Over at the Huffington Post, screenwriter and director Ronald F. Maxwell goes in way deep on a number of issues. Some of them are even related, but all are deeply interesting. Who would have thought, mere weeks ago, that Americans would need to be concerned with book banning and witch hunting in this day and age? By his precipitous choice of a running mate, Senator John McCain has inadvertently riled some murky Alaskan back-waters. And […]
This year Banned Books Week runs from September 27th to October 4th. From the Banned Books Week Web site: Banned Books Week is the only national celebration of the freedom to read. It was launched in 1982 in response to a sudden surge in the number of challenges to books in schools, bookstores and libraries. More than a thousand books have been challenged since 1982. The challenges have occurred in every state and in hundreds […]
It seems to me that, after 9-11, there was a lot of talk about the fact that terrorists could only succeed if they managed to cow us, bow us, influence our course. Yet here we are again. From The Guardian: A romantic novel about Aisha, the child bride of the prophet Muhammad, has been withdrawn because its publisher feared possible terrorist acts by Muslim extremists. The Jewel of the Medina, a first book by Sherry […]
Though it opened at both the Vancouver and Toronto Film Festivals last year, I’m still stoked about the May 9th Alliance Films limited release of Kari Skogland’s film adaptation of The Stone Angel by Canadian author Margaret Laurence (1926-1987). From the Alliance Web site: Based on the best-selling novel by Margaret Laurence, The Stone Angel is the story of feisty firecracker Hagar Shipley (Christine Horne, Oscar Winner Ellen Burstyn). Her passionate heart has always ruled […]
At the start of the year I reported on a special celebration of the Tintin comics in France to mark what would have been writer Herge’s 100th birthday. The article indicated that many writers recall spending their youth in the company of Tintin, Snowy, Captain Haddock and the eclectic gang as they traveled the world seeking adventure. With the upcoming big screen adaptation of Tintin by Peter Jackson and Steven Spielberg we report some controversy […]
Though a whisper of controversy caresses Banned Books Week this year, the spirit of the beast remains untouched. From the American Library Association’s Web site: First observed in 1982, Banned Books Week reminds Americans not to take this precious democratic freedom for granted. Nor does the ALA go it alone: The event is sponsored by the American Booksellers Association, the American Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression, the American Library Association (ALA), the Association of American […]
This one definitely comes to us via the WTF department: A Bentonville, Ark., man is seeking $20,000 from the city after his two teenage sons found a book on lesbian sex on a public library bookshelf. He also wants the library director fired. Earl Adams said his 14- and 16-year-old sons were “greatly disturbed” after finding the book, titled “The Whole Lesbian Sex Book.” Adams said the book caused “many sleepless nights in our house.” […]
I must have read Mark Mathabane’s moving autobiography, Kaffir Boy, pretty close to the time it was first published in the mid-1980s. I remember the quiet power of this book and the way I felt resonations from it months — maybe even years — after I’d read it. Mathabane’s book did not leave me untouched. A couple of decades later and so much has changed. For one thing, Kaffir Boy is based in South Africa […]
When the Saskatoon Public Library asked Yann Martel to read from any banned or challenged book for Freedom to Read Week, the author of Life of Pi chose Mein Kampf. “It’s a horrible book,” Martel told The National Post, “but a horribly important book, because you get in the brain of one of the monsters of the 20th century.” However, for a CBC Radio Saskatchewan interview in support of the event, Martel was told not […]
This past weekend it cracked me up to follow the coverage of the children’s book that has everyone up in arms about the use of the word “scrotum.” Now, last time I checked, scrotum wasn’t a “bad” word. No one calls someone else that in the playground or tells someone what to do with theirs. If they have one. However, this year’s recipient of the Newbery Medal, The Higher Power of Lucky by Susan Patron, […]
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