Authors and readers rally to defend rape novel from school ban
Judy Blume and fellow authors and readers have rallied behind Laurie
Halse Anderson's acclaimed young adult novel about the rape of a
teenager, Speak, following a call to ban it from schools in Missouri.
As libraries and bookshops across America highlight the dangers of censorship with Banned Books Week, their annual celebration of the right to read, a campaign backing Anderson's book has taken wing across blogs and Twitter. The widespread support for Speak follows an op-ed from Wesley Scroggins, a professor at Missouri State University, in Missouri's News Leader, which said the book "should be classified as soft pornography" and called on parents to "get involved".
"How can Christian men and women expose children to such immorality?" he wrote. "This is unacceptable, considering that most of the school board members and administrators claim to be Christian."
Scroggins also complained about Kurt Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse-Five ("This is a book that contains so much profane language, it would make a sailor blush with shame. The 'f word' is plastered on almost every other page. The content ranges from naked men and women in cages together so that others can watch them having sex to God telling people that they better not mess with his loser, bum of a son, named Jesus Christ"), which has now been removed from the district's curriculum, and about Twenty Boy Summer by Sarah Ockler, which is being reviewed.
"The fact that he sees rape as sexually exciting (pornographic) is disturbing, if not horrifying. It gets worse, if that's possible, when he goes on to completely mischaracterise the book," wrote Anderson on her blog, which she said has now been viewed by tens of thousands of people. A hashtag on Twitter, #speakloudly, became one of the most popular topics on the micro-blogging site last weekend, and vehement anti-censorship campaigner and author Judy Blume described the situation as "outrageous" and brought it to the attention of the National Coalition Against Censorship, which is now investigating.
To read the full article, visit: http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2010/sep/29/defend-novel-school-ban
As libraries and bookshops across America highlight the dangers of censorship with Banned Books Week, their annual celebration of the right to read, a campaign backing Anderson's book has taken wing across blogs and Twitter. The widespread support for Speak follows an op-ed from Wesley Scroggins, a professor at Missouri State University, in Missouri's News Leader, which said the book "should be classified as soft pornography" and called on parents to "get involved".
"How can Christian men and women expose children to such immorality?" he wrote. "This is unacceptable, considering that most of the school board members and administrators claim to be Christian."
Scroggins also complained about Kurt Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse-Five ("This is a book that contains so much profane language, it would make a sailor blush with shame. The 'f word' is plastered on almost every other page. The content ranges from naked men and women in cages together so that others can watch them having sex to God telling people that they better not mess with his loser, bum of a son, named Jesus Christ"), which has now been removed from the district's curriculum, and about Twenty Boy Summer by Sarah Ockler, which is being reviewed.
"The fact that he sees rape as sexually exciting (pornographic) is disturbing, if not horrifying. It gets worse, if that's possible, when he goes on to completely mischaracterise the book," wrote Anderson on her blog, which she said has now been viewed by tens of thousands of people. A hashtag on Twitter, #speakloudly, became one of the most popular topics on the micro-blogging site last weekend, and vehement anti-censorship campaigner and author Judy Blume described the situation as "outrageous" and brought it to the attention of the National Coalition Against Censorship, which is now investigating.
To read the full article, visit: http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2010/sep/29/defend-novel-school-ban
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