{"id":17938,"date":"2016-01-10T12:10:24","date_gmt":"2016-01-10T19:10:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/?p=17938"},"modified":"2016-01-10T12:10:24","modified_gmt":"2016-01-10T19:10:24","slug":"you-cant-read-that-66","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/?p=17938","title":{"rendered":"You Can&#8217;t Read That!"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>You Can\u2019t Read That! is a periodic post featuring banned book reviews and news roundups.<\/p>\n<p><a title=\"Roma - 2012\" href=\"https:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/enzo_d\/13087642305\/in\/photolist-kWvA6g-qUrKVv-q7ZbWj-rpHXQS-aanbFK-iHdZ6G-8r8mfY-7SBP3T-68Tr8J-gAM4u-7ktoU1-dqXEJi-yFQJHC-bBSmDv-jxTEho-7EM6ZK-4czUkR-iSSzbQ-hYvPVm-djnUPK-nx56jH-aeBA13-dNV49d-sprmud-p6mueT-pjQr37-4rAa9G-61CiLa-4W5Y6G-ovcGxZ-eXWkGF-e2t1my-6BStyM-eefweT-bmarvt-sauKHK-m2K95R-sZjtdJ-nioSWA-zdUCuE-o1oSm9-6nA6bH-dtrwEU-4Eg9sK-aZDL4z-CLdXXw-q9EmiV-xKaGMR-61T9dD-6WdPZB\" target=\"_blank\" data-flickr-embed=\"true\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" title=\"Copyright 2012 by Enzo de Martino\" src=\"https:\/\/farm8.staticflickr.com\/7307\/13087642305_5f2aef3d08.jpg\" alt=\"Roma - 2012\" width=\"500\" height=\"333\" \/><\/a><script src=\"\/\/embedr.flickr.com\/assets\/client-code.js\" async=\"\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>Hitler&#8217;s <em>Mein Kampf<\/em>\u00a0has an <a href=\"http:\/\/iht-retrospective.blogs.nytimes.com\/2016\/01\/08\/mein-kampf-from-best-seller-to-blacklist\/\" target=\"_blank\">interesting history in Germany<\/a>:\u00a0a best-seller before WWII, it&#8217;s been banned in that country since 1945. <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2016\/01\/09\/world\/europe\/mein-kampf-hitler-germany.html\" target=\"_blank\">Until last week<\/a>, that is, when the copyright expired and it entered the public domain: Germans\u00a0can now read it again.<\/p>\n<p>By a strange coincidence,\u00a0so too has\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/boingboing.net\/2016\/01\/02\/anne-franks-diary-is-in-the.html\" target=\"_blank\">Anne Frank&#8217;s <em>Diary of a Young Girl<\/em><\/a> (a book with a history of <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/The_Diary_of_a_Young_Girl#Banning\" target=\"_blank\">challenges and bans<\/a>\u00a0in the USA). You can now\u00a0freely <a href=\"http:\/\/affordance.typepad.com\/\/files\/anne-frank.txt\" target=\"_blank\">read the full text online<\/a>. In the original Dutch.<\/p>\n<p>A <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2015\/12\/19\/us\/lesson-on-islam-shuts-down-virginia-school-district.html\" target=\"_blank\">public outcry<\/a>\u00a0(<em>warning: autoplaying video at the link<\/em>)\u00a0over a high school teacher&#8217;s attempt to familiarize students with the artistry of\u00a0Arabic calligraphy forced a Virginia school district to close its schools for a day. I wonder if the teacher might have gotten away with it had he or she chosen a non-religious sample of Arabic for the lesson &#8230; asking students to hand-copy the\u00a0Shahada, \u201cThere is no God but God, and Muhammad is the messenger of God,&#8221; seems like asking for trouble IMO, and inviting\u00a0female students to wear Muslim head scarves to class really put the icing on the cake.<\/p>\n<p>Right up\u00a0there with the threat of catching Islamism from tracing Arabic calligraphy, of course, is becoming a witch through exposure to\u00a0Harry Potter. This has <a href=\"http:\/\/www.huffingtonpost.com\/deji-olukotun\/the-banning-of-harry-pott_b_1864502.html\" target=\"_blank\">long been a fear in the USA<\/a>; now <a href=\"http:\/\/www.telegraph.co.uk\/education\/educationnews\/12052212\/Religious-parents-want-Harry-Potter-banned-from-the-classroom-because-it-glorifies-witchcraft.html\" target=\"_blank\">British parents are catching up<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Last month a Philadelphia\u00a0high school <a href=\"http:\/\/articles.philly.com\/2015-12-12\/news\/68963005_1_huckleberry-finn-n-word-central-school\" target=\"_blank\">removed Mark Twain&#8217;s <em>Huckleberry Finn<\/em> from its curriculum<\/a>\u00a0after 11th grade students complained about the N-word. After hosting a forum of students and faculty, the principal\u00a0issued this brief statement:\u00a0&#8220;We have all come to the conclusion that the community costs of reading this book in 11th grade outweigh the literary benefits.