Note: I’m tidying up the mulch pile, finishing perfectly good musings I never got around to posting on TLV. Waste not want not. Besides, it’s too cold out to go gallivanting around the countryside taking pictures.
Back in October 2012 I trotted into the Elk Rapids Library and was brought up short by swaths of yellow crime scene tape. That will get a person’s attention every time.
Naturally I had to investigate. It turns out that the display–well, “celebrated” isn’t exactly the word–“recognized?”–Banned Books Week.
Other people were curious too. Really? This one too? Why????
Although actual banning has been rare in this country, lots of books have been listed on somebody’s Thous Shalt Not Read list (especially in schools) or excised from public library shelves for a host of reasons, most of them having to do with sex. In a few cases (notably with respect to the Pentagon Papers) the specified reason was national security; in other cases we can thank Political Ideology of every stripe.
I long ago staked out my territory on the First Amendment. I’m for it. All of it, even for ideas I don’t like. So imagine my surprise when I read a story about parents who objected to the inclusion of a particular book on their daughter’s required reading list for a 9th-grade advanced English class–and felt ambivalent. There is a big difference between being allowed to read and having to read. Or is there? There are a great many books that everyone ought to read in school–aren’t there? Conversely, should we not be allowed to opt out of material we find repugnant? (Political robo-calls spring to mind.) While I thought about all of this I decided to read The Glass Castle, the book the parents wanted removed from the list. I dislike arguments about books among people who haven’t read the books. It turns out that I am behind the curve (this happens a lot). The Elk Rapids Library book club read the book in 2009. Lots and lots of other patrons have read it since then. I had to put my name on the wait list, but eventually I got hold of a copy.
It was, in my judgment, a good book: well-written, thought-provoking, moving. It was also full of unflinching depictions of extraordinarily inept and abusive parents. Against all odds, their children (including the author) survive. Mostly they thrive. Thus the claim that this is an inspirational book that can help other youngsters trapped in such circumstances to make good lives for themselves. The trouble is . . . the book doesn’t show how the children managed that transition in nearly the detail that is devoted to how they were traumatized.
Make no mistake, I stand by the First Amendment. The book should not be banned. But should it be required reading? Dunno. That seems to me a judgment about literary quality and cultural importance–judgments I am disinclined to make for other people. Surely a reading list can be rigorous and diverse and leave room for choices? Surely the freedom to read has an implied corollary: the freedom not to read? I leave you with the classic answer from my distant youth.
The answer my friends, is blowin’ in the wind
The answer is blowin’ in the wind
That is Louan Lechler, who is not singing Blowin’ in the Wind, but Leelanau County, a song she wrote that is so good we even let her sing it in Antrim County, which deserves its own song but doesn’t have one yet. I digress.
Torch Lake Views 
Martha
January 8, 2014
When I think of all the junk and horrors that people have shoved in their faces or seek out for entertainment I think banning books is beyond absurd. Some required reading for me in school was pointless and a waste of time. Something that required more thought and challenge would have been more worthy of a growing and hungry mind. Why is there not this much attention and objection to TV shows and movies? Books always seem to take the hit.
Gerry
January 9, 2014
I agree, both as to the pointlessness of some assignments and to the vast wash of swill that’s out there in all media. Until I read your comment I was focused on books – and you’re right, there is practically no organized objection to other media. Interesting. I recall a lot of attention and objection to broadcast media content when I was growing up. It occurs to me that we are in a new age of bread and circuses. Bring on the gladiators, bring on the orgies at the Forum.
Perhaps books engage our minds more thoroughly, and that is why they’re perceived as a threat? I don’t know. I would be interested to know what the parents who objected to the requirement of The Glass Castle do about television and internet access. Of course access to the book wasn’t the issue. That it was required was the issue.
I stand by the right of anyone and everyone to have their say, in print, on radio, on TV, on the internet, in movies. But the corollary to that is that I don’t have to listen.
shoreacres
January 8, 2014
I’m a huge first amendment sort myself. Still… things are changing in the schools, at least down here, and the changes raise some questions for me.
If a book is required reading, one of the most important questions is who’s doing the requiring. When I was in school, parents were content to let teachers and school boards make the choices and do the teaching because they trusted their knowledge and experience.
To be frank, we may have missed out on some things we should have read, due to a slight milque-toast-ness in the 50’s and early 60s curricula. Still, we memorized our poems and read our novels and all was well. If we wanted to expand our horizons, we did that outside the classroom. I still remember some interesting discussions with my folks after I pulled “Cannery Row” down from the shelf at about age seven.
