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I remember, like many of us, having to read both 1984 and Farenheight 451 in High School. I've read them many times since. It was always the narrative that it would be conservatives who would bring this about. Who would have thought it was the so called "liberals" who would herald into the World the end of Freedom.
that's why i said "we mused". it's our opinion. we do know that it's been considered a classic, and that's why we re-read it. and prior to re-reading it, we all were looking forward to it, as it had been a favorite of nearly all of us, as teenagers. we also revisited my antonia, which was also boring. and the sun also rises, which was too confusing to be completely boring.
Interesting. The history of this book being banned from schools since the 1960s, usually because the charge of rape was seen as an inappropriate topic for required reading in schools, and because of the N word. Harper Lee's last book, a sequel, made it clear that Atticus Finch (the attorney who defended the black man) was a member of the KKK, something only hinted at in To Kill a Mockingbird. So the "hero" in this story is, in fact, racist and in favor of segregation.
My book club read it last year, a rereading for all of us, and roundly found it boring. If the book came out this year, we mused, it wouldn't become a best seller. Characters are flat, language is flat, and the story is fairly boring. As usually happens when we read a "classic". They're just not as well-written and creative as books written currently.
I haven't read To Kill a Mockingbird or The Cay. I have read Huck Finn and Tom Sawyer and Roll of Thunder Hear My Cry. But not the prequel Song of The Trees. The latter had a profoundly anti racism message and was written from a Black perspective.
Mark Twain's books were just good stories. No message. Yes he used the dreaded N word BUT all he was doing was writing like people actually talked in that 19th century period. Sooooo....what's the problem?
And America wasnt the only country that used certain words to reference Blacks during that period and these terms are still used today. The British have a gaggle of terms in their history and these terms are found all through their literature.
But only books by American authors are being singled out. I guess the US is the only country that has racism or ever has. Yep. It was we evil Americans that started it all.
Specifically now only White Americans. (sigh) And I suppose it was White American authors reaching from the future into the past that made the British and Europeans coin terms like Wog , Ginny, Fuzzy and others.
Which were used in their literature and speech. The books on this hit list are being targeted because they uses colloquial speech from the periods they are set in. So as I see it, if this doth offend, and stories that tell it like it was are so impossible to take....wow. So this is what its come to.
History must be erased and forgotten. Only "woke" literature will be allowed. This does not bode well.
To the those saying that liberals are “burning books,” it should be noted that PEN America came out against the ban. That is not a conservative organization.
Until further notice, teachers in the area will not be able to include on their curriculum Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird, Mark Twain's The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, John Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men, Theodore Taylor's The Cay and Mildred D. Taylor's Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry.
I'm actually seeing a bright side to this. Books like To Kill a Mockingbird and Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry reinforce the message that white people are evil racists and black people are innocent victims. In no way am I denying the historical truth of this assessment, in all too many cases. But this narrative is continuing to be pushed even today, billed as a current reality, when it is blatantly false. So if the white students in Burbank are spared from yet more stories of how bad they are (because, they're white, therefore they're guilty of racism), maybe this is a good thing.
I haven't read To Kill a Mockingbird or The Cay. I have read Huck Finn and Tom Sawyer and Roll of Thunder Hear My Cry. But not the prequel Song of The Trees. The latter had a profoundly anti racism message and was written from a Black perspective.
Mark Twain's books were just good stories. No message. Yes he used the dreaded N word BUT all he was doing was writing like people actually talked in that 19th century period. Sooooo....what's the problem?
And America wasnt the only country that used certain words to reference Blacks during that period and these terms are still used today. The British have a gaggle of terms in their history and these terms are found all through their literature.
But only books by American authors are being singled out. I guess the US is the only country that has racism or ever has. Yep. It was we evil Americans that started it all.
Specifically now only White Americans. (sigh) And I suppose it was White American authors reaching from the future into the past that made the British and Europeans coin terms like Wog , Ginny, Fuzzy and others.
Which were used in their literature and speech. The books on this hit list are being targeted because they uses colloquial speech from the periods they are set in. So as I see it, if this doth offend, and stories that tell it like it was are so impossible to take....wow. So this is what its come to.
History must be erased and forgotten. Only "woke" literature will be allowed. This does not bode well.
Huck Finn did have an anti-racism message. It was in the humanity of the slave (Jim I think his name was). Everyone looked down on him, but we was wise and good. It was subtle. Hollywood used to know how to do subtlety. But they've lost that touch. You can even see it in series like Star Trek. The Original Series was often subtle. The Next Generation was very preachy and annoying with their messages.
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