So a co-worker of mine sent me a link to this article about two weeks ago, and it raises the ever-important question about censorship. See, in lit programs the whole banned books and all that jazz comes up on a moderately regular basis. From my years of teaching and just riding the bus and all the time I spend around young-ish kids, I remain bitter and cynical, which makes me wildly liberal on the censorship thing when it comes to kids. I tend to live by the creed that if kids are reading, we are making epic strides, because they could just as easily be doing any of a million illegal or immoral things, rather than reading a book. Plus, there isn't anything in a book that they can't find on the ol' internet.First I'll give you a chance to read or skim. Go ahead. I'll wait...
There. Ready? Okay, great.
Here's what I think is at the heart of these issues: the age and technology gap. That, and the whole zealotry thing of individuals who think if they don't protect children from the evils of the world. You know, kind of like what parents should theoretically do in the real world. I don't really want to get into dwelling on the article too closely. It's a deep and convoluted issue, and I don't think I could really do my opinion justice here and now. I will just say that there is one line in this article that sums up these ladies and their crazy:
People prayed over me while I was reading it because I did not want those images in my head.
I'm not saying it's strictly a religious thing. I would never go so far as to say that most religious folks would act like these ladies, but man, this is an award-winning comic book, not Penthouse Forum. Heaven help them if they happened across Watchmen or something like that. I guess they could at least find comfort in Rorschach's morality.
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