembled into this&nbsp;collection, its intended audience certainly included children, probably well down into the pre-teen years. But apart from outright children&#8217;s fare like <em>Caspar the Friendly Ghost<\/em>, aren&#8217;t most comic books dark these days? I suspect if kids find&nbsp;<em>The Sandman<\/em> too dark, they&nbsp;simply won&#8217;t read&nbsp;it.<\/p>\n<p>Is it anti-family? It&#8217;s more that it&#8217;s not about family, and the only answer to that is &#8220;So?&#8221; Usually (in my experience), accusations of being anti-family are leveled at books that don&#8217;t feature happy, well adjusted Christian protagonists. That&#8217;s a definite strike against <em>The Sandman<\/em>, if that&#8217;s where you&#8217;re coming from.<\/p>\n<p>Offensive language? Here I draw a blank. Although I admit to skimming some of the final pages, I don&#8217;t remember any such thing.<\/p>\n<p>I saw two things that might energize&nbsp;bluenoses. One, a full-page drawing of a naked woman. She&#8217;s a junkie in the final stages of addiction, withered and skeletal, not erotic in any way. Two, a character who appears to be transexual (or at least a cross-dresser). These illustrations, I believe, are the peccant&nbsp;issues. Gay, lesbian, or transexual characters bring out the book-burners every time.<\/p>\n<p>Apart from looking for reasons why people might want to suppress this book, I couldn&#8217;t whip up any enthusiasm for&nbsp;it. It&#8217;s just not my thing, so I can&#8217;t speak to its merits. Obviously, many adult readers love it. I personally think Neil Gaiman has been milking the same two or three fantasy themes for years now, but that&#8217;s just my opinion. YMMV, as they say.<\/p>\n<p><em>&#8211; Paul Woodford<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>You Can\u2019t Read That! is a periodic post featuring banned book reviews and news roundups. YCRT! Banned Book Links Texas ministers will protect teens from demonic &#8220;reading&#8221; habit Ten books read in school that will change your life as an adult Why The Giver is one of the most banned books in America Eleven quotes [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[47,412,30],"tags":[1964,48,1083],"class_list":["post-15207","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-banned-books","category-books-reviews","category-reviews","tag-banned-books","tag-censorship","tag-challenged-books"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15207","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=15207"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15207\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":31928,"href":"https:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15207\/revisions\/31928"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=15207"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=15207"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=15207"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}