Short Story Censorship

In a high school English class unit called Love/Gender/Family Unit, Kathleen Reilly taught short stories by David Sedaris, Laura Lippman, Stephen King and Ernest Hemingway. But not anymore. She recently resigned, after parents demanded she remove the stories from the curriculum.

Parent Sue Ann Johnson was one of the more vocal objectors to the stories, arguing kids are being harmed:

“There is an agenda, people. Wake up,” she said. “We are desensitizing our children to violence. We’re desensitizing them to sex. We’re desensitizing them to drugs. We’re talking about the hearts and minds of the future of America.”

I can only wag my index finger of shame. This is a simple error, to suppose that exposing someone to violence/sex/drugs is the same as desensitization. Certainly desensitization is something to avoid, but would anyone say that visiting the slums in Kenya risks desensitizing students to poverty? The exposure would probably lead them to become more sensitive, perhaps even to act in positive ways on their sensitivities.

I'm reminded of Chuck Palahniuk's defense of Fight Club, how he argued that portraying violence in all its real, mucky messiness was the best antidote for the glorified fakery in movies that leads to desensitization.

Literature is the best possible place to expose students to such things. You can't help but think that most acts of censorship are a failure to read properly; in other words, a form of illiteracy. It's a failure to read literature as it's meant to be read -- not as a nonfiction book advocating a particular lifestyle, but an interaction and exploration of life itself.

The National Coalition Against Censorship has also picked up the story. There's a you-go-get-'em editorial in the local newspaper, too, from a recent graduate arguing that his alma mater should keep the short stories in the curriculum. It's cute because it's so winsome.

Perhaps we need some kind of Short Story Superhero that can defend against these censorship mafias. With a suit and a spiffy motto, nothing could withstand Short Story Man! He could leap tall parents in a single bound. He could cast protective webs around the banned books.

Okay, I'll stop now.

Comments

[JOhn Fox]

Perhaps when you are a parent, strugglng with all of the sex and violence in our society, you may want to have a say in what your children read. I would think there are many other things in life to write about and ready, than to constantly focus on these two areas, sex and violence. How was the teacher covering the short stories, did she ever bring up the moral abiss that leads to violence and sexual conduct which hurts societies.

[bookfox]

I agree that it's detrimental to constantly focus on those two areas. In fact, our culture constantly errs on emphasizing sex and violence too much.

I also agree that it would be insightful to know how how the teacher covered the stories. Certainly her approach could be anything between handling the literature in a gratuitous way or parlaying it into a greater understanding of the world.

But still, the greater problem is with how literature is handled. It's not nonfiction. Numbers and content don't determine morality. Narrative determines meaning. Too many people miss this.

And the other problem is that high school administrators kowtow to parents in order to make their job easier. You don't find this happen at the same frequency at the collegiate level, which allows teachers to do their job better.

[The Biblio Brat]

This post made me smile, for a good reason. I love the last bit.

I took another tack on this issue, but in essence I agree this matter was handled inappropriately by the parents and especially the superintendant who not only caved, but threw the English Department curriculum coordinator (Kathleen Reilly)under the bus as she was the one who made up the list.

Here is my take: Canon Under Fire

[Jay Antani]

Censorship is always a sign of a culture hostage to ignorance, bigotry, and a contempt for knowledge and education. What a disgusting development.

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