What is “Turn off your TV and read a book?”

Back when VH1 actually ran something besides “celebreality” programming I would drop in periodically on a show called Rock & Roll Jeopardy. Based on the classic Jeopardy we give you the answer/you supply the question format, all the categories related in some way to rock & roll.

The most memorable show I ever saw was an entry into one of those celebrities playing for charity tournaments. I can’t for the life of me remember who the other two contestants were but the third was Moon Zappa who was clearly out of step with the shallow trivia aspect of the show. At one point she became so frustrated with her timing and inability to get to even answer a question that when she finally rang in her “answer” to the clue was “What is ‘turn off your TV and read a book’?” It was at that point that she earned a permanent place on my “celebrity dinner guests” list (you know, the dozen or so celebrities you’d like to have a good meal and a conversation with as distinguished, of course, from the dozen or so celebrities you’d leap over your loved one’s prone body for a chance to have sex with (very often the two lists are not the same)).

Celebrate Banned Books Week

The American Library Association has been celebrating Banned Books Week since 1982…that’s 25 years people. According to the ALA blog the 10 Most Challenged Books of 2006 reflect a range of themes, and consist of the following titles:

1. “And Tango Makes Three” by Justin Richardson and Peter Parnell, for homosexuality, anti-family, and unsuited to age group;
2. “Gossip Girls” series by Cecily Von Ziegesar for homosexuality, sexual content, drugs, unsuited to age group, and offensive language;
3. “Alice” series by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor for sexual content and offensive language;
4. “The Earth, My Butt, and Other Big Round Things” by Carolyn Mackler for sexual content, anti-family, offensive language, and unsuited to age group;
5. “The Bluest Eye” by Toni Morrison for sexual content, offensive language, and unsuited to age group;
6. “Scary Stories” series by Alvin Schwartz for occult/Satanism, unsuited to age group, violence, and insensitivity;
7. “Athletic Shorts” by Chris Crutcher for homosexuality and offensive language;
8. “The Perks of Being a Wallflower” by Stephen Chbosky for homosexuality, sexually explicit, offensive language, and unsuited to age group;
9. “Beloved” by Toni Morrison for offensive language, sexual content, and unsuited to age group;
10. “The Chocolate War” by Robert Cormier for sexual content, offensive language, and violence.

Off the list this year, according to the ALA, are perennial favorites Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger, Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck and The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain.

And ponder this for a second…the Intellectual Freedom Manual (ALA, 7th edition) states:

Intellectual freedom can exist only where two essential conditions are met: first, that all individuals have the right to hold any belief on any subject and to convey their ideas in any form they deem appropriate; and second, that society makes an equal commitment to the right of unrestricted access to information and ideas regardless of the communication medium used, the content of the work, and the viewpoints of both the author and receiver of information. Freedom to express oneself through a chosen mode of communication, including the Internet, becomes virtually meaningless if access to that information is not protected. Intellectual freedom implies a circle, and that circle is broken if either freedom of expression or access to ideas is stifled.

Does this sound like the America we live in today? Yeah, I didn’t think so. Go read a book. I plan to.