C'mon.

It's a little late, but today I'd like to address banned and censored books. And how much book banners infuriate me.

Yes. Infuriate.

After reading this post (click me!), I ache for Risha Mullins, and for her former students. No one should be pushed to the point where they must stop doing what they love because of the opinions of those who don't know the full truth.

What disappoints me the most (and I've blogged briefly about this before) is the ignorance of those who ban books. In one of the articles Mullins links from her blog, degrading her and taking what many blog readers and YA reader would call the wrong side, the writer openly admits not to having read the books in question, but goes on in the next paragraph to poke fun at the plots because they're not "literary" or because they have an actual, honest-to-God connection with teenagers. In fact, when referring to books such as TWISTED by Laurie Halse Anderson or LESSONS FROM A DEAD GIRL by Jo Knowles, the writer had the nerve to say, "Maybe they're appropriate for a course on Early 21st Century Lightweight Pop Fiction for Bored Teenagers, but a college prep course? C'mon." The writer even goes as far as insulting the names that the characters in these books have.


Um. Excuse me?


If you've read my itty bitty profile to the left, you would know that I am a newly-established college student; I graduated from high school in June 2010. I've had my fair share of college prep. I was in the top 5% of my graduating class of over 500 students. I've gotten the top scores on both AP English tests. I got an 800 on the writing section of the SAT, with a perfect score on the essay. 


I know my college prep, I can guarantee you that. 


I am also a journalism major hopeful. One of my goals as a journalist, whether I become a broadcast journalist or a person who writes in a newspaper or magazine, is to promote understanding, and to inform the ignorant. That is, to know all sides of an argument. To take into account and respect more than just my own opinion. To know what my future children think of a situation, instead of simply deciding for them. To actually read, with an open mind, the books I want to challenge (though that will never happen). 


And finally, I am also a teenager. I'm still eighteen, and though I can now be tried in court as a legal adult, eighteen really isn't all that far from seventeen, or sixteen, or thirteen. Eighteen is certainly much closer to the teenage realm than thirty, or forty, or sixty-three-and-a-half. Three of my best friends are still in high school. Those who challenge what books are appropriate for college preparation are challenging the education of my friends, with whom I will have the opportunity to share the future. As a recently alumni-ed high school student, I am the one being affected. 


In high school, one of the biggest themes that abounded in classes from English to PE to Calculus was how the lessons we learned in those classes could be applied to the "real world". PE was so we could learn how to keep up our physical health. Math would be used all the time in some way, shape or form. In college, we'd be writing essays all the time; language is everywhere, and we'd better understand it. 


But ask any average student (don't ask an honor student--they'll just give you a long-winded answer that, in the end, may not make sense to either one of you, or may take too much thinking to process. Trust me, I was one of them. We're going for to-the-point, gut reaction here) what connection, say, the ILIAD has to what they did that day. 


Most teens you ask will probably have to think about that one for a while. Some may even give you blank looks and shrug. Some may ask, "Are they the band I heard on the radio earlier today?" 


To which I give you permission to respond, "Yes." Because fun is fun. 


However, hand them LOOKING FOR ALASKA by John Green, or AS YOU WISH by Jackson Pearce, or GIMME A CALL by Sarah Mylnowski, and give them around a week to read it (because teenagers procrastinate). Ask them for connections. Instantly, they may be able to relate themselves to Pudge in his skinniness, or how they have an enigma of a friend, or how they may have gotten what the wished for, but didn't expect the results. Many of the characters in YA fiction are even preparing to go to college themselves.


You want to teach teenagers about the real world, about preparing for college? Hand them a book. Hand them a book of their times. Hand them something they'll be able to understand. Hand them a banned/censored/challenged book.


Just hand them something real.


Of course, in no way am I saying that that classics such as BEOWULF or HAMLET aren't real. They are great books to learn about in a classroom setting, once you get over all the analyzing and twisted characters and messed-up plots. I thoroughly enjoyed reading every book that I have learned about in my classes. It's just that sometimes, having things laid out from the get-go in a straightforward fashion never hurt anyone. It is almost impossible to misunderstand what is laid out in front of you. Even if it's just one contemporary YA book in a curriculum of nine other classics, having a book that is so easy to connect with can be invaluable to students across the nation. Learning about the effects of rape, the consequences of harmful actions, or even being able to see characters you learn to love curse and kick and scream just as freely as the friends around you connects people to stories, and helps them to understand the themes without digging through unfamiliar language. Books such as SPEAK by Laurie Halse Anderson are just more accessible.

