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<\/p>\nYou Can’t Read That! is a periodic post featuring news about banned and challenged books.<\/p>\n
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Arizona:<\/strong><\/p>\n That rumor I mentioned in my last YCRT! column<\/a>? \u00a0The one about the racists going after ethnic studies at the universities, now that they’ve “fixed” the high schools? \u00a0Looks like there’s some truth behind it<\/a>.<\/p>\n Here’s another disturbingly Orwellian bill<\/a> working its way through Arizona’s unhinged legislature: HB 2549, which will ban the use of language meant to\u00a0“terrify, intimidate, threaten, harass, annoy or offend” on electronic and digital devices. \u00a0I’m worried about that “annoy or offend<\/a>” … might not describing Arizona lawmakers as “unhinged” annoy or offend? \u00a0God, I hope so. \u00a0Oh, wait, is that Sheriff Joe pulling up out front?<\/p>\n Elsewhere:<\/strong><\/p>\n The\u00a0author of\u00a0ttyl<\/em> gets mail<\/a>:\u00a0“lady your sick. what’s the matter with you. you make me feel dirty. maybe you got a brain infection. please keep writing books so you don’t ever use your infected brain to act with. I wouldn’t want anybody getting hurt. by your demented interpretation of sense making.” \u00a0And she’s at the top of the ALA’s ten most frequently challenged books of 2011<\/a> list! \u00a0Guess I’ll have to add Lauren Myracle’s YA novels to my read & review list.<\/p>\n Interesting reflections on the chilling effect of book bannings and challenges<\/a> by the author of The Book of Negroes<\/em> (which was actually burned in Amsterdam last year, and which I\u00a0reviewed here<\/a>).<\/p>\n Banned & challenged video games? \u00a0Sure, if they have\u00a0Teh Gay<\/a>! \u00a0Why can’t all video games end with Mario planting a kiss on that cute Princess Peach? \u00a0Is that too much to ask?<\/p>\n The public library in\u00a0Fond du Lac, Wisconsin\u00a0won’t stock Fifty Shades of Grey<\/a>. \u00a0The librarian’s argument is that the book is erotica, not literature. \u00a0Okay … but is the accusation true? \u00a0I mean, if parents in Pennsylvania think cowboys in bathtubs is porn, how do we know this Wisconsin librarian isn’t cut from the same cloth?<\/p>\n Oh yeah, you read that right: there are parents in Annville, Pennsylvania who think a drawing of a cowboy in a bathtub<\/a> is pornography. \u00a0To the pornographer in question, those parents are being ridiculous<\/a>.<\/p>\n A disturbing look inside the mind<\/a> of Eric Adams, a book banner who got his teabag in a twist over Barbara Ehrenreich’s Nickel and Dimed<\/em> (which I reviewed here<\/a>). \u00a0And here’s some good news to offset that last link: the Easton, Pennsylvania school board found Mr. Adams’ arguments without merit and\u00a0shot him down<\/a>.<\/p>\n