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Gaiman to Wilmott: "Thanks for the increased sales numbers of my book."

 

[Jasconius]

Update: Banned Book Back on School Reading List

"Yes, there were two or four paragraphs that could be objectionable. Yes, there were some inappropriate words," said Straface.

He says the review analyzed four main requirements. Is the book balanced? Is it relevant? Is it age appropriate? Is it socially significant?

Straface says only one of the book's 388 pages didn't meet all the requirements.

"We have to recognize where we are in society," said Straface. "All you have to do is turn on MTV or any show on television that our kids have access to and you will hear far worse language."

...

They say they're forming a committee to review all other required texts to prevent this from happening again.

I hope this is what happens to many books that get banned like this and we just don't hear about it because it isn't nearly as interesting as the original story.

 

[DurielBlack]

You really never know what book will make someone want to take up reading as a hobby. I do believe in the notion of "atleast they are reading something". Because then you know they have the attention span and interest to read text on a page. Then it becomes a matter of knowing the person and recommending them great books and expanding their horizons.

Yup.

I had no interest in reading or letters and barely knew my alphabet into second grade. Then I started reading Garfield comics. Yes. Garfield. Once I could read the comics on my own I took off. I still have about 50 Garfield books and collections sitting in a shelf in my room.

By fifth grade I was reading at a college level, my parents bought me a ton of Hardy Boys novels and I graduated into more difficult stuff, chewing through Dragonlance and Forgotten Realms novels like candy. When bedtime came around I waited until my parents went to sleep, and instead of jerking off or watching TV like most kids I stayed up reading by the light of a 4-watt night light.

I freaking hated 90% of the "required reading" though. Most of the "greats" are awful IMO. 1984 is about the only one I actually liked out of the stuff I recall being forced to read.

I actually got in trouble and threatened by teachers multiple times because they wouldn't believe I had a month's worth of reading assignments done in a single night. I'd give them a *bitchplease.jpg* and present whatever report we were supposed to write and they would make me stay after class and grill me on the book, because apparently someone had to be doing my work for me.

This reply has gotten kind of long, but I will just re-iterate my agreement. If you can get a kid to even just read X-men comic books rather than nothing at all, job well done.

 

[Stet]

Update: Banned Book Back on School Reading List

I hope this is what happens to many books that get banned like this and we just don't hear about it because it isn't nearly as interesting as the original story.

Awful. Keep it in the library but take it off the required reading. It's Neil fucking Gaiman.

 

[Rezbit]

From memory we did Lord of the Flies and Of Mice and Men in the same year at my school here in Australia. Or at the very least a year apart, I know we did both. Pretty crazy they're banned/challenged over in the States. We also studied the movie Salaam Bombay, which was pretty intense for a 15 year old haha.

This honestly seems like it's a bit of an overreaction. It's the job of the teacher to give the students the tools to properly analyse the text and deal with content that may be deemed difficult. A couple of swear words is not difficult, however.

 

[Colonel Nasty]

Fuck Alamogordo! And White Sands!

Spoiler

my girlfriend is from there

 

[DrForester]

Expected it to be "Stardust" for the first chapter. Guess I need to read neverwhere again. I don't remember anything objectionable in it.

Some required reading in my high school that I can remember...

Catcher in the Rye
The Great Gatsby
The Scarlet Letter
The Crucible
Hamlet
Macbeth

 

[FStop7]

You just compared an innocuous book to child porn? OK....\

Seriously! That's Piers Anthony not Neil Gaiman.

 

[Necromanti]

She had problems with a book being used that had some scant sexual content...for a high school class? You've got to be kidding me. Considering how tame it seems to be, that is literally the worst reason ever.

 

[BertramCooper]

Jesus, I can't believe all of the Neverwhere hate in this thread.

I thought it was great.

 

[Toxi]

It's practically the same book as Neverwhere, which I read first. Boring loser gets involved in crazy magic rollercoaster, grows up as a result; also there is a girl there who is super awesome and does totally wild stuff!

Anansi Boys doesn't have an awesome girl who does totally wild stuff. The most major female characters I remember are a police officer and a fairly normal girlfriend.

It does have the boring loser growing up as a result of crazy magic roller coasters though. Didn't realize that was typical for Gaiman.

 

[Switch Back 9]

People who go through this much effort to ban books are fucking dickheads.

I don't care if the book sucks or not, fuck this lady. I'd love to smack her upside the head with a rolled up Penthouse.

 

[LordCanti]

There was a mother that didn't like that my fourth grade teacher read us Harry Potter. After that experience, I'm surprised kids are allowed to read any books at all. No one will tell nutters to go home and STFU anymore.

 

[CharminUltra]

I'm definitely against the ban and happy that the school changed its mind and all, but man, Neverwhere as required reading? Ehhhhhhhhhhhh

Anything that gets the kids reading I guess...

 

[TheKaeptain]

Jesus, I can't believe all of the Neverwhere hate in this thread.

I thought it was great.

It's really great.

 

[Alcotholic]

Books shouldn't be banned. Period. With that said, I have read my fair share of required reading in school. In 7th grade we read a book about an indian girl who was forced to wed and old man. At some point in the book she described hearing her parent's having sex and touching herself. Pretty bizarre.

 

[DiscoJer]

Expected it to be "Stardust" for the first chapter. Guess I need to read neverwhere again. I don't remember anything objectionable in it.

Some required reading in my high school that I can remember...

Catcher in the Rye
The Great Gatsby
The Scarlet Letter
The Crucible
Hamlet
Macbeth

Yeah, pretty much the same here, only replace MacBeth with one of Mark Twain's books.

It's kind of hilarious how dated some of those books were even back then, like in the Crucible, I was the only person in my class that had any idea who McCarthy was.

It's hard to study allegorical books when no one understand the context.