by Doug Dawson<\/p>\n
\u2018Ok Johnny, I know you want to bring your English grade up, but you don\u2019t speak up in class, so it seems like you\u2019re not participating as much as the others.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cMrs. Ellis, it\u2019s just I\u2019m\u2026 shy. I find it hard to talk in a room full of people. I pay attention, I do the reading\u2026 I\u2019m learning\u2026 it\u2019s just hard for me to let you know that.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u00a0\u201cAll right, I think I understand. Let me see\u2026 you could do book reports for extra credit. Can you think of any books you\u2019d like to read and write a report on?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve read some of Shakespeare\u2019s plays and wanted to do a report on one of them, but\u2026 I ran into a problem.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat problem?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cLooking it up on the Web, I found some of them have actually been banned.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhich plays?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cA teacher in Georgia required students to have permission slips just to read Hamlet, Macbeth or King Lear. Say, I wouldn\u2019t have any trouble reading and reporting on them here, would I? We know this state\u2019s conservative history\u2026 banning the teaching of evolution and all that and\u2026 writing about anything banned on religious grounds makes me nervous …\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t think there would be a problem here – why were these plays censored, for lack of a better term?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cReferences to sex and violence.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cAny of his other plays banned?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Merchant of Venice, in Michigan for its portrayal of the Jewish character Shylock.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s today\u2019s sense of political correctness,\u201d replied Mrs. Ellis, \u201csomething that didn\u2019t exist in Shakespeare\u2019s time. They\u2019re judging ancient works by modern standards.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cSince I\u2019m not sure I can get away with writing about Shakespeare\u2019s plays, I tried to find another classic to write about, something so mild it couldn\u2019t possibly offend anybody, so I picked a children\u2019s story.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhich one?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cLittle Red Riding Hood.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Mrs. Ellis looked pleased for a second, then a look of concern crossed her face. \u201cWait a minute\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was banned in two California schools \u2013 it was an illustrated edition and it was the pictures \u2013 they showed Riding Hood taking food and wine to her mother. There were concerns about the use of alcohol in the story.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s one I didn\u2019t know about.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u201cGood thing I\u2019m not writing about Charles Darwin\u2019s \u2018Origin of Species.\u2019 That was banned in this state.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u201cThat was quite a while ago. I think you can write about that now.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m afraid it still conflicts with a lot of people\u2019s religious views.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u201cYou may have a point there. This shouldn\u2019t be so hard, finding a non-controversial book to report on\u2026 or maybe that\u2019s what we should<\/em> be reporting on, to pique people\u2019s curiosity \u2013 at least mine, as I\u2019m the one who will be reading the report. As we\u2019re talking here, I\u2019m getting an idea. Why not report on censorship in this country, on books in particular?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWow, great idea, but that sounds like a term paper.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cNo, I don\u2019t want a study or a thesis, just a short review \u2013 a few pages will suffice.\u201d<\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Johnny looked pleased. \u201cI\u2019ve been reading up on censorship just out of curiosity. I typed up my notes and it\u2019s a report in all but name right now\u2026 want to see them?\u201d<\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u201cSure.\u201d<\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Johnny now looked concerned. \u201cWe may touch on some sacred cows here.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cSacred to whom?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cTo people who have, shall we say, a strict code that doesn\u2019t permit any deviation. You might say it\u2019s their way or no way.\u201d<\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u201cI know the kind of people you mean \u2013 I\u2019m not one of them, so shoot \u2013 I\u2019m ready.\u201d<\/p>\n Johnny handed over his preliminary report on censorship of book in the USA. It went as follows:<\/p>\n \u201cHuckleberry Finn was dropped from high school reading lists in Tempe, Arizona amid law suits from parents who wanted the book removed. Other banned classics include \u2018Uncle Tom\u2019s Cabin,\u2019 George Eliot\u2019s \u2018Silas Marner\u2019 and Margaret Mitchell\u2019s \u2018Gone with the Wind,\u2019 for its depiction of certain characters in the novel. The Snopes Trilogy of William Faulkner has been singled out for special attention, for its portrayal of blacks in the Jim Crow south and especially for its language, although today it is widely accepted that Faulkner was trying to show what was wrong with racism in the old south and not trying to promote it.