Today? New issues. One of the books now suggested for Common Core is flat pornography. I don’t mean there’s some sex. I mean that as I was reading passages from the novel I barely could make myself go on, because I don’t read that sort of thing. Should a 14 or 16 or 18 year old be required to read such? Particularly if the parents would not allow the book in their home and are opposed? I don’t think so. How that works itself out on in practical terms is something else.
As for “The Glass Castle”, I read it after a sympathetic review by a book-blogging friend. I’m a little surprised someone’s fussing about it, but I suppose people can fuss about anything. There are some great interview clips of Jeanette Walls and her mother on YouTube that help to humanize and contextualize the story.
Gerry
January 9, 2014
I think if kids are given a banquet of quality fare, whether in the cafeteria or the library, they will eventually make really good and even interesting choices. It’s not like they can’t get all the junk they want right in the neighborhood. I just object to being forced to eat my peas when I could just as easily have been offered brussels sprouts.
I’d be interested to know what book suggested for Common Core it was that troubled you. Personally, I prefer that The Glass Castle be on the suggested list, not the required list.
shoreacres
January 9, 2014
I’ll see if I can find the reference again. I didn’t save the article, but I may be able to retrace my cyber-steps.
Martha J
January 9, 2014
Interesting discussion regards books and required reading. I loved the Glass Castle and would have loved reading it in high school. I do think we should all read a variety of perspectives and not just those that reflect our own ideas, but maybe there should also be some wiggle room. Maybe there should be a couple choices? Required reading sounds good until it gets to the uncomfortable zone described above and I would have a hard time with that too.
Gerry
January 9, 2014
Most of the people I know liked Glass Castle and most of them can’t understand why I found it problematic. I can live with that. Choices are good.
sybil
January 9, 2014
Thought-provoking Gerry. I liked the world better when it was black and white. These shades of grey (are there 50 of them?) make such topics difficult.
I worry about kids who are indoctrinated with certain beliefs (saaaay … Christian fundamentalist-creationist) who might object to their child being taught about evolution. That seems easier to decide.
But then we get into this slippery slope of “porn” or other values that challenge us …
Sorry …what was the question again ? Whether certain books should be mandatory or optional ? Who decides ? Do the parents read ’em and clear ’em for the kids ? Some kids are mature at 14 and can read things with a balanced, grounded view: others are not ready at 21.
Keep asking good questions.
Don’t even know what we call our Canadian equivalent of your 1st Amendment here.
We Canadians are a funny lot.
Gerry
January 9, 2014
You Canadians are an entirely engaging lot.
I think what’s really funny is how people parse the topic – differences around issue A are easier to decide than issues around issue B, for example, or whether or not something is pornography, whatever that is in a time when people put the most astonishing images online and onstage.
As always, irony abounds. The parents who raised the Glass Castle issue probably created more readers for the book (including my ownself!) than any marketing campaign. Then there’s this: a friend told me that in a local school district that has provided iPads for all its students in the lower grades, the kids learned very quickly to find “porn sites” on the web. The district is busily installing filters . . .
The horses are running wild in the streets! Shut the barn doors! And so it goes.
sybil
January 9, 2014
The Canadian equivalent is our “Charter of Rights and Freedoms” … I should have known that.
tootlepedal
January 9, 2014
What every child needs is a well stocked mind. Who is to do the stocking is always a vexed question. When I was a teacher, the children never seemed to like the books that I thought that they should like and I never liked the books that they actually did like but many of them seem to have turned out well in spite of me. Perhaps a child is its own best teacher.
Gerry
January 9, 2014
I am inclined to think you are right. I don’t recall ever getting anything at all out of things I was forced to read, but I learned a great deal from things I was invited to explore. Big difference. Ah well.
WOL
January 9, 2014
Down here, we have had our rounds with the fundamentalist lot that are convinced that allowing children to read the Harry Potter books and celebrate Halloween will turn them into devil worshipers..I don’t recall any books that have been banned here locally, but they’ve managed to get science textbooks vetoed that didn’t give equal time to their version of some of the earth sciences. I agree with you on first amendment issues. I don’t think books should be banned (although it does get more people to read the book in question to see what all the hooroar is about). Requiring that students read a particular book makes it easier for the teacher to plan lessons. If the parents object to that book (which is their right as parents), then the child (read “parents”) should be allowed to choose an alternative from a list of books of similar content and similar reading level, and then have the child give a detailed book report to the class on it. Ironically, the quickest way to get a child to read a book, or do anything else, is to tell them they’re not allowed to do it.
dawnkinster
January 10, 2014
First of all… I”M SO GLAD YOU”RE BACK!
