Re: banning CATCHER
jason varsoke (jjv@caesun.msd.ray.com)
Wed, 16 Jun 1999 15:54:39 -0400 (EDT)
> Hello, all.
>
> I would like to come out in defense of the reoccuring plan to ban CITR. It
> is a dangerous book. Nevermind the languge; there's worse on prime-time tv.
> In fact, it is dangerous because of its subtlety and underlying themes.
> The same people who want to ban Salinger are the ones who find independant
> thinking frightening. People shouldn't be put through the ringer of new
> ideas and strange thoughts.
> This is the same group that hated Wycliffe, because knowledge in the hands
> of the public is.... unpredictable.
> We need to support the idea of banning. Not banning per se, just the idea
> of it. Do you think more than a handful of people would have read the
> Bible's English trans. if the church hadn't fought it tooth-and-nail?
> Thank god, (with a small g) for groups that directly affect my life due to
> their close proximity to me, like Coloradans for Family Values. Groups like
> this pointed my way as a youth towards books that I may have otherwise
> neglected, thanks to their banning wish list.
> The old saying "It takes all kinds" is so true: these bizarros work as a
> near-perfect inverse barometer.
> Thank you, Jerry Falwell, Pat Robertson, et al., you freaks have shown me
> the light, or at least where I should be looking for it.
>
> Thor
Have to agree with Thor on this one. In High School I considered the
banned book list my summer reading list. In my high school we also had a
pretty crafty English teacher who had the list posted on the wall. She
kept the books in strong box in her closet. (she used to like to show the
covers to the class) Every year she'd recruit a few seniors to spread the
rumor that the combonation was 12-34-02 for the lock. Inevitably people
stole books from the box. I stole _1984_. (isn't it funny our school
banned this book) She later told me she has tons of copies of these books
in her garage at home that she gets from flea markets and the like. She
hopes they get stolen. Thank you Mrs. Hornick, for understanding simple
teen psychology.
-j