\u201d<\/p>\n Johnny looked up at his teacher, rubbed the top of his head, looked back down at his paper and continued.<\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u201cEven the Bible hasn\u2019t been spared a form of reverse censorship by some who want its religious messages put forward in the schools, but they ran up against the Establishment and Free Speech Clauses of the First Amendment. In 1966 a student in New Jersey was forbidden to read the biblical story of Jacob and Esau, due to religious considerations. The Supreme Court chose the path of discretion and declined to review this case. In 2005 another lawsuit centered around a Pennsylvania school system, which prohibited a mother from reading passages from the Bible to a pre-school class.<\/p>\n \u201cOther books disapproved of include \u2018Beloved\u2019 by Toni Morrison, \u2018Brave New World,\u2019 by Aldous Huxley and \u2018Slaughterhouse Five,\u2019 by Kurt Vonnegut, \u2018Of Mice and Men\u2019 by John Steinbeck, for racism, offensive language and violence and \u2018The Catcher in the Rye\u2019 by J.D. Salinger for similar reasons.<\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u201cAn entire novel by Ray Bradbury – \u2018Fahrenheit 451\u2019 \u2013 was devoted to a futurist society\u2019s attempt to ban the reading of books by burning them and censorship as practiced today has been cited in the Harry Potter books, To Kill a Mockingbird and books by Stephen King.<\/p>\n \u201cCensorship has reared its ugly head in various forms in the US and Canada in recent times: a group in Pennsylvania sings songs while they destroy books, CD\u2019s and videos they find offensive to God, while an Alabama House Bill would have\u00a0banned\u00a0public school libraries from purchasing\u00a0books\u00a0by\u00a0gay\u00a0authors or with\u00a0gay\u00a0characters. Several states passed laws banning the teaching of evolution and the Scopes \u2018Monkey\u2019 Trial was the result of a challenge to such a law in Tennessee. Free-speech advocates have battled creationists over the years and the issue hasn\u2019t gone away, as various US states have taken up one side of the other.<\/p>\n A few days later Johnny submitted his report to Mrs. Ellis. The next day she gave it back to an elated Johnny, surprised at the high grade she gave it. \u201cGood job, Johnny. You said a lot in a few well-chosen words.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWow, thanks Mrs. Ellis. I never expected an A+.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI think you can expect your English grade to go up. By the way, I showed your report to the vice-principal and suggested putting it in the school newspaper as an example of what we\u2019re doing in the English department.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat did he say?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m afraid the news is not good. He said you made reference to the Scopes \u2018Monkey\u2019 Trial, which reflects badly on this state. He said he doesn\u2019t want your paper published in any form, even in the school newspaper.\u201d<\/p>\n Johnny looked shocked. \u201cYou mean I\u2019m being\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cNot just you, Johnny,\u201d said Mrs. Ellis. \u201cMe, you, the whole English Department in a way. We\u2019re being\u2026 censored, you might say.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cJust for mentioning what happened in the past.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s a sad truth, Johnny \u2013 old attitudes die hard.\u201d<\/p>\n \u2018Could a law suit\u2026?\u201d<\/p>\n Mrs. Ellis thought for a moment. \u201cYour grade\u2019s going up. Better let it go at that.\u201d<\/p>\n \n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" by Doug Dawson \u2018Ok Johnny, I know you want to bring your English grade up, but you don\u2019t speak up in class, so it seems like you\u2019re not participating as much as the others.\u201d \u201cMrs. Ellis, it\u2019s just I\u2019m\u2026 shy. I find it hard to talk in a room full of people. I pay attention, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1516,77],"tags":[1545,1517,1123],"class_list":["post-13997","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-egophobia-69","category-english","tag-doug-dawson","tag-egophobia-69-70","tag-english"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6DakB-3DL","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/egophobia.ro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13997","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/egophobia.ro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/egophobia.ro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/egophobia.ro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/egophobia.ro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=13997"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/egophobia.ro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13997\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13999,"href":"https:\/\/egophobia.ro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13997\/revisions\/13999"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/egophobia.ro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=13997"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/egophobia.ro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=13997"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/egophobia.ro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=13997"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}