The trip to Wise, Virginia was a refreshing and inspiring one, as usual. I am glad I do that every year. I'm especially glad this year, even though as I've come home I find myself less patient for the various flavors of bullshit I'm forced to taste when I get back to the usual work week:
Item, biting my tongue while the new SS teacher says stuff that's just wrong.
Item, sitting through yet another simplistic sermon.
Item, having my office suite invaded by a banned book reading.
Yes, I know, I'm doing the unthinkable and expressing skepticism about the usefulness of "banned" book readings. Because of course all right thinking people are against books being "banned" or "challenged" or "questioned" or whatever. You will excuse me while I check on how broad the definition of "banned" or "challenged" is. Apparently, any book that has ever been questioned in any public forum is now eligible for "banned" status, even though it is ridiculously easy to find copies of said books in any number of online and physical merchants, and many libraries to boot. No legal penalties involved. I even had a student ask me why I didn't read from Shakespeare for the little meeting. I told her that she should talk to me when Shakespeare is actually banned, i.e., when one can be put in jail for reading the plays. To suggest that a book may not be useful or appropriate for compulsory reading in a classroom, for instance, is hardly to censor or ban it--in fact, I would welcome those kinds of discussions. Especially when students are put in the position of having to read said work or suffer punitive measures. Isn't that an appropriate thing to discuss? It seems odd to me that academics, teachers, and librarians are some of the most touchy when their practices are questioned. We should be more ready to engage in a discussion about why we do what we do. But instead, people gather in a little group in a student lounge on a college campus, an older man reads a selection involving a teenage blowjob, and everyone gets to feel good about how much smarter and more daring they are than everyone else. The smug is palpable, and all the more galling because no one is actually risking anything though they get to claim the frisson of reading! something! banned!
Count me out. I'll continue to let my children read whatever they wish, and insist that they read some things they'd rather not, and never make a demonstration about my open-mindedness or whatever. And if anyone mentions Areopagitica to me, I'll point out that Milton was quite in favor of after-the-publication censorship, thank you very much...he just didn't like the idea of books having to be licensed.
I think I enjoyed talking with folks on a pretty high level this past weekend, and am not enjoying having to come down off the mountain.
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