Should NOT be Banned

Searching for Offense By Alexandra Petri A parent in Alamogordo, N.M., has created a stir by putting Neil Gaiman's "Neverwhere" under review, claiming that it is R-rated material that Should Not Be Foisted Upon The Young Without Parental Consent, because of its Deeply Objectionable Content - specifically, a paragraph or two on Page 86. Specifically. (You can tell how objectionable the book is because the offense can be cited to the paragraph.) Now the book is off a list of supplemental reading and under review for additional censorship. Alamogordo Public Schools Superintendent George Straface told the local newspaper that he "reviewed the language personally. I can see where it could be considered offensive." He said: "The F-word is used. There is a description of a sexual encounter that is pretty descriptive, and it's between a married man and a single woman. Although kids can probably see that on TV anytime they want, we are a public school using taxpayer dollars." It is amazing how closely one has to read to find this scene, which is not what anyone I've talked to who has read "Neverwhere" found disturbing or memorable about the book. If you want to be disturbed by this book, there is plenty of material: the Night devouring people, a duel with the Beast of London, a child's family murdered. Or you could fixate on sexual incidents glimpsed in passing on a bench. Gaiman told NPR in an e-mail, "I'm faintly baffled by this. 'Neverwhere's' a book that's been taught in schools for years: it's an adult novel that kids love (and won the YALSA [Young Adult Library Services Association] award as an adult book that Young Adults enjoy). It's an adventure, with themes of social responsibility. I've not seen it described as 'R Rated' before, and mostly worry that anyone who buys it thinking they are in for lashings of Sex and Violence will be extremely disappointed." (He also told the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund that "I'm impressed that this parent has managed to find sex and violence in 'Neverwhere' that everyone else had somehow missed - including the entire city of Chicago," as the book was the spring 2011 pick of the city's One Book One Chicago program.) This is censorship by text search, where you look for something to be offended by and find it, generally nestled someplace like the bottom of Page 108. If context is no concern, you can generally find something. On these grounds, "Moby Dick" should be forcibly flung out of schools. Consider this passage I found in Chapter 94: "Squeeze! squeeze! squeeze! all the morning long; I squeezed that sperm till I myself almost melted into it; I squeezed that sperm till a strange sort of insanity came over me; and I found myself unwittingly squeezing my co-laborers' hands in it, mistaking their hands for the gentle globules. Such an abounding, affectionate, friendly, loving feeling did this avocation beget; that at last I was continually squeezing their hands, and looking up into their eyes sentimentally; as much as to say, Oh! my dear fellow beings, why should we longer cherish any social acerbities, or know the slightest ill-humor or envy! Come; let us squeeze hands all round; nay, let us all squeeze ourselves into each other; let us squeeze ourselves universally into the very milk and sperm of kindness. "Would that I could keep squeezing that sperm for ever!" "Moby Dick" is widely regarded as an indelible classic of Western literature. But judge it on that passage, and no Concerned Mother would allow it on the shelves. Or consider "Jane Eyre," in which that deviant Mr. Rochester was constantly "ejaculating." Look, you can study the forest, and you can study the trees. I don't even think you should object to the forest. I would say that this is as ludicrous as banning "Where's Waldo" on the grounds that one might discover a topless woman in the beach scenes, but that actually happened. If you object to the tiny naughty bits concealed in good literature, you run the risk of never again reading classic literature (the kind where the ratio of Earnest Discussions of Architecture and The Structure of Parisian Sewer Systems to People Doing Things Like Having Sex Or Dying is often greater than zero). The promise of slightly objectionable material tucked away on a page somewhere is what gets people into the classics. I say this as someone whose ninth-grade history teacher promoted "The Pillars of the Earth" on the grounds that there was lewd behavior somewhere in its 983 pages. It is only a slight mischaracterization to say that I read the entire "Remembrance of Things Past" because I had heard that there was a brief lewd scene in the fourth volume. (There was, but it was described entirely in floral metaphors, and it was a big letdown. But I understand the frangibility of memory a lot better now!) Context is everything. Especially when books are concerned. But these days, context is nothing. Everything gets remixed, quoted, plucked out of the ocean of words where it was swimming around quite contentedly causing no one any offense and held up in the suffocating air until it looks like the sort of bug-eyed thing you want to keep out of your children's lives. "Burn down the forest!" you shout. "There is a naked tree!" Before you object, read the book? No. Who has time for that? Don't bother with the forest. Just check the forest for the kind of trees you want to hate.

