catapult magazine

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discussion

offensive books

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Alice
Oct 08 2003
03:29 pm

One more thought pertaining to your comment from your first posting….at what point do we pull books for one student or from the library shelves?
For one student?….not if you’re already in it…see my other posting for compromise in this matter. For consideration to be pulled for next year?…definitely considerable if there is a replacement of equal worth and if it won’t compromise requirements or set a precedence. Sometimes it pays to lose a battle for strategy’s sake…send this set of parents off happy and prevent an all out public jumping on the bandwagon. Wisdom my dear!
Now a library…that’s another matter altogether. It is a rare, rare book that I would ever want pulled from a library shelf. Are there some I might choose to never put on our Reformed Christian library shelves? yes. Do I practice wisdom in book selection guidance and purchasing? I try to…prevention sometimes applies here, especially at the elementary library. I discuss openly with the elementary students about books they ask about us not having on the shelves and why…I try to teach respect for different points of view and why I choose to not purchase some popular titles. I also point out that with their parents permission they can visit a public library where the selection may include these books for checkout.

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SARAH
Oct 08 2003
05:35 pm

If you’re teaching in a public school, then how can a set of fundamentalist Christian parents dictate reading material for the whole school? Or are they labeling their objections in more fuzzy, less strictly fundamentalist language? I just don’t understand how a secular school would ever go for some religious fundamentalists making all the decisions.

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Norbert
Oct 08 2003
06:09 pm

I should have mentioned that this is Cedar Grove, Wisconsin. For Dordt people it’s just like Sioux Center only closer to Lake Michigan.
Officially, it shouldn’t make a difference, but when 40% of the population is Christian Reformed and 40% Catholic, it does. Unfortunately, the other 20% are so disgusted by the largely non-thinking bandwagon jumpers in the Christian community a real animosity has developed. But that’s a different topic for a different day.

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bridget
Oct 08 2003
06:48 pm

Can I ask what the course goals are? Does this book fit those course goals? Since you’ve picked to teach it, I’d guess you have pretty good reasons to use it. Have the parents listened to your explanation of how this book matches your course goals and what you’re teaching?

On the library topic, I personally believe taking a book off of the shelves causes nothing but harm in the long run. It harms the relationship between schooling and the students, in that I think students eventually feel like they are being prevented from learning, or hampered by a school system that doesn’t understand them. (They’ll also probably obtain the book elsewhere) For parents and administration, taking a book off the shelf may temporarily solve the problem, but the parent will eventually have more issues. If this isn’t resolved on a policy level, it seems like it’s just going to continue this way.

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Norbert
Oct 08 2003
07:12 pm

First, I’m not teaching the course. I’ve been asked to be a part of the panel to review the book. The book is being taught in a World Lit. course for Juniors. The teacher, if I remember correctly, chose it because it’s written by an American, with a strong universal theme of respect and tolerance, among others.
We do have a policy in place, as do most other schools, in which a parent may challenge the use of a book through proper channels, this panel being a major one. What the policy does not specify is any procedure to have this book or any other book completely tossed out of the district.

Thanks by the way for all of the posts to this. I appreciate the time and attention you have put into the topic. Even though most of the questions don’t have specific answers, I’m finding the conversation very helpful.

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kirstin
Oct 09 2003
03:25 pm

for all of you depraved readers just slogging through this thread for hints of a bawdy passage, here’s one i just found:

“Yet she became more and more promiscuous as she recalled the days of her youth, when she was a prostitute in Egypt. There she lusted after her lovers, whose genitals were like those of donkeys and whose emission was like that of horses. So you longed for the lewdness of your youth, when in Egypt your bosom was caressed and your young breasts fondled.”

isn’t that disgusting? madness to post it on a Christian web site! Ezekiel 23:19-21 should be banned from the Bible!

(what would the offended parents say about reading this in a Bible class?)

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Norbert
Oct 09 2003
04:19 pm

I’ll ask them.
Thanks Kirstin!

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mrsanniep
Oct 14 2003
05:38 pm

I’m against book censorship – on one hand. But you see, I also know that the Bible calls for Christians to not grow desensitized to the thinking and ways of the world – which kind of brings me to Norbert’s initial question – are he and his English colleagues desensitized to offensive material? I think the answer could be yes, especially when one uses a worldy intellectual argument against banning this book from the school library.

Paul points out that the Greeks were intelligent, thinking people, but they had hardened hearts … not just to God, but to the overarching Christian way of thinking. Pulling this book from the school library makes no sense on a mere intellectual level, but throw in a Christian perspective and I’d have to agree with the parents. But, again, by that side of ourselves influenced by society, it doesn’t fly. What’s more sacred here? Literary merit according to a couple of people and the New York Times Best Seller list or the efforts of a Christian family to live by God’s high standards?

The more I think about it, the more I think that as a Christian teacher in a public school, one of the best ways to live out one’s faith would be to choose books not just according to their worldly, intellectual merit, but also by the standards of Christ. That’s not illegal in a public school.

Not to mention, Snow Falling on Cedars was an Oprah Book Club selection. Blech.

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Norbert
Oct 14 2003
07:28 pm

I sincerely believe that God’s high standards include aesthetic value. Snow Falling on Cedars has aesthetic value. It’s not the best book in the world but it is fairly well-crafted. The use of descriptive vulgarities, both verbal and physical, is not merely gratuitous. It would be aesthetically deviant to write a play, book or movie about the ghetto and use phrases such as: “Gee whiz, what a gosh-aweful person I think he is”.
I agree with you in as much as I, as well as many other lovers of good books, movies, music, can become desensitized to less than perfect content because of our over-romanticizing of the artistic elements. I think part of this is in response to the typical ultra-conservative Christian “run away” attitude. Obviously neither of these stances are ideal, but I guess I feel more comfortable with the former.
Now this situation is likely going to be different for a Christian school, but I think the arguement will stay the same. Teachers, and all individuals for that matter, should balance aesthetic merit with appropriate content. Snow Falling on Cedars is a fantastic book to teach because of the many themes, many of the universal, that are so prominent. To we chuck it because it mentions the word “fuck”? Or do we teach the whole book, stressing the merit the book does have while understanding that the moral discrepencies are part of a fallen world without accepting them as normative? I guess you know my preference.
This is my basic argument for the book. Are there holes? Am I missing something?
Thanks for the post Anne, and I’m assuming that your last comment (unsubstantiated blanket statement) was a joke.

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Norbert
Oct 14 2003
07:31 pm

One more thing to go along with what I just wrote. I think this can be and should be taken to other mediums as well. I consider kitsch just as offensive as much of Maplethorpe, and much of CCM as offensive as the Red Hot Chili Peppers. I own both CCM and Chili Peppers CDs and I feel guilty listening to both sides.
What’s to be said, or more appropriately, done about that?

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SARAH
Oct 14 2003
08:25 pm

Even though I read Snow Falling on Cedars a few years ago, the memory of its theme of the nuances and complexities and horrors of racism still remains vivid in my mind. I strongly believe this type of awareness and sensitivity to be part of God’s high standards—how could it not be? I don’t understand how that is a wordly intellectual argument; I find it deeply Christ-like. I think to overlook such an important issue and to say it doesn’t have merit because there is also sex involved would be the epitome of desensitization. It would also speak ill of Christians, not to mention that it alienates and confuses those students who would otherwise recognize the value in a book such as Snow Falling on Cedars. I know—I was one of those students.