So if you want kids to read for college prep, to learn about the "real world" they will be surrounded by in college, feel free to give them the "Early 21st Century Lightweight Pop Fiction for Bored Teenagers". It'll teach them much more about the real world than you might think.

C'mon.

I don't know about you...

But I wouldn't want a guy who considers a book about a rape victim to be porn to be determining what books kids in my area should or should not read.

It's just not right.

If there's anything that I feel vehemently passionate against, it's the ignorance that so often goes hand-in-hand with book banning. Every time I hear about an instance of book banning--especially ones that are along the same vein as this one, which, admittedly, most are--it makes me sad that people close themselves off so much against the world and what really happens. Books are tools of understanding, and yet people like Professor Wesley Scroggins seem to be totally missing that point.

Though I write, I don't believe I'm the right person to go through a whole post on this. I'm too sad, and I'm afraid it would just escalate into something that I may not be proud of. :P So link time!

• Laurie Halse Anderson (author of SPEAK, the book currently in question)
• Saundra Mitchell
• Myra McEntire
• Veronica Roth
• CJ Redwine
• Harmony Beaufort

There are plenty more about the blog-o-sphere, but these are just to get you started. I have the Twibbon for the Speak Loudly movement on my Twitter, and there's the #SpeakLoudly hastag as well. Support books! And support more understanding.

Cracking Open a Window

*note: Formatting is being a butthole right now. Please stand by. Thanks. :) *hands out complimentary kazoos*
*notenote: Formatting is fixed. :) Yayyy I can do magic! *magic*

Heylo everyone! Yay, I have two followers! Doesn't that make you happy? Because it makes me happy. Hello, friends. :) Thank you for making my blog less lonely.

In today's post, I'm going to be talking about windows. I had this post up on another one of my blogs that had, oh yeah, no followers, mostly because I kept it anonymous so no one found it because I didn't promote it. Figures. Hahaha. Anyway! I wrote it a while ago, but I like it, so I hope you will too. :)

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Many people have heard the joke of 1+1=window. Don’t get it? Move the two dashes that make up the equals sign to the top and bottom of the phrase (phrase?) "1+1". Voila! Window!



The point is, there are many technical aspects to a story, some of which–such as grammar, punctuation, sentence fluency, blah blah blah–are the same in essentially every story out there. Most books follow the same rules that are out there for conventions; some writers and editors even use THE ELEMENTS OF STYLE by Strunk and White as a writers' bible of sorts. The conventions and technicalities covered in books and articles the cyber world over are the parts that make up the "1+1"; they’re simple statements, and story essentials.

But it’s the window part that gets tricky. Because even though you’re using the conventions that are the same within every story out there, whether it be the unfailing cliches or stereotypical characters, it’s up to YOU to decide what your readers see in your window. What world will you create? Is it light or dark? How will you tell your story?

Through this journey of creating your window, however, you must also make sure that your blinds are up, and your reader can see outside. It’s not enough for them to know that they are in a different world. Show them the rolling green hills, and let them feel the soft taps of rain as it blows through the window on a chilly breeze. Let them hear the laughing children and the screech of a passing car–it could lead to your next conflict. Allow them to hear for themselves what your characters are doing.

I guess what I'm trying to say is this: Don't let conventions and mere technicalities get in the way of telling your story. The important part is to tell it, and to tell it well. Let people know that venturing outside, into your story, is worth it. If you're an author struggling to get even your first story out of your fingertips, much like myself, figure out what you can find outside your window. Discern what you're seeing. Even if you can't, that's okay; there are times when even the clearest window can be marred by the splatters of a rainstorm or by pranksters who decided that egging your house was the way to go. But even that can be cleaned.

If not, maybe it's just a matter of getting a new window.

Writing can be as easy as 1+1. If they put their mind to it, anyone can do it. Anyone is capable of telling a story and putting it to paper. But to create a window is hard work. Opening one can be even harder. But people have done it before; through the opening of their own windows and the cracking of spines (books spines, that is), we have ventured into J.R.R. Tolkien's Middle Earth, felt the wonder of J.K. Rowling's Platform 9 3/4, and known what it felt like to cry at the death of a harp that was the idea of Lloyd Alexander. Don’t give up; your own window is there, waiting for you. Once that sucker is open, it’s not just a window overlooking the story… it’s a portal into your own world.