BAN THAT BOOK!! ... or at least let me know what kind of content it has?

Dia's Satellite for Tulsa World Article

By DIA DARCEY Satellite Correspondent 8/11/2008
Last Modified: 8/11/2008 4:14 AM

My advanced literature class has introduced some truly enlightening literature this semester."Yay! More black-and-white p-rnography!" I exclaimed as we students were assigned the latest required reading by our English teacher.

In Advanced Placement English, we are offered both timeless classics and newer, popular titles to challenge and advance our thought processes. Still, at times, I feel that I'm being subjected to more sensual and violent detail than is found in an X-rated movie.

This kind of p-rnographic content should be banned, or at least censored.
...Heck, I'd even appreciate a warning scribbled on a Post-It note inside the front cover.

Personally, I would prefer that my primary sex education NOT occur accidentally during English class. My English teacher, a human with feelings and a heart, believe it or not (just kidding), has made it abundantly clear to the class that she does not condone the content, but at the same time, she's requiring the material. This is almost a double standard. "Here, read about this and this and this. Aren't we learning a lot? Whoa, hey! Stop that! Where ever did you ever get that idea?!"
The sad fact is that though we, as teenagers, would like to be seen as more mature than say, the average 2-year old, some things never change. Though our maturity level has (hopefully) increased ten-fold, "monkey see, monkey do" still applies to some. The deadly combination of developing frontal lobes, raging hormones and the ever looming monster, "peer pressure" becomes even more dangerous when paired with "great" examples in literature.

How can intelligent parents block cable, V-chip MTV, ban HALO III and punish teens for dirty language, but not bat an eyelash as they pull out their homework assignment to annotate the (at least) R-rated "Beloved" or "Catch-22"?

Some teenagers are more mature than others, sure. Some may even be able to "handle" this adult content, but how well can anyone, even adults, truly be unaffected by this kind of material?

Do we think it won't affect us because it's on a page or because it's not a series of moving pictures or graphics? It's in print, so it requires an advanced vocabulary and increases our comprehension, but so what. Some of the most influential mediums in the world were and are books. Anyone ever heard of the Bible? "Mein Kampf"?

What we listen to, what we watch and, believe it or not, what we read, affects us. When faced with my resistance, my English teacher does her best to give me a few reasons that we, as high school seniors, are exposed to these kinds of books:
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Art is art, and those who would define, refine or confine it lose its very essence.
Who is to say what is acceptable and what is not, and how long will it be until the tyranny of politically correct editing creates a real "1984" state?
Only illiterate, ignorant zealots want to censor books — we fear what we cannot understand!
Truly discerning readers are able to appreciate the author's purpose in including any language, events or descriptions.
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Personally, and as a mature, AP literature student with a kick-butt ACT reading score, I'm a bit skeptical of the generalizations that all censorship is the product of ignorance and can be placed on the same level as cannibalism, deforestation and Hillary-- oops, I mean Hitler.

It seems to this ignorant National Merit Scholar (not to drop titles or anything) that everyone is anti-censorship because none of us wants to be labeled a philistine. Book-banning is bad, of course — it's censorship. It is anti-progressive to chain the creative tendencies of our budding authors because of fogey old ideals-- but I am not advocating censorship. I'm asking the schools and publishers alike to consider my point of view.

Even as an 18-year-old "adult," I would like a choice in my exposure to gratuitous sex, violence and language, even in the name of learning, literature or art. I would love to read compelling literature without the public-pleasing passages that "elevate" the book to best-selling status, but in lieu of that impossible dream, I need some form of warning, a label, a rating or even hint on the outside of literature to let me know the extent of objectionable content therein-- no matter how highly the talk shows recommend it or how "enlightening" it may be.

In every other entertainment industry, producers rate their product so the public can make an informed decision. Which is the greater travesty? Depriving the reader of information, judgment and free choice and calling it freedom of speech, or risking the buzzword "censorship" to facilitate knowledge and choice?

Voltaire is credited with the remark: "Though I may not agree with what you say, I will defend to the death your right to say it."

Though Voltaire never actually uttered this truism, it is an aim of freedom of speech and indeed, of all liberties, American and otherwise. I would not like to contradict, but rather to augment this passage with another phrase: "...however, I do not have the obligation to read, listen to or analyze whatever erotic, violent, explicit trash you have passed off as "art" this afternoon."

Posted by Queen Team D