So. Books. From my library days I can say that most books patrons ask library directors to remove fro shelves don’t get removed. But every library has a process for patrons to express their wishes. I imagine schools are similar. I agree with you…a required reading list should be broadened to be a list of choices…and the child and parent should be able to choose the required list from the list of choices. Each child’s list might be different.
I frankly don’t remember what was on my required reading list growing up…but that’s not unusual, I can’t remember much in the way of details of yesterday. But I do remember I liked The Glass Castle and recommended it to a few people. When I think about it though, you are correct, the author didn’t spend as much time telling us how she and the kids got the incredible spunk they had in order to survive and even flourish. Would perhaps make a good sequel.
Gerry
January 10, 2014
First of all, ME TOO. We’ll see how it goes, shall we? But it was a whole lot of fun to go visiting over at your place and find Katie girl up to her ears in snow.
I can hear teachers screaming in frustration at “Each child’s list might be different” and yet I think that would be a good thing (the different lists, not the screaming – I have a great deal of sympathy for beleaguered teachers). A classroom full of high school students could, properly encouraged, have some pretty good discussions of how very different authors deal with similar or related subject matter. They might even be intrigued enough to read books over and above the required allotment. It crosses my mind that Angela’s Ashes might be a very good alternative to The Glass Castle on a well-crafted reading list.
I can remember a couple of things that were on my required reading list. Silas Marner. Dreadful thing. And reading Shakespeare. I know, I know, but I am pretty sure that no on should ever have to read a script until after seeing it acted. I strongly suspect that Will would agree. After the torture of getting through the tediously annotated reading I was astonished to discover the depth and vitality and downright excitement of the actual theatrical production – which took place, of course, many years later.
I think there is a certain amount of artistry to the job of teacher and librarian and museum curator. Artistry tempered by the constraints of boards of directors and whims of patrons, but then if memory serves Leonardo and Mozart had the same problem.
Nannette
January 11, 2014
How can I not weigh in on my favorite library celebration? Banned Book Week was created by the American Library Association to remind people that their right to read what they choose is constantly under attack, like many other rights. It all comes down to freedom of choice. I saw this meme the other day, “If God gave us free will then he must be pro choice.”
About EVERYTHING. Otherwise, what was the point? It is true that while many, many books are challenged in public libraries and schools every year, very few are actually banned. It is easier to have books pulled from the shelves of a school, or restricted to certain grade levels, because children have been trained to accept that adults know what is best for them. They don’t fight back. I believe a library’s purpose is to provide a smorgasbord of ideas and let people pick and choose and decide what they like and what they don’t. Like Old Country Buffet of the mind. A teenager was at the library recently, perusing a book by Glenn Beck. When her father came to pick her up she said she would like to check it out. He was visibly surprised, and asked her why. She said it was interesting. They checked out the book. I envision some very thoughtful discussions taking place in that home as the daughter is allowed to discover new ideas through reading.
Gerry
January 11, 2014
I like the smorgasbord. Of course, there’s still a place for a chef . . .
I’ve come up with another metaphor I like, too. Introducing literature to students is like fly-fishing for trout. One chooses the very best fly for the purpose and presents it artfully. Whether or not the trout rises to the bait depends as much on the trout as it does on the fly. No strike? Ponder the contents of the tackle box and select a new fly. (I’ve been reading John Gierach’s Dances with Trout again, can you tell?)
isathreadsoflife
January 11, 2014
What a great conversation is going on here at Gerry’s ! So happy you are back.
Many of my teachers were catholic nuns, especially the ones in charge of French literature. Several great authors (Zola, Gide, Giono) and others belonging to the “realism” movement were banned. Students (15-18 years old) were not supposed to read them and they never appeared in our programs. On the contrary we had to read many books by religious writers. Good writers but mainly writing about religion, catholic, of course.
I was lucky because my grandfather was a great, a passionate reader and his bookshelves were widely open to me. Books of all kinds, mainly about history but also biographies, novels, travel accounts, a great variety. I would choose one book or he would propose one to me and then we would talk about it. Those were amongst the happiest moments of my life.
If books are banned at school, it is practically sure that students will try to find them outside. What they will miss is an analysis of the book, literary and about the theme itself. A great pity. How can one forge one’s own opinion about literature and other subjects without this freedom of reading ?
Gerry
January 11, 2014
Your grandfather must have been a wise and wonderful man. I think the key word is “propose.” He would guide you toward something he thought would be nutritious and delicious for your growing mind, but he would let you select anything in the whole wonderful garden. I suspect he did not waste time buying or reading “empty calories”! (I am full of metaphors today. Sorry.)