BandwidthHog's Journal: Inflammatory Recitations

I went to a book reading last night. A nearby book store, Rebel Books, celebrated Banned Books Week by setting up a tent and a microphone outside (along with a few bottles of wine inside) and invited members of the community to come read a passage from their favorite banned book. I didn’t find out about it till I got home from work on Friday, so I didn’t have anything to get up there and shout about. But since they did it two nights running, I was able to scrounge something up yesterday.

Being me of course, I had to be different. Everybody else was up there reading wonderfully crafted passages from controversial books both well known and obscure. I decided I’d read from the Anarchist’s Cookbook. I think I had a harder time finding my book than anybody else there. Judy Blume may have had a lot of her works banned and otherwise challenged, but you can still walk into any bookstore and find a copy. That cookbook, however, is a different story. I was eventually able to find the text of it online, although I probably got a couple of flags set in my permanent record in the process.

When it came to be my turn at the podium, I got up and introduced myself. I told them that I was actually a bit uneasy walking around with those recipes in my pocket, but that very fact clinched my decision. I then did my best to read the recipe for nitroglycerin without sounding like I was reading a recipe. I was genuinely surprised by the amount of applause I got, so I used the opportunity to plug the Cape Fear Literacy Council on the grounds that it was a surefire way for all in attendance to ensure that more Americans can read banned books in the future. Hopefully it worked and at least a few of them will eventually get over there and volunteer. (And hopefully my mention of it in this context worked and a few of you will eventually get to a similar council in your own city and volunteer.)

One thing that really struck a chord with me was that of all the stuff read aloud out behind that bookstore, so very little of it seemed worthy of offense. Even for those of us gleefully awaiting such offense. Sure, it was just a few pages here and there taken entirely out of their natural context, but still.

Sure, there were some exceptions. There was a moderately torrid lesbian love scene read aloud, and the lyrics to an Eminem song about race performed by a middle aged white country girl who happens to be an avid surfer and avowed communist (gee, and you thought I was confusing?). And a large man with a beautiful African accent of some sort read a very heated passage (don’t remember from what book) about some of the horrible things the white man has done over the centuries. But by and large, if you hadn’t known the nature of the event, only the prefaces of the readers would have given away the fact that everything recited on that stage had, at some point or another, by some school board or another, been banned on the grounds that it would corrupt our nation’s youth.

All in all, a good time was had by all. I saw some people I hadn’t seen in a while, got to experience some good old fashioned stage fright, and got the nice folks at the book store to hang up some of my work in hopes of thereby contributing to my ongoing care and feeding.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I’ve got to go inside and get rid of the evidence sitting on my desk. It makes me uneasy to have it in my possession.

kewlness--a prosaic aol response

[btlzu2]

now that's the sort of thing i have to find for myself. (fdb too--she wants to expand her horizons as well) very interesting.

Re:kewlness--a prosaic aol response

[BandwidthHog]

What sort of thing?

Re:kewlness--a prosaic aol response

[btlzu2]

Why, the banned book reading! :)

gunshows

[zogger]

go to any local gunshow, pay cash, you can walk out with any number of interesting technical publications, either dead trees or on disks.

Story of "O"

[tomhudson]

From the wiki http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Story_of_O [wikipedia.org]

Published 1954 in French, it is a fantasy of female submission about a Parisian fashion photographer who is blindfolded, chained, whipped, branded, made to wear a mask, and taught to be "constantly available" for oral, vaginal, and/or anal intercourse. In February 1955, it won the French literature prize Prix des Deux Magots, although this did not prevent the French authorities bringing obscenity charges against the publisher. The charges were rejected

Re:Story of "O"

[BandwidthHog]

Wow. I wish I’d thought of that. Could have been quite fun to read in front of a mostly female audience. Oh well. Maybe next year.

We are in the south, and someone did read from Origin of Species. We had all the bases covered, man.

Re:Story of "O"

[bechthros]

"Of curse, if you want to cause a riot, just go anywhere in the Bible Belt and read a bit of Darwins' "On the Evolution of Species.""

I don't really think it would cause a riot, but you might get one or two angry young primates to punch you in the face.

Conversely, try going to China and reading the Bible - the most banned book of all time.

It's not Finding the Book that's the Problem

[WillAffleckUW]

it's them finding out that you have the book.

in Soviet Amerika under Reichsmarshall Busch, just having the book can be a big deal.

Solution:

1. Pay cash.
2. Buy a bookcover from the local Episcopalian bookstore that says something like Paul's Writings To The Corinthians.
3. Put bookcover on book.
4. Sleep soundly knowing the radical extremists have so gutted the FBI and Homeland Insecurity that they'll never figure out what the book really is.
5. Moral: Sometimes you know gullible people trust a book by it's cove