{"id":18045,"date":"2022-06-01T00:23:12","date_gmt":"2022-06-01T00:23:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/?p=18045"},"modified":"2022-05-31T20:25:35","modified_gmt":"2022-05-31T20:25:35","slug":"ban-any-good-books-lately","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/2022\/06\/01\/ban-any-good-books-lately\/","title":{"rendered":"Ban Any Good Books Lately?"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Ken Stokes<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"
Fran\u00e7ois-Marie Arouet (1694\u20131778), known as Voltaire, was a writer, philosopher, poet, dramatist, historian and polemicist of the French Enlightenment. Image credit: Jean-Antoine Houdon, sculptor<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

U<\/span>nless your current COVID protocols have really cut you off from civilization, you no doubt know about the Nampa school board\u2019s recent decision to permanently ban from Nampa School District libraries 22 titles\u2014principally books addressing issues specific to marginalized communities\u2014and to forbid their mention or inclusion in any curriculum. Never mind that the formal review of the books was under way but not yet completed. Never mind that the reasons were, at best, specious. Never mind that the decision parroted an unsuccessful attempt by Idaho House Republicans to hold librarians criminally liable for disseminating so-called \u2018harmful materials,\u2019 the specifics of which were included in a notorious \u2018super-secret folder.\u2019 Never mind that the majority of these books are critically acclaimed bestsellers. Never mind that this is precisely the kind of situation where parental discretion should be invoked in lieu of government mandates.<\/span><\/p>\n

As a former contestant on Jeopardy! I would love to quiz the board members on a smattering of key details from the banned books. We all know they\u2019d flunk. There\u2019s no way any single member, much less the entire board, read all 22 books. Given the decision to forego the formal review process which was under way, the banning of any book by citing passages out of context rather than having read the book in its entirety by the decision-makers wasn\u2019t simply lazy, it was the very definition of ignorance.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s also clear from the selections that the Nampa school board, like the zealots from which they take their cues, is principally interested in gay-bashing with a side order of misogyny and racism, anchors its outrage in a few contemporary, popular titles and incendiary soundbites, and doesn\u2019t really have a problem with books referencing misogyny, domestic violence, sexual assault and rape, promiscuity and prostitution, as well as the entire litany of transgressions recounted in Dante\u2019s Inferno. Because to genuinely be alarmed by those topics to such an extent that censorship is the only solution puts hundreds of masterpieces of the Western canon on the chopping block.<\/p>\n

Let me toss off a few you may be familiar with: The Canterbury Tales, Tess of the D\u2019Urbervilles, Oliver Twist, Les Mis\u00e9rables, The Cider House Rules, Anna Karenina, The Sun Also Rises, To Kill a Mockingbird<\/i> and my personal favorite, Candide<\/i>. Of course, Inferno<\/i> would need to go. And the Holy Bible<\/i> as well.<\/p>\n

I was almost hesitant to even list specific titles lest I provide both the Nampa school board and Republican state legislators with one-stop shopping for their next purge. Now here\u2019s why I\u2019m not concerned: to ban or in any way discourage the teaching of the pillars of the Western canon would directly compromise the ability and\/or opportunities for Nampa School District graduates to secure admission to most of\u2014and certainly to the top\u2014liberal arts colleges and universities.<\/p>\n

Can you imagine the Nampa school board putting any obstacles in place that would compromise the ability of one of its student-athletes to secure a scholarship or admittance to a top university? Well, guess what, sports fans, without an independent effort by students to compensate for this failing in their formal education, Nampa high school athletes who dream of playing for Stanford, USC, UCLA, UW, and about 100+ other schools which have exacting standards and require impeccable preparation\u2026 Well, forget it. The term is \u2018student\u2019 athlete. And the admissions scandals of the past have only reinforced that bar.<\/p>\n

Nampa, Nampa, Nampa\u2026 Not our problem, right? You can bet Republicans will make this a priority for the 2023 legislative session\u2014the Idaho State Board of Education\u2019s position be damned. It\u2019s coming to a library near you unless cooler\u2014and rational\u2014heads prevail.<\/p>\n

Sorry, bureaucrats, most of the books are firmly established in popular culture, and the ban has done for these titles and for \u2018indecent books\u2019 in general what Prohibition did for booze. Book stores, libraries and the majority of the public is outraged over this bald attempt of censorship and discrimination and are mounting a counteroffensive\u2014namely, a return to reason. I\u2019m sure many of the speakers at the upcoming Sun Valley Writers\u2019 Conference will be weighing in on the issue and unambiguous in their condemnation of the ban. And no doubt the courts will weigh in.<\/p>\n

Art is subjective. And to develop an appreciation of the merits and value of art requires immersion. So let me return to those classics I referenced earlier. They used to be called The Great Books. They still are. I know the titles are familiar, but\u2014come on now, honestly\u2014have you ever read them? If so, they\u2019re worthy of a revisit. If you choose to keep ignorance at bay while immeasurably enriching your life and deepening your insights into the human condition, read a classic of any genre. They are timeless for a reason.<\/p>\n

There are numerous sources for a list of recommended classics (Goodreads, Penguin, Amazon). And may I suggest starting with Voltaire\u2019s Candide<\/i>. It\u2019s less than 100 pages long. It\u2019s hilarious. It\u2019s tragic. It\u2019s sublime. And although written in 1759, it is shockingly relevant today. If a stop on the grand tour of great literature isn\u2019t your idea of a summer read, the Hailey Public Library, The Community Library and the Bellevue Public Library are collaborating to host the 2022 Valley-wide Adult Summer Reading Program, which will focus on works celebrating this place we call home. In either case, please read. The best defense against ignorance is enlightenment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Ken Stokes Unless your current COVID protocols have really cut you off from civilization, you no doubt know about the Nampa school board\u2019s recent decision to permanently ban from Nampa School District libraries 22 titles\u2014principally books addressing issues specific to marginalized communities\u2014and to forbid their mention or inclusion in any curriculum. Never mind that […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","_pvb_checkbox_block_on_post":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18045","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-commentary"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18045","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18045"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18045\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18049,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18045\/revisions\/18049"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18045"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18045"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18045"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}