Tag Archives: ALA
Local Focus
Freedom Versus Foolishness
Fictional Book Bans
Taxpayer-Funded Libraries Defend Obscenity, Child Corruption and Censorship
Government school teachers who are paid by the public want absolute autonomy and absolute anonymity, and that is why we now have adults introducing obscene material to other people’s children.
Chicago Tribune Op Ed on Banned Books Week
On Tuesday, John Keilman wrote a lighthearted editorial on last week’s annual dishonest campaign by the American Library Association (ALA) laughably named “Banned Books Week.”
His personal story was revelatory. Keilman shared that when he was young, pulp novels with “absolutely no redeeming value” beckoned with an irresistible force. He describes what so powerfully attracted him: their “lurid” titles and the cover art which depicted the hero with “his arm around a busty woman, blasting a hole through some underworld stooge.”
But then after explicitly stating the sexual and violent language and imagery that served as “catnip to a preteen” …
My ‘Reprehensible’ Take on Teen Literature
By Meghan Cox Curdon, Wall Street Journal
Raise questions about self-mutilation and incest as a young-adult theme and all hell breaks loose.
If the American Library Association were inclined to burn people in effigy, I might well have gone up in smoke these past few days. ALA members, mostly librarians and other book-industry folk, are concluding their annual conference today in New Orleans, and it’s a fair bet that some of them are still fuming about an article of mine that appeared in these pages earlier this month.
The essay, titled “Darkness Too Visible,” discussed the way in which young-adult …