The Topeka Capital Journal has a nice little back-and-fourth on Banned Books Week.
Responsibility trumps Banned Books WeekVicki Estes, a Topeka freelance writer, says that, as parents, it is our responsibility to monitor what our children are exposed to. This isn’t censorship. It is called being a caring, responsible parent.
As a follow up, Banning books only serves to close minds, by Thomas Prasch, a professor of history, says Vicki Estes both ignores the wider meaning of the event and understates the threat entailed by challenges to books in curricula and libraries. She argues that the removal of books from curricula and libraries is the work of “responsible parents” who should be celebrated rather than condemned, but such a position does not stand up to serious examination.
Other interesting stories at DetNews.com, SunSpot.net, and abqtrib.com.
Estes’s editorial
Ms. Estes makes some fine points, but her arguments are simplistically formulated. For one thing, a book does not have to be banned througout a country to be considered a banned book; it is enough for it to be banned from a library or from the curriculum. Secondly:
Lastly, you can read my comments about objections to the naming of the week my critique of Steve McKinzie’s essay.
Elsewhere, it was written in one of the linked articles:
That is incorrect. In the book where Waldo is walking through “real world” scenes, in the scene on the beach, on the right-hand page, in the top, right quadrant, there is a woman sunbathing with her top untied. A prankster is standing next to her dashing a cup of cold water onto her, and her back is arched in shock, lifting her breasts off the ground. The left breast and nipple are seen in profile. The book’s presence in an elementary school was challenged because the book was seen as pornographic.
(There is nothing that cannot be found offensive by someone, somewhere.)