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Dec
14 2006 | ||
Well thank goodness for some sanity.
Oy. Seriously people, this sort of thing hacks me off. In the first place, why do people who want to ban books always have absolutely NO true information about them? I remember once someone telling me that Harry Potter had voodoo in it, which of course just goes to show the ignorance of book banning in the first place. Unless Rowling throws it into book 7, I haven’t seen any voodoo yet. Of course, I’ve actually read the books, so silly me.
According to the American Library Association, J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter books have been challenged 115 times since 2000, making them the most challenged texts of the 21st Century.
There are several, quite obvious things here. In the first place, the books are about loyalty, courage, honor, love and conviction to your beliefs. These are precisely the values children need most. I’ve heard claims that it encourages children to question authority. And um, hello, these children are fighting to save humankind and wizard kind alike with the help of adults. It’s not that they’re questioning all authority, but you know what? Sometimes authority is wrong. Hitler ring a bell? Sometimes, authority is bad and there’s nothing wrong with your child understanding that.
HOWEVER, if you don’t want your children reading fantasy novels because they contain elements you consider bad (although it might be nice if you read the darned things first to see what they were really about), don’t let em. That doesn’t mean though, that you need to become my childrens’ moral compass on such matters. Or anyone else’s for that matter. Why does it have to move from a personal decision for your family to an attempt to decide for mine? It’s so unbearably self righteous.
I fully support parents controlling what their children read and see. It’s a parent’s job to do that. But it’s not Laura Mallory’s job to do it for me and I resent her attempts and the people like her (on both sides of the political spectrum) who seem to believe it’s their job to decide what everyone else thinks, hears, says and reads.
So thumbs up to Georgia Board of Education members for voting to keep the books on the shelves.
December 14th, 2006 at 3:33 pm · Link
You go girl!! I hate censorship. You are so right about people not reading the books before judging them. Unfortunately, this has always happened and will probably continue to happen as long as we have people who want to control other people’s lives. Tolerance is a rare flower that needs to be nurtured.
December 14th, 2006 at 6:35 pm · Link
I used to frequent a bookstore in GA. And I was asking about the next Harry Potter book for my oldest son and a customer in the store just blasted me for letting my 13 yr old read Harry Potter. Well after I picked my jaw up off the floor I was so shocked by her nerve. I asked her what she had against them. And she said I as promoting witchcraft to my children. I asked her if she had read them and she humph no of course not. And I told her to mind her own business and that she shouldn’t discuss things that she had no knowledge of. And that if I had a child that loathed to read and fell in love with a series of books so much that he bugged me repeatedly for the next one that she could kiss where the sun don’t shine and butt the hell out. The lady behind the counter was about to roll on the floor. The lady got mad and flounced out of the store and the lady behind the counter said she was glad I said something becuase she was not allowed to.
December 15th, 2006 at 6:36 pm · Link
I am constantly amazed at the intolerance of the people in a counrty founded because we were sick of the intolerance of another country.
December 15th, 2006 at 7:11 pm · Link
What the heck does everyone have against Harry Potter? Especially people who have not read the book. I started reading the series w/ my daughter and became a huge fan. Not only have I read them but so have my mom and aunt. The whole series boils down to ultimately a story of good versus evil as well as the dangers of intolerance. I don’t know how these concepts can be threatening to anyone.
December 16th, 2006 at 1:15 pm · Link
I’m just amazed. Truly I am. I don’t get people who want to ban something they haven’t even read. If you don’t want to read it, fine…don’t. But don’t try and take away other’s right to read it.
Mechele aka Lany of Melany Logen