Out of all the books I read, including many sci-fi novels before I was 15, this one didn't happen to be read by me till this advanced age of 79.
Honestly I still had trouble reading it.
It scared the daylights out of me.
The trouble was I listened to an audio reading, and the reader was terribly good at sounding like the voices of the scary parts. I had to stop and go read another, lighter novel in between these moments of terror.
I thought, how could a child possible read this? My friend Cathy, said she loved it as a child. I need to ask her how old she was when she read it!
I adored Heinlein, Asimov, and even Poe and Jules Vern. Some of them were quite enjoyable, and maybe I was in my later teens or 20s when I read some of the sexier ones. Heinlein certainly impressed me, as well as Asimov, with lots of sexuality. This was expected in the movies, and many early paper backs in the 50s - 60s.
So I can see why some schools don't want these sexually explicit stories in an elementary school...of course. But a high school? Hey, that's when kids are just bursting with hormones and don't know what to do about them.
As published by Tom the Backroads Traveler several days ago!
So I pushed myself to listen till the end of "The Wrinkle in Time." And the bonus of an afterword by L'Engle's granddaughter about all kinds of details of it's publication and editing. It would have been nice to know about the dear grandmother who wrote it at the beginning. But that's just so I'd not have been so uncomfortable.
Maybe when I was 16, I was ready to slay dragons. I do remember from about age 11 or 12 when my best friend died, that we were expected to swallow down our feelings in my family, to be stoic. As I read more and more adult books, I learned a lot about relationships that usually were romantically entangled. My imagination was fed only heterosexual relationships, and most of them were concluded with the happily-every-after endings. Between the stoicism and romanticism, I had lots to work on in therapy later.
Age appropriate books are indicated as "young adult" I think. So that's when a young person has enough maturity to understand what's going on, to not be terribly shocked, and to incorporate the fictionalized events into their vocabulary without identifying completely with the characters. They need some way to find answers to lots of young people's questions. Sexual identity is so fluid these days, these children have an opportunity to try on different personas. We didn't when I was young.
This is a case where parents and other adults need to step aside and allow young people access which they themselves may not have had, to support young people in growing beyond what the adults were given as they matured. It isn't the place where adults need to close doors to education. That's just plain silly.
Sharing with Sepia Saturday this week. The prompt photo couldn't have been more appropriate for my topic of banned books. Do you know how many times in history someone has banned books? This is far from the first time! I remember how the Catholic Church had its own list, and may still have one!
Today's quote:
The consciousness in you and the consciousness in me,
apparently two, really one, seek unity and that is love.
—Nisargadatta
Hello,
ReplyDeleteI just do not get this banning book thing, are they trying to change history by getting rid of the books.
Have a happy day and a great weekend.
I don't know...I asked a Latino man who was waiting on me at my favorite restaurant, what do you think of book banning? He didn't know what we meant, so I said "books will be burned next" and my friend said, some books are removed from libraries. We never heard his opinion. So maybe it isn't on his radar at all. I have read several books when they were banned...in the 60s I read Lady Chatterly's Lover, which had been brought in the US from England. That had been a national ban.
Delete...opposing ideas scare the hell out of some folks!
ReplyDeleteSo sad. And scary too, as book burning is the next step. I am sad because these bans are built by local school boards. So there's a gathering of a tribe of these small boards agreeing to have the same small minded lists of books to keep from their children.
DeleteWhen Proge was young WGBH (Boston public radio) had a program called The Spider's Web where children's books were read allowed. He loved A Wrinkle In Time. But he was a very precocious reader.
ReplyDeleteAs for banning books! There is no quicker way to get books read than to ban them. There was a rumor when I was in high school that publishers hoped for a Banned In Boston label as it would guarantee sales.
Perhaps there should be a Banned Bookmobile!
Love the B.Bookmobile idea! I've seen a similar cartoon. I found out my friend read Wrinkle when she was in 5th grade...on her own. She was surprised how scared I was...though I admitted it was dramatically read. It sure does help book sales to ban a book!
DeleteSo thoughtful! I read Wrinkle in Time when I was in my twenties and became a great L'Engle fan. I think I have all her books. I always encouraged my boys to read whatever they wanted to. It's sad to see schools reducing their offeringss to the taste and will of the lowest common denominator.
ReplyDeleteI was sorry a friend of mine didn't get elected to a school board position. She would certainly have spoken out any time a discussion about banning books came along. These are elected people...so guess who's voting.
