It's that time of the year again: Banned Books Week (Sept 22-28, 2013), which too appropriately is coming on the heels of last week's news that Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man would be banned from school libraries in a North Carolina county.
A cool new feature of the Week, especially in its attempt to connect people to the voices that at times must fight to be heard, is ability to virtually "hang out" with banned authors via Google Hangout, including some fabulous young adult authors. Sherman Alexie was available yesterday, but 13 Reasons Why author Jay Asher will chat today and many more are on the list. Our society continues to struggle with censorship, unable to always strike that balance between evocative ideas and ideas that trouble one's belief set. A good challenge is healthy for anyone and anything; it only makes things stronger and thus demonstrates the resilience of so many of the "banned" books we love.
You can read some more about the importance of Banned Books Week here. And if you know of any local events, do share.
A cool new feature of the Week, especially in its attempt to connect people to the voices that at times must fight to be heard, is ability to virtually "hang out" with banned authors via Google Hangout, including some fabulous young adult authors. Sherman Alexie was available yesterday, but 13 Reasons Why author Jay Asher will chat today and many more are on the list. Our society continues to struggle with censorship, unable to always strike that balance between evocative ideas and ideas that trouble one's belief set. A good challenge is healthy for anyone and anything; it only makes things stronger and thus demonstrates the resilience of so many of the "banned" books we love.
You can read some more about the importance of Banned Books Week here. And if you know of any local events, do share.
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