BAN BABY, BAN!

So, banning books is back in the news again. This is nothing new; maybe the concept never left. "They" were burning books back in the 1600s.

Rather than revisit the controversy itself, I want to relate something that happened in one of my classes.

When I was teaching, many of the books we read were banned somewhere. One of my absolute favorite and important books to read is Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451. It was offered in a science fiction class I taught. Overall, there were no issues with that or other books I taught, except once. I remember a girl telling me her religious family didn't want her to read it, but she said she really wanted to. 

I wasn't sure what to do. I wouldn't go against her family's wishes, but I think the book is important enough for everyone to read. I ended up leaving a copy on the corner of my desk and telling her that I wouldn't give her a copy, but I had left a copy on the corner of my desk. I left it up to her to do whatever she wanted whatever, she felt comfortable doing.

Sometime later that day, the book disappeared. It showed back up a couple of days later. 

We never spoke of it after that, and the whole thing slipped from my memory. It's probably been forty or so years after that that I recently remembered the incident and wondered about whatever happened to her and her exposure to that classic book.

Did it ruin or enhance her life? Or was the book met with a shrug.

Maybe I will look her up and ask.

Or maybe I won't.

AMERICAN FOOTBALL

I am currently watching the pregame show getting ready for the Patriots and Bills wild card playoff. Apparently, tonight's game will be played in one of the coldest temperatures ever (but not the record [trust me, there are stats on virtually everything]). Predicted starting temp will be about 4 degrees, and by game's end, it should be around 3. Factor in the wind, and it'll feel like -200.

Where I am now, it is currently -7, but the wind is dying down). Sigh....

Anyhow, I have been to one professional football game in my life (for purposes of comparison, my daughter has already been to three to see the Ravens [her team [I have failed as a father {but, to be honest, I do kinda like the Ravens because she does}]). As I am now on the verge of old, I can only remember my dad and I saw the Boston Patriots who played. It was in the very early '60s, around 60 years ago. They played at Nickerson Field (at Boston University).

The one memory I do have of that day is that it was cold (not like tonight, but it was cold). (Any Carson fans here? How cold was it? It was so cold the politicians had their hands in their own pockets! Budda-boom-tsss) For us, it was so cold that by mutual agreement, we left soon after halftime. My feet were so cold that they hurt (today, everything hurts).

That was it - my one game.

On the other hand, my dad also took me to see two Indianapolis 500s. 

They weren't cold.

ALLUSIONS, NOT ILLUSIONS

Over the holidays, my daughter, the Ever-lovely Miss Jessica, gifted me Stephen King's new book Billy Summers (no horror, but a really good story).

Somewhere along the way (p. 400 in my copy), King wrote, "Doesn't exactly make me John Howard Griffin, but I'll take it." Aside from the fact that in the book's context, the allusion worked perfectly for me, my reading immediately screeched to a stop. 

My first thought was how many people even know who John Howard Griffin was, and how many would stop there temporarily to find out? Most contemporaries of Stephen King (and me) would probably know, because they were around when Griffin did his thing, and there was much publicity. (During the time when the US was still segregated, Griffin, a white man, darkened his skin enough to pass as a black man and spent 6 weeks travelling through the deep South to experience first-hand what life was life on the other side. He offered his findings in a book called Black Like Me.)

As usually happens, thought led on to thought, and I reached some conclusions. Writers use many allusions. Understanding those allusions adds a deeper and clearer understanding to enhance the writer's meaning. Many years ago, while promoting Cultural Literacy, I found a one-page essay in the back of a news magazine, I found some 35 allusions (I 'got' all but two). 

We are all unique in our knowledge. I do lots of crosswords, and certain words keep coming up - where the Taj Mahal is located (Agra), 'The Thin Man's dog's name (Asta), etc. (Anyone even know the Thin Man is?), a certain reed instrument (Oboe), etc. If you don't know those, does it really matter?

I am sure there are things everyone need to know (Cultural Literacy), but what they are, I am not sure.