Censorship
November 2, 2009
- I was alarmed by news reports of two Chicago men arrested in connection with a Pakistani plot to attack Danish cartoonist Kurt Westergaard and Flemming Rose, the culture editor at Jyllands-Posten. One of the men allegedly wrote in a Yahoo! chat that he was “disposed toward violence” toward these men and toward me because of my books, “The Jewel of Medina” and “The Sword of ...
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November 2, 2009
- Dear Reader,Self-censorship continues to be a topic about which we should all be concerned. Please read my article, newly published in New Humanist magazine, here: http://newhumanist.org.uk/2163/our-own-worst-enemy. Keep reading, Sherry
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October 28, 2009
- Talll, gaunt man in coveralls, plaid shirt, hat pulled down low, walks on. Same Actor who plays Christopher Marlowe, but the opposite of Marlowe's ``dandyism.'' Behind him, lettuce fields, wind blowing.MAN IN COVERALLS: John Steinbeck got a call one day from his hometown – Salinas . . . California . . . It's, it's 1938, or around then and he's in a little cottage . . . twenty miles away on ...
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October 19, 2009
- All you need is love, says the song. But that’s ridiculous. You need a room, too, and a harmonica. What were the Beatles thinking?Still, I miss those times when pop artists wrote songs that meant something, and none more so than Sam the Sham and the Pharaohs, a quintessentially American band led by singer and organist Domingo “Sam” Samudio, best known for their hit "Wooly Bully." ...
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October 15, 2009
- Wait, didn't we do this already?This time the setting is South Central Junior-Senior High School in Harrison County, IN where a parent is filing the paperwork to have TWISTED removed from the school. TWISTED was assigned in this parent's, Ms. Mathis, son's English class. An alternative book, THE OUTSIDERS, was made available for students whose parents were not comfortable with TWISTED. Ms. ...
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October 2, 2009
- Don't let me forget: I've got to mention that my new book is out--it's the Grateful Dead Scrapbook--and I'm giving it a light push; mainly at The Booksmith on Haight St. October 7 (a Wed.) at 7...Anyway: The Banned Books concert at the Main Library here in SF was fun, considering the subject was the censorship of books and other artistic works and expressions. It was partly the weather, which had ...
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October 1, 2009
- Today at lunch time, I'll proudly be joining a group of fellow authors on the steps of the San Francisco Public Library, to participate in Ban(ne)d Books Day. The idea is to read or sing work that has been censored, thereby raising awareness about the importance of the First Amendment, and (while we're at it) libraries in general.Sam and I were trying to figure out a cool and original way to ...
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October 1, 2009
- The English teacher in KY who has been dealing with the challenges to several books, including TWISTED, has to jump through new hoops before the books will be allowed back in the classroom.Three of the books: TWISTED, LESSONS OF A DEAD GIRL, and RAPTURE OF CANAAN have again been banned by the superintendent. According to the teacher, he does not feel they are appropriate for college level ...
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September 29, 2009
- I now have the specifics of the challenge to TWISTED in Montgomery High School in Mt. Sterling, KY.It started as an effort to remove seven books. These were all options for literature circle reads. All seven were pulled from a teacher's classroom after a parent complained about the content of the books. The first six were pulled on August 24th.The books in questions were:Twisted by Laurie Halse ...
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September 29, 2009
- I have not heard anything about the challenge to TWISTED in Kentucky yet.This week's entries at A.Word.A.Day all deal with censorship. (Thanks to a friend in Maine for the tip!)And this was sort of buried in Tuesday's post. "The Kids’ Right to Read project is a collaboration of the American Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression (ABFFE) and the National Coalition Against Censorship ...
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