Taken from rimrunner

[theweaselking]

Blue Springs parents call for ouster of "The Giver" from reading lists.

The Giver is a novel by Lois Lowry. It's also one of the books I selected for the recommended reading list for schools begun by the Science Fiction Museum last summer. It's about a utopian world where almost all sources of difference, conflict, and confusion have been erased from people's perceptions in order to maintain peace. One person, called the Receiver, is the exception. His sole job is to contain all of humanity's earlier memories, in the event that the community encounters something outside its experience. He receives these memories from the Giver, and incidentally thereby experiences all of human suffering—so everyone else doesn't have to.

I give this summary (giving away some of the plot in the process) to explain why the parents' reasoning in this case is particularly ironic: "Everything presented to the kids should be positive or historical, not negative."
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I love the reasonings people give to ban books.

Comments

[silmaril.livejournal.com]

And by "love" you of course mean "want to drag out into the mud, throw down into the muckiest puddle I can find, and wear thigh-high hazardous waste boots to jump up and down on it."

[harald387.livejournal.com]

Books have words. Words are bad. Ban books.

-K

Yes!

[rimrunner.livejournal.com]

Why, if people are exposed to WORDS, they might start to THINK! We can't have THAT!

Re: Yes!

[theweaselking.livejournal.com]

Have no fear. Most people are exposed to a great many words, and never start thinking.

Q.E.D.: Words are not a gateway drug.

Re: Yes!

[unnamed525.livejournal.com]

Duckspeak doubleplusgood. Thoughtcrime doubleplusungood.

[unnamed525.livejournal.com]

Wait ... what if it's historical and negative, like the fact that every treaty the US ever signed with any aboriginal american tribe was broken by the US?

[rimrunner.livejournal.com]

I was going to write a letter to the effect that since historical was okay, that parent should have no problem with his/her kid reading Mein Kampf for school.

Cheap shot, sure, but unconsidered opinions deserve nothing better.