Banned Books discussion
GENERAL BOOK DISCUSSIONS
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Steinbeck??
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I know... sometimes I think this world really is turning into one of the dystopic stories I am so fond of.
I don't understand why more aren't saying "quit thinking we can't think for ourselves if this books really is all the s**t you're claiming it is"?!
Anyways, Nated: I appreciate you trying to save my nerves and stomach...but it's a lost cause, I think. :-)

At the end of The Grapes of Wrath the daughter (I forget her name) breastfeeds an old man after her baby died. CLEARLY (sarcasm) this is a disgusting sexual thing.





Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men is on the list for the portrayl of Lennie, the sexual situations in the book, (quite racy for 1936) the language, including -- and no one else has mentioned this-- what the black stable buck is called.
My students understand it as history.
I don't send home a permission slip for this book, as I do for some others.
The other reason, I believe, that Steinbeck is so often challenged & banned is that he treats his working class protagonists as heroes. That is still difficult for many in America.

I read this when I was eleven - that's when I went through the Steinbeck phase. I loved it. Scared me (it felt naughty and evil and dangerous), and opened room for discussion with my parents, who had never censored reading matter of any kind.
Of Mice and Men - the mistreatment of the developmentally slow character was fitting, sad, but honestly reflected how things had been. Should we truly censor and revise history?
(I think NOT.)
Grapes of Wrath - the feeding of the old man by Rose of Sharon - it showed need. Was not naughty at all. Nothing sexual in its representation.

There's a new book out about the banning of _The Grapes of Wrath_ in Kern County, (Bakersfield) CA. Where it may still be banned. The people who ran the town/ ran the farms/ ran everything didn't like how Steinbeck portrayed them.



Man, I was just blown away by some of the books that apparently are banned.
Judy Blume???
I didn't even think about adding Judy Blume to my read-list (because it's like 15...18? years since I read it) and to me, it was books I read once and then forgot. Obviously, they're viewed as hot stuff! Let me guess - teens are having SEX.
I'm going to guess that the Shere Hite report on female sexuality isn't going to win any prizes?