Discussion: 003

CENSORSHIP CARTOON, 1925. – ‘The Bookworm.’ Cartoon, American, c1925.. Fine Art. Britannica ImageQuest, Encyclopædia Britannica, 25 May 2016.As refreshing as the trip to the Ozarks was, I am glad to be back to class. I reread Cris Crutcher’s blog post, “How They Do It,” it detailing how a single parent and their usage of vitriolic language and media to remove Cris’ book, Whale Talk, removed from the curriculum of a school that their child did not even attend. The audacity to do so, it is one thing to not let your child attend public school, due to not wanting them to a be exposed to certain elements that perforate the American educations system. Though I would argue that in doing so this is only a debilitation to the offspring, not any kind of boon. However, it is a whole another concept to have a book removed from a curriculum from a school that your child was not enrolled in.  Again, the audacity is mind-boggling. Unfortunately, book censorship is not just censoring the text, book censorship is also the censorship of ideas. A by-product of my upbringing in what would be considered a super-conservative household, even by bible-belt standards, this is absolutely appalling, and although some ideas and books should be censored, such as the teachings of violent groups or their works. Ideas and text should not be censored due to it makes the parents uncomfortable, at the idea of their offspring reading Lord of the Rings, The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe, or the Harry Potter series. Books such as these or even the countless classics that have been banned are not benefiting the child of the horrors of the book, it is only stripping them of life lessons, the ability to develop a new passion, or even being able to feel emotional or spiritual relief, that they may not have been able to experience otherwise. While I do not know if this happens to everyone, but for me, books were my safe place, where if I had a terrible day, I could be transported to Hogwarts, Middle-Earth, or Narnia, and escape my woes, if only for a short time. Book and Idea censorship is not only slowly stripping away our right to free speech. Now yes, there is an exception if there is propaganda hate speech or the purpose of the book is to cause incitement, but if a book is banned from a school curriculum because two male penguins are hatching an egg. What benefit is there? These bannings are not stepping stones to building a better society, healing our toxic culture, or better preparing our youth; instead, these bannings are but small steps in a direction of the resurgent of fascism, and state-controlled media. No longer would America, be home of the free and the brave, but instead America would be home of the controlled and confirmed.

 

 

Post-Interview

GW1819, South Africa, Johannesburg: Free the Press censorship Poster- anti apartheid, struggle, media, press.. Graeme Williams/South I apologize for the tardiness of this post, today was more turbulent than expected, and I have just been able to sit down to write this. These last two weeks Max and I have conducted a multitude of interviews, all of them, professors, either at here at the University of Science and Arts of Oklahoma or Oklahoma City Community College.  We took a multidisciplinary approach on who we interviewed and interviewed two professors from the history department, and three from the English department one of three we have just scheduled to interview at this time of writing.  We interviewed Dr. Finck, the American History professor to gain insight into the political climate of Cold War America and how it would relate to the banning of Catcher in the Rye. While Dr. Finck had not known anything of the Tulsa banning of Catcher, he and his son had planned on reading Catcher rather soon. We also interviewed Dr. Hester, who specializes in Oklahoma History and he stated that he was mostly for free speech, however, in today’s time he now says that with a grain of salt. In addition, to the history professors, we also interviewed two English professors, Dr. Rees and Dr. Brown. Similarly to the history professors both Dr. Rees and Dr. Brown stated that they too support free speech, however, Dr. Rees did give us a very interesting tidbit, that often Catcher is banned for surface reasons, such as profanity, however, Catcher is not banned for any of the motifs or the themes in the book. Finally, the last professor we are planning to interview is Dr. Anderson, she is a literary professor, and we are planning to interview Dr. Anderson later this upcoming week.

Just a quick update since I was not in class today, I fell a little behind on my pages and hopefully I will be back on track later this week. I had been working on my epic for my Native Myth and Writing class, and I got a little too caught up in it.

Discussion: 002

CENSORSHIP: ALLEGORY. – An allegorical representation of censorship. Line engraving, French, after Charles Joseph Travies de Villers (1804-1859). Fine Art. Britannica ImageQuest, Encyclopædia Britannica, 25 May 2016.

