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Tuesday, October 03, 2006

Someone Apparently Didn’t Get The Concept Behind Banned Books Week

By Rob on October 3, 2006 at 04:29 am
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Good grief…

A Caney Creek High School dad is fired up because the Conroe Independent School District uses the book “Fahrenheit 451” as classroom reading material.

Alton Verm, of Conroe, objects to the language and content in the book. His 15-year-old daughter Diana, a CCHS sophomore, came to him Sept. 21 with her reservations about reading the book because of its language.
“The book had a bunch of very bad language in it,” Diana Verm said. “It shouldn’t be in there because it’s offending people. ... If they can’t find a book that uses clean words, they shouldn’t have a book at all.”

Alton Verm filed a “Request for Reconsideration of Instructional Materials” Thursday with the district regarding “Fahrenheit 451,” written by Ray Bradbury and published in 1953. He wants the district to remove the book from the curriculum.

“It’s just all kinds of filth,” said Alton Verm, adding that he had not read “Fahrenheit 451.” “The words don’t need to be brought out in class. I want to get the book taken out of the class.”

[...]

Alton Verm’s request to ban “Fahrenheit 451” came during the 25th annual Banned Books Week. He and Hines said the request to ban “Fahrenheit 451,” a book about book burning, during Banned Books Weeks is a coincidence.

“Banned Books Week: Celebrating the Freedom to Read” is observed during the last week of September each year, according to the American Library Association Web site, http://www.ala.org. The week celebrates the freedom to choose or express one’s opinion, even if it might be considered unorthodox or unpopular and stresses the importance of ensuring the availability of those unorthodox or unpopular viewpoints to all who wish to read them, according to the Web site.

What a tool.

Comments

The Whistler

I read this book back in Junior High.  I don’t remember a bunch of potty-mouth words.

Remember when firemen used to put out fires?

What’s going to happen to US industry when the global warming extremists like John McCain double the price of electricity?  I would think all these factories will close and set up in countries where they aren’t scared of technology.

The Whistler's signature
The Whistler on October 3, 2006 at 06:06 am
Avatar for Zsa Zsa

I haven’t read it. High school students have probably got those words, or worse in their vocabulary. They might actually enjoy reading it just because of the content???  I think someone needs to chill-eth out.

Zsa Zsa on October 3, 2006 at 07:30 am
likwidshoe

I wouldn’t have minded that book being banned from high school. I thought the book was dry and stilted. It took discipline to get through it.

It wasn’t as bad as getting through Moby Dick though.

likwidshoe on October 3, 2006 at 07:32 am
Avatar for Proofreader emeritus

As usual, the first book “banned” during “Banned Books Week” is the dictionary!
Many (most?) of the examples cited in the past by the ALA (I’ve given up hope that common sense will ever enter the arena!) were not to have any book banned, but to place age appropriate requirements on them. One does not “Ban” Catcher in the Rye or Hustler magazine by requesting that they not be taught to a certain age student or only available in sections of a library not accessible to the very young.

Likewise, Mr. Verm is not “censoring” Fahrenheit 451 if he asks that it not be taught at a particular school or district. The work stands complete on its own. Every word stays intact...just in another venue. Ray Bradbury is not diminished by a little criticism of his work!

Like the artists who scream “censorship” when the government elects not to subsidize them, people who make their living with words ought to be more careful how they use them!

Can anyone name a single book that has been truly banned in the last thirty or so years in the USA? (I guess Mildly Inconvenienced to Find Book Week wouldn’t have the same cachet!)

Proofreader emeritus on October 3, 2006 at 08:36 am
2Hotel9

Did anyone explain to this nimrod that Fahrenheit 451 is about him?

Una Salus Victus Nullam Sperare Salutem

2Hotel9 on October 3, 2006 at 01:17 pm
Pilgrim

Good job, Hotel…

How about banning The Grapes of Wrath? There’s a scene in there that can be considered in questionable taste. Burn it.

How about Huckleberry Finn? All that racism. Burn it.

How about The Last Of the Mohicans or The Deerslayer? Sex and violence. Burn ‘em.

How about A Tale of Two Cities? People get their heads cit off. Burn it.

The list goes on and on. I could sit here all night and list novels that have something objectional in it to someone somewhere. You’re right, Hotel. Farenhet 451 is about idiots like this. By the way, I read it when I was about 12 without substantial lasting damage. In fact, I read the Valley of the Dolls about the same time and I remember more about Farenheit 451, and I don’t remember anything even remotely risque. Go figure.

Election ‘08 - We Are So Screwed

Pilgrim on October 3, 2006 at 04:14 pm
Avatar for AcidBurn

Okay, someone needs to go to the next PTA meeting.  Read some choice passages from the bible, and when the idiots call for the book to be ban, reveal to them what it is.

Fates above and below, this guy is the ultimate tool.  Bet you he loves GWB and thinks Phelps is too liberal.

AcidBurn on October 5, 2006 at 03:37 pm
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