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Wolf
Joined: 10 May 2003
Posts: 1245
Location: Middle Earth
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 Posted: Fri May 30, 2003 1:46 pm Post subject: |
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| xiaoyu wrote: |
the students are not allowed to read books by tolkien, j.k. rowling, h.b. stowe, ayn rand, etc. because they are seen as offensive or discriminatory.... or propaganda..... can you believe it?
it is a horrid thing that is happening.... the thing that worries me is what kind of people the schools are going to be churning out in the future if they aren't able to look at reality in books? 
xiaoyu |
They banned ... Tolkien ... discriminatory ... what, do you have Orcs in Montana? Nazgul lobbyists?
Man, even in China I can read whatever I want. I can order whatever I want from the 'net (has to be for ME, though). There is stuff I can't teach in class, but ... the list is less preposterous that THAT.
The word "Man" is discriminatory, so they're just going to change "The Old Man and the Sea?"
I recall the Newspeak secotions of 1984, or have they banned that one, too?
Do I laugh or cry here.... |
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JDYoung
Joined: 21 Apr 2003
Posts: 157
Location: Dongbei
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| Posted: Fri May 30, 2003 8:24 pm Post subject: My Favourite Soap Box |
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Boy, this topic is one that could make me rant for hours and pages but I'll keep it short.
"Adjusting" literature to make it more "appropriate" is nothing new. Thomas Bowdler published a "Family Version" of Shakespeare in 1807. See http://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Bowdler.
I have volunteered in our local library for years and been on the Board of Trustees. Librarians have a duty to uphold the statement of intellectual freedom, at least in countries that uphold freedom of speech. I have and proudly wear, at least here in Canada, a shirt that says "There's something in my library to offend everybody."
As for exposing children to bad stuff, we are supposed to be preparing children for the world, not protecting them from it. How will they ever be able to handle the world outside of the over-protected classroom if they don't have some direction.
Well, that was a brief tirade. Very cathartic. |
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Lucy Snow
Joined: 16 Jan 2003
Posts: 218
Location: US
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| Posted: Sat Jun 07, 2003 8:21 am Post subject: |
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| And lest you think this disease has only cropped up in the US--I attended a lecture by a Canadian professor who said that she felt that no books should be taught that may offend any student in the classroom. |
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Africaexpert
Joined: 19 May 2003
Posts: 109
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| Posted: Sat Jun 07, 2003 1:21 pm Post subject: Amok |
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| Amok came from Arabic, "Hmok" or crazy as in "Inti Hmok?" or, "Are you crazy?" |
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veiledsentiments
Joined: 20 Feb 2003
Posts: 17644
Location: USA
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| Posted: Sat Jun 07, 2003 2:35 pm Post subject: |
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Africaexpert
Not sure what this has to do with banning books, but... According to the Webster's dictionary, amok comes from Malay.
What dialect of Arabic are you referring to here? I lived in various Arabic speaking countries for many years and I have never encountered this term. I am certainly no expert on Arabic, only knowing what I have picked up by the necessities of life. 
The only word I have heard for crazy - insane actually - is mejnoon. I checked a couple of my English/Arabic dictionaries and only found this term.
VS
(BTW the word crazy was normally discussed in every class I had because of the varied usage of the word 'crazy' in English - with crazy being a positive thing as in 'all of my friends are crazy' 'I'm crazy about him' etc.) |
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R
Joined: 07 May 2003
Posts: 277
Location: United Kingdom
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| Posted: Sat Jun 07, 2003 2:50 pm Post subject: |
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So Philip Roth's 'When She Was Good' becomes 'When the person was perceived in a positive light by her cultural peers.'
'The Master and Margarita' becomes 'The person in control of the situation and Margarita'
Leonard Cohen's album is retitles 'I'm Your Person'. He also released an album to be retitled 'the livingly-challenged state of a person's person'.
The politically correct Complete Works of Henry Miller now reads as follows:
"Went away. Came back."
At least comcs like 'Superperson' and 'Batperson and Recently-Born Person Wonder' Aren't affected!
Ulysses begins: "Buck Mulligan, who was challenged in regards to his weight and had an aura which suggested an affinity to those of his contemporaries who had much money, came from the stairhead..."
Why is Dorothy Parker unavailable for comment?!
Actually, 'barbarian' could be seen as racist. It comes from the Greek interpretation of what foreigners sound like: 'barbarbarbar', aparently. So this is the equivalent of calling an Indian 'Bud-Bud'. I looked in my Oxford non-gender-specific-genitalia-tionary for more info but couldn't find any.
When Nabokov was first submitting Lolita to publishers, one replied that it would only be acceptable if the story was about a male farmer seducing his farmboy, and narrated by the farmboy. Now, that's weird. |
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Africaexpert
Joined: 19 May 2003
Posts: 109
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| Posted: Mon Jun 09, 2003 1:51 am Post subject: amok |
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Veiled,
It'a Moroccan dialect - quite a ways from Malaysia. |
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veiledsentiments
Joined: 20 Feb 2003
Posts: 17644
Location: USA
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| Posted: Mon Jun 09, 2003 3:11 am Post subject: |
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Hi Africaexpert,
Interesting - I will have to check with a Moroccan friend to see if she can enlighten me as its roots in Moroccan dialect. It doesn't seem to be used in Egypt or the Gulf dialects. Students are usually pretty efficient in teaching me these useful phrases. Thanks.
Veiled |
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tjpnz2000
Joined: 22 May 2003
Posts: 118
Location: Japan
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| Posted: Mon Jun 09, 2003 3:50 am Post subject: |
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[quote]"You also can't say Mother Russia or Fatherland or brotherhood in texts and that's both silly, trivial and breathtaking. It is like George Orwell's 'Newspeak' come to life," she said in an interview, referring to the manipulation of language in "1984."
Now there is a book that should be studied in high school! Along with Animal Farm! We studied `Fahrenhiet 451` by Ray Bradbury, all about burning books. I hope things are still the same in New Zealand.
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Nor is the government the only source of constraint or censorship in the watch-what-you-say business. Wal-Mart, the nation's largest retailer, recently banned racy men's magazines from its shelves although it continues to sell sexy underwear.
Not to mention guns and bullets! See `Bowling for Columbine`.
Which brings we to my final point. As long as there are people like Micheal Moore out there writting books like `Stupid white men` the rest of us can't loose hope.
The only question we have to ask ourselves is this:
What did I do today to make the world a better place?
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tjpnz2000
Joined: 22 May 2003
Posts: 118
Location: Japan
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| Posted: Mon Jun 09, 2003 3:51 am Post subject: |
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| Sorry for the sloppiness of my post, still getting the hang of the `quote` button. |
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