Initially, I was going to post the post-interview weekly post, however, we have several more interviews to conduct beforehand. Over the weekend, I reread the “Dearth of Native Voices” by Metzger and Kelleher, being a Native I did not want to speak up when we discussed it in class due to how personal it was. On a side note, I do not refer to Native American as such due to the personal belief that the Native ethnic group should not be named after a European explorer who “discovered” the continent, but I digress. However, I do agree with the point of the article, either in many works, Natives are misrepresented or Natives are absent entirely, and I did not think of this until the points were presented in the article. For about a year now I have been worldbuilding for a book I am going to eventually write, and after scrapping my initial work early this last fall. Originally, what I wrote a far more western piece, but my Creative Writing professor at the time (and currently), suggested that I write it from a more Native perspective. To be frank, at the time the only concept I could think of was the stereotype. After the meeting, I researched and found very little work that centralized around a Native protagonist.

This also correlates with some research I am doing for my Native Myth and Writing course, a portion of the books that I have read for the class, are interviews or recordings of several Natives. While although extremely interesting, and I have often found myself reading these books late into the night. The culture presented in the books is alien to me, aside from not knowing any, of the Choctaws, my own tribe’s history or culture, I definitely would not be able to connect to connect to the Lakota’s or the Commanche’s. While I cannot speak for any that still live on or have come from the reservations, but living in the Oklahoma City suburbs, I was not exposed to any of elements of native culture, aside from what I saw in my social studies textbooks. Which, strangely, always seemed to make the Natives out to agree to the seizure of land, or that they chose to walk the Trail of Tears, and without exception, each textbook’s artwork was always painting of Native in battle, always on the losing side.  On a side note, I did here in some textbook, I want to say in Texas that said, the Natives were happy to leave their lands and the seizures were completely consensual. Now, I am in a constant state to want to learn more about my own and other tribes, not only as research for what I am writing but also just to gather the information.

To bring this full circle, I believe that it is almost a cultural censorship of Native writing and works, that if the work does not fit the in “stereotypical” Native or the history book answer to the question it is banned. I did a little research on one of the books I am reading for Native Myth and Writing, Bury My Heart At Wounded Knee, and it has been banned several times often called controversial, and with “good” reason, as it depicts the American expansion into the west from a Native standpoint. As a country and culture, it seems as if we actively try to forget that we did commit mass genocide towards the Native American population, especially towards the Plains Tribes. I believe, and I could be completely wrong about this, Native censorship could be a not as much as a prevention of the spread of ideas and culture, but more of as the colloquial phrases says, “save face” for America.

Interview Prep

WOMAN BEING INTERVIEWED IN OFFICE. Photography. Britannica ImageQuest, Encyclopædia Britannica, 25 May 2016.

As mentioned in class this week, Max and I are conducting our interview this week with American History  Professor Finck and American Literature Professor Brown. We are conducting the interview with Dr. Finck this upcoming Thursday and we are interviewing Dr. Brown this Friday. I also reached out to some of my Professors at Oklahoma City Community College several of them felt as if they were not knowledgeable enough to aid us in our endeavor. However, one Professor went to the library and collected information for us, as well as put us into contact with the head librarian. I was able to contact my former sociology Professor at OCCC and we have arranged to set up an interview next week. Down below are some of the questions Max and/or I have thought of at the time of writing this post.

Dr. Finck 

What was the American political climate during the 1950s to the 1960s?

What controversies arose during this time?

Who was in the administrative positions in the school, the city of Tulsa, and state levels?

What were some of the domestic policies at the time?

How was censorship handled during the 1950s – 1960s?

Do you know Oklahoma political climate during the aforementioned time period?

In your opinion, what was the significance of the 1960s banning of Catcher in the Rye?

Dr. Brown

Were there any literary movements during the 1960s, if so did they have an active presence in Oklahoma?

Do you know of the controversies surrounding Catcher in the Rye and what is your opinion on it?

What do you know of the bannings of Catcher in the Rye in Oklahoma?

Dr. M’Lou Smith

What is your view on censorship?

In your opinion, how would book censorship fit into functionalism?

How would book censorship fit into Symbolic-Interaction theory, could censorship be even analyzed by Symbolic-Interaction theory?

Would book censorship be an avenue in which the that the minority group controls the majority group if viewed through Conflict theory.

Dr. Nina Smith

I had planned on asking my Honors advisor from Oklahoma City Community College, she was a literary professor, but earlier today, I had learned that she passed earlier this year after losing her fight to an unspecified illness.