"Slaughterhouse-Five" banned in Missouri

[Outlaw]

The school board in Republic, Mo., voted 4-0 to eliminate Kurt Vonnegut's "Slaughterhouse-Five" and Sarah Ockler's "Twenty Boy Summer" from the high school curriculum and library, respectively, after a local man led an effort to deem the novels inappropriate.
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"Slaughterhouse-Five" -- Vonnegut's satirical World War II, time-traveling saga -- was voted the 18th greatest English-language novel of the 20th century by the Modern Library and was featured in Time magazine's "100 Greatest Novels of the 20th Century" issue


Full article: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/07/29/slaughterhouse-five-banned-missouri_n_913078.html

Have you read novels in school that you deemed inappropriate?

[Red-Headed]

This doesn't really surprise me in America, but it is a worrying trend throughout a lot of the civilised world. In effect it is a form of obscurantism. I just don't understand its root cause.

[YesNo]

This doesn't really surprise me in America, but it is a worrying trend throughout a lot of the civilised world. In effect it is a form of obscurantism. I just don't understand its root cause.
I think the root cause is anger which leads to a desire to punish someone else or make someone else jump to a command. And what causes the anger could be anything.

[Red-Headed]

I think the root cause is anger which leads to a desire to punish someone else or make someone else jump to a command. And what causes the anger could be anything.

I think that that is a fair assessment. These actions often seem to be by extremists, whether religious, cultural or political. It is as if those who have extremely polarised views need to express them through forms of censure that can inevitably lead to censorship. It has never failed to amaze me just how many people have called for the banning of a film or a book & yet have not actually seen or read it themselves.

[Mutatis-Mutandis]

Don't think this is all of America doing this, or supporting it. It's Missouri, and as someone who lives right next to Missouri, it's no surprise.

[Paulclem]

Of course I don't know what it's like in the US, but sometimes books are taken off because the school/ or Board don't want the hassle. I think it's a shame though.

We were in a similar situation when a Muslim women commented about the inappropriateness of pigs in Animal Farm which we were studying. Her argument was laughable, but we just went with The Time Machine in the next year instead because we couldn't be bothered with the potential hassle. You could say - stand your ground, there's a principle involved - and if it mattered that much that we study a particular text then we would. But at the end of the day it was a text for a job.

Is it defeatist? Perhaps, but as soon as the press gets wind of something like that, then the whole thing goes all out of proportion.

[PeterL]

I was wondering why, and it appears that it is contrary to the Bible.
Republic High School in Republic, Mo., banned two books, including one of Vonnegut’s, after a parent complained that the books advocate principles contrary to the Bible.
School officials stressed that the move was not a judgment call on the merit of the books, but a decision on whether the books were appropriate for high school students.

“We very clearly stayed out of discussion about moral issues,” Republic School Superintendent Vern Minor told the Republic newspaper. “Our discussions from the get-go were age-appropriateness."
http://www.csmonitor.com/Books/chapter-and-verse/2011/0728/Kurt-Vonnegut-gets-the-boot-in-a-Missouri-school

Apparently they just didn't want the bother of fighting some fanatic, but I will admit that the concepts in Slaughter House 5 are a bit much for most high school students.

[Big Dante]

Um what? I'm Australian and I just cannot understand how or why they would ban Slaughterhouse 5. I'm Grade 11 at the moment and read that novel earlier this year with it being one of my favourites of all time. I don't see what in it is any more shocking than other literary classics that results in it needing to be banned.

[Buh4Bee]

If you read the article, only one of the four board members read the books. People vote based on small town politics and the principles of their faith base. Slaughter House was banned for profanity and the other for sex. I agree, the politics in the states can be laughable at times, but this is not the only country with such small-minded thinking as PaulC, already mentioned.

[OrphanPip]

The other banned author responded on her blog:

http://sarahockler.com/2011/07/26/banned-but-never-shamed/

Removing books from the curriculum is one thing, but banning them from school libraries seems extreme.

[Mutatis-Mutandis]

Paul has it right. Usually it's too much of a hassle to battle these people. There's a ton of good books out there--it's usually best to just go with something else and focus your energies on teaching, rather than indulging a parent with nothing better to do.

[PeterL]

Um what? I'm Australian and I just cannot understand how or why they would ban Slaughterhouse 5. I'm Grade 11 at the moment and read that novel earlier this year with it being one of my favourites of all time. I don't see what in it is any more shocking than other literary classics that results in it needing to be banned.

The banning had nothing to do with the books. They banned the books, because there was a religious fanatic who was ready to sue the board and its members. It was easir and vastly cheaper to throw the books out than to bother fighting. I wouldn't be surprised, if the librarian was told to just leave them on the shelves.

[Heteronym]

How are moral issues and age-appropriateness not the same thing? How else will you judge whether a book is appropriate for children and adolescents without getting involved in questions of morality which in its broader definition includes matters of decency - sex, profanity, violence? If they didn't ban the book because of moral issues what did they ban it for? Because of the font size? The texture of the pages?

[MarkBastable]

...I will admit that the concepts in Slaughter House 5 are a bit much for most high school students.

In which case, I'd suggest that the concepts in the Bible must be beyond them too.

[PeterL]

In which case, I'd suggest that the concepts in the Bible must be beyond them too.

Considering the interpretation problems that peopple have with the Bible, I don't think that anyone is comfortable with it. In faact, most people who read the Bible seem to think that it was set up by the chief god, but it is clear from many items that the god of the Bible is a lower ranked god with ego problems.

[fb0252]

index librorum libertorum:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6sK-RVUoTMs&feature=related