In Canada, during the week of February 24 to March 2, we celebrate our intellectual freedom, guaranteed us under the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. It sounds silly that we should still have to fight for this right, but schools and libraries are still regularly asked to remove books and magazines from their shelves, and books are stopped at the U.S. border.
The librarian at my neighbourhood branch and I were going through the selection of banned books just last week, and trying to understand why Dr. Seuss's "Green Eggs and Ham" was in the stack. It took a while to decipher what became more absurd by the minute. It would seem that ham could have children thinking of penises, which is just a short toss away from homosexual behaviour...
Well, I still haven't decided which book to read from during the 24 hour Freedom to Read marathon on March 2nd at The Millennium Library - so I'm welcoming suggestions! Last time around, I read the whole of a banned French children's book. I'd like to read from an English one this time.
Educate yourself about the men and women around the world who still die, vanish, or are imprisoned for daring to write - visit PEN Canada.
3 comments:
I always find a funny book by a woman, non-fiction, to be very entertaining!
Paula at MixedMediaManic.blogspot.com
A banned Canadian book... White Niggers of America by Pierre Vallieres (sp)
So I settled on Margaret Atwood, someone whose writing has had more impact on me than any other author, and despite doing a fair bit of narration for a living,..., had never had the pleasure of reading her words out loud. It felt good! The Handmaid's Tale, 1985.
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