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Student journalists at the Steinmetz School in\u00a0Chicago wrote an article about school bell changes. The principle directed them to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dnainfo.com\/chicago\/20151229\/belmont-cragin\/amid-censorship-flap-steinmetz-discontinue-81-year-old-school-newspaper\" target=\"_blank\">pull the article<\/a>, then followed up with this email to Steinmetz teachers and counselors:\u00a0&#8220;Scratch Journaism [sic] for next year. We will not be offering it anymore. There will be no more <em>Steinmetz Star<\/em>. I&#8217;m still deciding what to do with it for the second semester.&#8221; The <em>Steinmetz Star<\/em> has been in print for 81 years. Hugh Hefner, who as a student wrote for it in 1944, still provides financial support to the paper. Something tells me we haven&#8217;t\u00a0heard the last of this story.<\/p>\n<p>Conservative state legislators in Florida <a href=\"http:\/\/ncac.org\/blog\/florida-bills-threaten-science-instruction-and-freedom-to-read\/\" target=\"_blank\">have introduced bills<\/a> that will, if enacted,\u00a0grant taxpayers the right to formally challenge school materials, give challengers the right to take school boards to court over unsatisfactory decisions, and\u00a0increase representation of parents on textbook selection committees. The bills also declare that\u00a0&#8220;all instructional\u00a0materials used in the classroom&#8221; must &#8220;[p]rovide a noninflammatory, objective, and balanced viewpoint on issues&#8221; and be &#8220;accurate and factual.&#8221; These bills seem similar to <a href=\"http:\/\/wonkette.com\/543714\/kansas-will-make-sure-teachers-can-be-arrested-if-they-talk-about-sex-or-art-or-anything-really\" target=\"_blank\">bills proposed\u00a0in Kansas<\/a> and other states, and I would not be surprised to learn they were drafted by conservative activists of the American Legislative Exchange Council, as I have suggested in <a href=\"http:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/?p=14573\" target=\"_blank\">earlier YCRT! posts<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/wonkette.com\/547677\/derp-roundup-idaho-parents-call-cops-to-protect-children-from-banned-book\" target=\"_blank\">History repeats itself<\/a>, at least in Boise, Idaho, where <a href=\"http:\/\/goodereader.com\/blog\/bookselling-3\/parents-call-the-cops-on-teens-distributing-a-banned-book\" target=\"_blank\">conservative parents once again called the cops on teenagers<\/a> handing out free copies of Sherman Alexie&#8217;s locally-banned young adult novel, <em>The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>Well, hey, at least we\u00a0don&#8217;t live in Hong Kong, where booksellers who sell books banned in Mainland China are being\u00a0&#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/news.vice.com\/article\/hong-kong-bookstores-scrap-banned-books-after-bookseller-disappearances\" target=\"_blank\">disappeared<\/a>.&#8221;\u00a0Other booksellers are taking\u00a0the hint and pulling\u00a0politically sensitive material\u00a0from their shelves.<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p>After all that, I could use some happier\u00a0news, couldn&#8217;t you? How about this: Rosemount, Minnesota, has decided to\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.startribune.com\/reading-wins-censorship-loses-in-rosemount-schools\/361677331\/\" target=\"_blank\">keep Gayle Forman&#8217;s young adult novel <em>Just One Day<\/em>\u00a0in school libraries<\/a>, ruling against a formal challenge filed by parents of a middle school student.<\/p>\n<p>Also amusing:\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.lssu.edu\/banished\/\" target=\"_blank\">Lake Superior State University&#8217;s 41st Annual List of Banished Words<\/a>. If only!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>You Can\u2019t Read That! is a periodic post featuring banned book reviews and news roundups. Hitler&#8217;s Mein Kampf\u00a0has an interesting history in Germany:\u00a0a best-seller before WWII, it&#8217;s been banned in that country since 1945. Until last week, that is, when the copyright expired and it entered the public domain: Germans\u00a0can now read it again. By [&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],"tags":[1964,48,1083],"class_list":["post-17938","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-banned-books","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\/17938","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=17938"}],"version-history":[{"count":21,"href":"https:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17938\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18069,"href":"https:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17938\/revisions\/18069"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=17938"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=17938"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=17938"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}