Challenged Books

Looking through this list of “challenged books” is disheartening. It’s a track record of all of the school boards who have bowed down to protective parents. Everyone grows up at some point, everyones going to hear the “f” word, and an ignorant collection of misguided folk who still, somehow, use derogatory remarks towards gays, blacks, women ect. So why stop your children from reading these things in books, arguably one of the safest places to learn them. In recently published books how many “cool” main characters still use the “n” word and beat their wives? None. It’s not like an author sits down and tries to come up with a book that they know will be blacklisted by schools. In American schools Harry Potter doesn’t get read because christian parents don’t want their kids casting spells and worshipping satan. But what about the Satanist family? They probably don’t want their kids getting creationism shoved down their throats. So where is the middle ground? And what about here in Canada with our massive multicultural society? Who do schools respect and where is the line for “unteachable and offensive”?

A book like Harper Lee’s To Kill A Mockingbird was band for its use of the “n” word upsetting black residents in Yarmouth, Nova Scotia. But wasn’t the use of that word part of history? I am in no way defending the use of it now; it’s collected more than enough dust, but is that not the reason we celebrate Black History Month every February? To remember the suffering of African-Canadian and African-American’s predecessors, not pretend like it didn’t happen? If parents don’t want to expose their kids to bad role models who use the “n” word as punctuation, that’s fine. Don’t let them listen to music that offends you, but please don’t try and brush history under the rug. And besides, the characters that readers sympathize with shouldn’t be Bill Ewell, it’s Atticus and the children who people look up too.

Annabel- Kathleen Winter

Select either the excerpt from Monkey Beach or Annabel and write a blog entry in which you comment on the use of landscape to enhance character and theme. Quote directly from the excerpt to support your point.

This entire section was written using the description of, or mention to, places in almost every paragraph. The piece gives a very clear sense of separation between the men and women of Croyden Harbour. The women are shown as a romanticized but tough group. "Then came brief blasts of summer, when fireweed and pitcher plants and bog sundews burst open and gave the air one puff, one tantalizing scented breath that signalled life could now begin, but it did not begin. The plants were carnivorous. That moment of summer contained desire and fruition and death all in one ravenous gulp, and the women did not jump in." Summer has denied these women and the women shrug it off as if it isn't a big deal. The men, and specifically Treadway, needed to be out of their homes because to them it was a way of life. There is a stress and a confinement that we feel with Treadway his house is described. "This was how he lived, by the nuances of wild birds over land and water, and by the footprints and marks of branches in the snow on his trapline, and the part of him that understood these languages detested him in his house. Clocks ticked, and doilies sat on furniture, and stagnant air rushed into his pores and suffocated him. It was not air at all, but suffocating gauze crammed with dust motes, and it was always too warm."

Cyberspace When You're Dead

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/09/magazine/09Immortality-t.html?_r=1&ref=magazine&pagewanted=all

Pretty heavy stuff. I don't think anyone I know has really thought about the wakes they're making on the web. Or what will happen to their stuff when they stop making waves. "Not many people have given serious thought to these questions. Maybe that’s partly because what we do online still feels somehow novel and ephemeral, although it really shouldn’t anymore." There is definitely an air of people not caring about what they do on the internet. But as soon as someone is told that their web persona stays as is after they die, they get worried. Entrustet has a fantastic business idea that definitely would make people think about the responsibilities that come with their various web accounts.

The Big Why - Michael Winter

House of Anansi

Price: $21.95

ISBN: 0-88784-734-X

Winter has crafted an extremely truthful narrative to the real life story of painter Rockwell Kent’s time in Newfoundland and the fallout after his untimely departure. An honest tale of Kent’s strive for the image of self-reliance and . Newfoundland has come to life as Kent’s friendly antagonist and the reason for his miseries after his departure from her bosom. Michael Winter has placed Rockwell Kent’s voice into his words and created another portrait of an odd Canada. "Art should make you think about life, not about art." Winter is brutally honest in his novel in a way that would make anyone think about their life.