Should be Banned

Schools Once Again Face Bind Over Censorship vs. Book Lists By Natalie DiBlasio U.S. schools have banned more than 20 books and faced more than 50 other challenges this year, the American Library Association reports, and many more are expected this fall. "By far our busiest time is the early fall," says Angela Maycock of the association's Office for Intellectual Freedom. "When students go back to school, we see a real upswing in complaints." There is intense debate over whether those challenges involve censorship or are just parents seeking age-appropriate reading material. "It is not a banning when some school decides to remove a book," says Dan Kleinman, who in 2004 started the website SafeLibraries.org. "They are just following their selection policy." Abraham Foxman, national director of the Anti-Defamation League, says he believes the challenges are increasingly influenced by politics and the economy. "Districts are dependent on budgets, and politically motivated school boards try to determine what we read, what we think and what we teach," he says. The number of book challenges, usually initiated by parents, fluctuates yearly, says library association spokeswoman Jennifer Petersen. Reported challenges have declined from 513 in 2008 to 348 last year, but Petersen says there are many that her group never learns about. Last month, Kurt Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse-Five and Sarah Ockler's Twenty Boy Summer were removed from Republic High School in Republic, Mo. Ockler called the ban "extremely disheartening." The top reasons for challenges are sexually explicit content, offensive language and violence, the association says. "That's not what our kids should be reading and learning," says Roberta Combs, president of the Christian Coalition of America. Virginia's Albemarle County School District removed the Sherlock Holmes mystery A Study in Scarlet by Arthur Conan Doyle from a sixth-grade reading list after parents said it portrays Mormons in a negative light, says Matt Haas, executive director of county schools. In Channelview, Texas, The Adventures of Super Diaper Baby by George Beard, Harold Hutchins and Dav Pilkey was removed from grade schools after parents complained when their 6-year-old was suspended for calling a classmate "poo-poo head," Maycock says.

UPFRONT: Smoking? RESPONSE

UPFRONT MAGEZINE: SMOKING!

Millions of people smoke tabbaco. In fact, this year there have already 480,000 deaths, just the U.S.A, but despite these deaths percentages have gone down. In the late 1990s people smoke the most, but since then percentages have gone down.

        Data has shown that since the 1990s tobacco use has de-creased. Also in the 2000s about 23% of teens smoked, now only 9%. There have been tons of commercials to get the word out to stop smoking. A lot of people also stopped smoking because lung cancer is a common disease caused by smoking.

        Also there has been evidence shown that the US government makes a huge amount of money off the tobacco industry. Upfront says that, that’s most likely why they haven’t made it illegal.

        On the other hand, smoking has been thought of as “cool”. For example on social media, Teenagers seemed to get more like if there was a pic of them smoking. But as (stated before) many commercials has gone out trying to spread to word to stop smoking.

So overall, there are still may deaths, but it we keep moving at a rate like this maybe we can finish smoking  by the end of a few years, and save the life of those who are addicted.

Reading Responce on "Looking for Alaska"

 

            For a lot of people drinking just for fun, But for some, it is to numb a pain that was rotting inside of them. “Looking for Alaska” by John Green, is about a young man named Miles. He meets a young woman named Alaska, she changes his life. The book gives you so many emotions; joy, disappointment, frustration, etc.          Alaska influences Pudge (Mile’s nickname) so much. Sometimes good, sometimes bad. One of the things that had a big impact on not only Pudge, but also likely the readers, was the alcohol. The book gave the impression that underage drinking is normal; just to forget some sort of pain, guilt, stress, or worry.

            During the thanksgiving break, there was a chapter where Alaska and Pudge dug up wine. She told him to dig. And then Pudge responded by, “I got on my knees, and dug through the soft black dirt at the edge of the woods. And before I could get very far, my fingers scratched glass. And I dug around the glass until I pulled out a bottle of pink wine.” Afterwards, Alaska took big gulps of the liquid, and then handed it to Pugde who followed the example. I think that Alaska drank, or wanted to get drunk because she was upset. She had no family to be with for Thanksgiving. She accidently let her mother die when she eight, and then her father abused her, so she left home. This could explain why she would want to forget her past for a while, and so… drink. Despite this is just a book, this might influence some young readers, that when there upset they should just drink.

            Later again, during one of the Thanksgiving break chapters, Alaska needed to get more “booze”. So she goes to a store called “COOSA LIQUORS”, and uses her fake ID to get 6 bottles of wine and vodka, (and 5 packs of cigarettes.) She said, “My ID blows. But I’ll flirt my way through.” By this she meant, that her fake ID was really bad, but that she would flirt to get the alcohol. Obviously Pudge wouldn’t be able to this, but young girls could try this and then, (most likely) get in huge trouble. Maybe even with the police. So, the fact that Alaska didn’t get into any sort of trouble, could be a bad example for the young readers.

 

            The last time Alaska drank, was right before she died. Her excuse was that she wanted to celebrate a prank that she was able to pull off. She even drank out of Dixie cups, for ‘special occasion’. The exact words were, “We aren’t drinking’ out the bottle tonight, we are classing’ it up!” One drink to celebrate something you are excited about is okay (of course 21 and over), but Alaska, once again got drunk. She also was foolish enough to then get in a car. That, led to her death.

When Alaska drank, it wasn’t for fun. It was to forget her past, guilt, and mistakes. Despite the influence she may have given on some readers. Alaska died, she was drunk and driving. John Green might of wanted to get that point across. For example, instead of drinking, get help. This is so that you won’t end up like Alaska. This book has a deeper meaning, and Alaska is the symbol.