DeleteI remember reading Wrinkle, but I don’t remember anything about it. I know that I wasn’t impressed at the time.
ReplyDeleteMy daughter told me that To Kill a Mockingbird has been removed from our schools. Having taught that book, I am quite miffed.
I think you're probably one of the majority of kids who read it and shrugged, well, the kids saved the dad, about time! Mockingbird doesn't have anything really wrong in it...unless it's a black guy getting off in the trial. I think people don't want authority questioned...that's all I can see. A sad day.
DeleteQuite well said.
ReplyDeleteI'm certainly not happy about books being refused to some conservative kids.
DeleteI read a Wrinkle in Time many years ago and loved it! If I remember right it is about death, and how we go on after death, written in a Sci-Fi/Fantasy way. And, oh yes, there are witches! and such. That must be it... Ultimately it was about how love overcomes everything.. I can't imagine why it would be a banned book, OMG... Probably some religious right Christians on the school board didn't approve. (Dare I say Trumpers) I believe Madeleine L'Engle was an Episcopalian... How sad it has come to this - the ultra conservatives are taking over the schools - and local governments. Everything will be banned...
ReplyDeleteI and many of my friends, mostly women, started to copy some women leaders who said they were going to continue to RESIST when tRump made strange and unbelievable things happen. This is more of the same...we must continue to Resist these right-wing extremists.
DeleteI'm with you on book banning. In library school we were taught that "A good library has something to offend everyone."
ReplyDeleteThat's a good phrase of guidance!
DeleteIt's a slippery slope. I suspect that adults don't bother to spend time explaining context to kids and then want someone else to protect them. Yet their kids watch TV and browse the internet so ... they really need to prepare children for real life.
ReplyDeleteYes, between TV and Internet, kids definitely are exposed to many "offensive" and graphic topics.
DeleteI really enjoyed your thoughtful post with very different reading tastes to my own. I had never heard of the book Wrinkle in Time. When I was at school, the trial regarding the banned book “Lady Chatterly’s Love” was the hot topic of discussion.
ReplyDeleteAnd if I remember correctly, you are in England...so that's where apparently it was available for my brother-in-law to purchase it and "smuggle" it into the US before it was being sold here! We do have interest in genealogy in common however!
DeleteI'm not sure I even ever heard of A Wrinkle in Time, even if the title sort of sounds familiar. From my early teens I remember my mum giving me some 'adult' books to read that had some surprisingly explicit content. (She probably found that easier than talking about it!) Lady Chatterly's Lover was not among them, though. (When I got round to reading that one quite a bit later in life, I found it hard to understand why there was ever so much fuss made about it. Well, in 1928 maybe, but not decades later.)
ReplyDeleteThis was a fine essay, Barbara. Your Lisa Simpson's cartoon sums up my feelings on banning books (as well as cartoons, comedians, newspapers, and films). There is just no end to the number of subjects which will offend some people. Censorship only serves to protect the oppressors and preserve ignorance. I've never read "A Wrinkle in Time", though my son did and he loved it. Growing up as an army brat, the post library was where I learned about the world. I can remember many adult books that sparked my curiosity and inspired my interest in history.
ReplyDeleteThe 1946 book "Hiroshima" by John Hersey was one of the first frightening books I ever read, maybe at age 9-10, mainly because it was a true story about the devastating tragedy of President Truman's decision to drop atomic bombs on Japan. Then I read the "Diary of Anne Frank" which was really scary because of course it ends with her family's capture and ultimately her death in the Nazi concentration camps. There is so much history that the world must never forget and books are the only way that will preserve that memory for humanity.
Books, manuscripts, writings of any kind, have been banned since such things existed. Writings that could have become part of the Bible were banned by those who felt they shouldn't be included and I've always wondered why? There will always be those small groups of people in any society who feel it is their 'duty' to protect others from themselves. The thing is - they can only do what the rest of us allow them to do, so if they get away with what they do - whose fault is it?
ReplyDeleteBooks, manuscripts, writings of any kind, have been banned since such things existed. Writings that could have become part of the Bible were banned by those who felt they shouldn't be included and I've always wondered why? There will always be those small groups of people in any society who feel it is their 'duty' to protect others from themselves. The thing is - they can only do what the rest of us allow them to do, so if they get away with what they do - whose fault is it?
ReplyDelete