Banned Book Week
Man - let's hear it for Freedom of Speech. Libraries are having a "banned book week" - a celebration and selected readings from books that have been banned in the U.S. over the years.

Banned Books Week
September 23-30

During the week, bookstores and libraries across the nation feature special displays and readings from books that have been banned or threatened throughout the years. Among the frequently challenged works are The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain, the Bible, John Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men and the Harry Potter series. Open your mind to a banned book and celebrate your freedom to read – not only during Banned Books Week but every week.

This isn't directly videogames-related, and I don't expect to see "Grand Theft Auto" so celebrated 50 years from now. But it's nice to see a triumph of freedom of speech once in a while.

By comparison, I was listening to the Utah judiciary comittee broadcast last night (the MP3 version, courtesy of GamePolitics.com, since I have avoided installing Real Audio on any of my machines), and listened to one lady protest that we should spend "whatever it takes" to protect our children - citing A.G. Shurtleff's note that anti-videogame legislation has failed in every state and cost lots of taxpayer money.

While that's a great battle-cry - I mean, who WOULD disagree with protecting children regardless of cost? - one has to ask, "Protect them from what?" I mean, sure, maybe we should spend billions of dollars protecting them from the monster under the bed and in the closet, too. I think that threat is just as real as the "threat of violent videogames" - after all, once in a blue moon, the boogeyman is frighteningly real (and only barely classifiable as human). But I'd rather concentrate our efforts and money at targeting those real threats than wasting it tilting at windmills.

So the book-banning mentality is alive and well. Ah, well.

Anyway - enjoy a banned book this week! Maybe I'll read some of the Bible. Though it's pretty violent, full of rape and murder, undoubtably inappropriate for children according to this tidal wave of legislation.

And I wish J.K. Rowling would hurry up with the next Harry Potter book!

Labels: Politics

- posted by The Rampant Coyote @ 8:50 AM (Permalink)