I’m not sure what masochistic impulse led me to check out a copy of Banned in the USA: A Reference Guide to Book Censorship in Schools and Public Libraries. The “parent shelf” in the youth department is cleverly situated right next to a floor-to-ceiling world map that has buttons you can press to light up various countries and regions. The buttons, of course, are a small-child magnet. I’ve never seen anyone use the map who was actually old enough to understand its purpose.
Category Archives: Political
Birds Without Wings
I did finish it, with a half hour to spare before my book club meeting. As I mentioned before, the book starts out as a very charming portrait of this little village in the Ottoman Empire — what’s now Turkey — just prior to the start of World War I. Very charming. In this village live Muslims and Christians, Greeks, Turks & Armenians, living side by side, intermarrying happily and even attending each others’ houses of worship on occasion. There are all kinds of “characters” like the aphorism-spouting potter, the imam who’s deeply in love with his horse (not that way, shame on you!), the two young boys who play that they’re birds, the beautiful young girl and her betrothed, the village drunk, the weird deformed hermit-beggar, the Armenian pharmacist: quite a cast. The first part of the book has a flavor that reminded me of The Sotweed Factor, which I never finished but loved all the same. And here’s something: the author has a wonderful ability to write with different voices. Chapters are told from the point of view of many of the characters, and they are each very different in tone and style. A real treat.
A couple more good things about Halloween
Well, okay. It is sort of fun to feel the excitement in the air as the witching hour approaches. And some of the kids are awfully cute. Especially (ahem!) these three:
Eurocentrism at its finest
Often I feel guilty and bad about myself just because I am a white American of European descent. As if it weren’t bad enough that I obediently pay taxes that support government policies I think are evil, a few years ago I made the mistake of reading A People’s History of the United States: 1492 to Present, by Howard Zinn. I used to comfort myself with the fact that my early American ancestors (my mom’s family goes wa-a-a-a-ay back) could not have been slave owners because they only lived in the north. But flip through the Zinn book and you’ll find that those northerners were every bit as awful as those in the slave states. Only instead of oppressing the black slaves, they oppressed the native Americans… and each other. And unlike the evil southern white guys, the evil northern white guys managed to keep their atrocities out of the history books, too.
I’m trying hard here
to process and understand what is happening to our country. I had decided not to blog about the aftermath of Katrina anymore but honestly I feel like this once-great country of ours is falling to pieces all around me. Every time I think we’ve hit rock bottom, and things couldn’t possibly get any worse, I find I was wrong. I started to cry yesterday in the car, listening to Pops Staples singing “Hope in a Hopeless World.”
From sea to shining sea
Honestly, I wasn’t going to write anything about Katrina or politics here. I’ve left so many comments on other people’s blogs — my own memories of New Orleans, my rage, my sadness, my frustration — that I’m all blogged out on the topic. But I guess I do have a couple of things to say after all.
Big excitement, and a rant
I have been so envious lately because it seems like all the other bloggers are getting to meet each other in real life. I can’t believe two of my favorite bloggers, Phantom Scribbler and Mimilou, got to have a playdate. No fair! Anyway, I was bemoaning my fate and feeling all alone, when I learned that Melanie Lynn Hauser is going to be here in just a couple of weeks, promoting her new book! Hurray! I get to meet a blogger!
