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United States: In a surprising decision, given recent events, a school board in San Antonio, Texas, has decided not to ban Margaret Atwood's 1985 classic The Handmaid's Tale. Superintendent Ed Lyman had banned the book from the advanced English curriculum, but the school board overturned the decision.
If we do ban The Handmaid's Tale because of sexual content, then why not ban Huckleberry Finn for racism? Why not ban The Crucible for witchcraft? Why not ban The Things They Carried for violence, and why not ban the Bible and argue separation of church and state?Judson senior Craig Gagne told trustees.
As well as complaining that the book was sexually explicit, Lyman insisted it was offensice to Christians. Well, I suppose if you are a barking mad fundie, I suppose it would be offensive to read a fictional reminder of what a society run according your interpretation of The Big Book of Fairy Tales would be like.
School board reverses ban on Handmaid's Tale—Houseton Chronicle, 24th March 2006.
Posted in
Church and State
and Rare Common Sense
at 12:42. Last modified on September 28 2006 at 23:43.
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1: Posted by: Red Wolf | March 26, 2006 10:28 PM
Looking at the Wikipedia entry, it may not be the sexual references they were worried about but that the novel was set "against a backdrop of the establishment of a totalitarian theocratic state". Wouldn't want the kids getting clued in on what the loony fundies are striving towards.
2: Posted by: beepbeepitsme | March 29, 2006 7:41 AM
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