Last Week’s Quiz Winners
Wow! I’m happy that so many word nerds turned up for last week’s vocabulary quiz! I had six winners! Yippee! (Next month, maybe I should make a harder quiz… J) I’m especially excited to have some new word nerds joining in the fun. Congratulations to:
- Kelly from The Well Read Redhead
- Jennifer Hartling from The Relentless Reader
I recommended both of these blogs in my post on how to find good book blogs. Cheers also to:
- Laura Howard from Finding Bliss, where you can find helpful tips on writing.
- Susan Stilwell from Blogmama Susan (blogging tips) and I Hope for Him (inspiration)
- Jane Butler from My Own Personal Sky, where you can find Jane’s thoughts on childhood, parenthood, and seizing the moment.
- Monique Liddle from Bends in the Road, offering helpful tips for life’s unexpected road blocks.
Enthusiastic *applause* for Monique, a two time winner, and Susan, a three time winner!
This Week’s New Word
Banned Book Week began yesterday, and it has sparked a flurry of commentary in the blogosphere. While I was reading Jennifer Hartling’s post on BBW, I learned a lot about both sides of the argument, as well as a great new vocabulary word! Adam from Roof Beam Reader commented that recently an expurgated edition of Mark Twain’s The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn had been published, with all of the offensive language removed.
First I thought, you can’t alter literature! That would be like covering up part of a Picasso!
Then I thought, what a great word!
expurgate \’ek-spər-gāt\ verb, from Latin ex + purgare to purge; to cleanse of something morally harmful, offensive, or erroneous, especially to expunge objectionable content before publication or presentation.
Word Nerd Workout
Use expurgate/expurgated in a sentence to describe your thoughts on the alteration of books. Would you prefer to read a book that does not have offensive language? Is this as simple as the difference between “clean” and “dirty” versions of songs? How do you think altering an author’s words infringes on creative expression? I wonder what Mark Twain would have to say about this new version of his book.
Banned Book Week Giveaway
This week, in honor of the books I love, I am offering a giveaway of one of the following. All of them have faced challenges or bans in the past few decades, as reported by the ALA website. All have also been reads I’ve thoroughly enjoyed, as a child and an adult:
- To Kill a Mockingbird
- A Wrinkle in Time
- The Giver
- The Outsiders
- The Kite Runner
- Bridge to Terebithia
- I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
How to win?
- The winner will be picked at random from comments on this post and my post reviewing The Kite Runner, to appear Friday Oct. 5.
- Comments must be made by Oct 8. The winner will be announced Oct 9 in my vocab post.
- The giveaway is open to anywhere that Amazon ships.
Easy, right? Now, share your thoughts on expurgated books below! Thanks for stopping by!
Julia
Firstly, thank you so much for a fantastic giveaway and an interesting post.
No i don’t agree with cutting out words like this from books, as it is unfair to the author’s origonality and how they wanted their work to be presented to the reader. I think that if a novel is published then it is up to the reader as to decide on whether to read it or not, and ultimately if they feel offended by it in any way (such as the use of a word or language). Just because one may not agree with a rasist word in ‘Huckleberry finn’ does not mean that one shouldn’t be able to read and enjoy the book. Just as rasism and offensive words have been shunned compared to thirty years ago, so will other words be pin-pointed in the future as times continually change. Classic literature should be enjoyed.
Email: lfountain1(at)hotmail(dot)co(dot)uk
Excited to see your Kite Runner post today – I have linked your blog for the review this morning. 🙂
To expurgate works of literature is as touchy of a subject as covering works of art that are considered obscene to some people. Art/creativity, whether in the written word or through visual mediums, has many repercussions: a range of emotions (laughter, sadness, hope, wonder, etc), relaxation, getting away from life, to encourage different ways of thinking, to make people uncomfortable, and more. I believe that books that are uncomfortable for people perhaps are best read with parents or in an educational setting so that readers can discuss the various issues. And if the chiild is under the age of 18, the parents are responsible for what a child reads and have the right to not read a book if the parents have a problem with the book. Other people may disagree with why a parent does not allow their child to read X book, but in the end it is the parent’s decision.
However, parents may want to be careful which bks they prohibit their child from reading. As we know, the more society/parents prohibit something from use, the more enticing that thing is to a person. Instead of banning certain bks that your child is not allowed to read, parents may want to read the book w/the child and discuss what the parents see is problematic &/or morally wrong.
For me, i believe in the freedom of creative expression. If I don’t like it or think it is obscene, then I won’t read/view/listen to the book/art/music. If parents get more involved in what their children read, see, or listen to, then they can have discussions about the issues – and ultimately have the right to not allow certain bks/art/music to be consumed by the child. I think discussion is going to have more of an impact on a child rather than the book/art/music. These things do not cause violence. Rather the likelihood of a child seeing his/her parents be violent to one another, the child or other people is going to have the real impact on whether a person commits violence, not bks/art/music alone.
Much more can be said about these issues. The above thoughts and beliefs are enough to begin conversation about expurgated books/art/music and freedom of creative expression.
Thoughtful and exciting word choice, Julia!
Monique
Wow Monique, wonderful thoughts. Yes, reading a controversial book and then discussing it with your child can be very beneficial. The discussion SHOULD have greater impact than the book. It can also dispel the power of the controversial content. Thank you for such a thoughtful comment.
Banning books is always a tough topic. I think I side with your opinion from an earlier post that books shouldn’t be banned, parents should be aware of the contents of various books and monitor what kids read. As a teacher, it’s very difficult for me to want to ban any books, because it’s hard enough to get kids to read, and many banned books are the books that kids would love or that would be excellent for discussions.
I understand, especially for older students who have already decided that they hate reading. One of my best memories from teaching was learning that one of my students, identified as E.D., spent his time in In School Suspension devouring a book we had started in class. And the book did have some controversial *content*, but he was reading!
Thanks for mentioning me Julia 🙂 I think Mr. Twain would be outraged. That’s only my opinion of course but I believe authors put their souls into their work.
I could go on and on about banning books and how ridiculous it is but I’ll just say that expurgating literature is asinine!
Succinct and to the point!
I’m looking over that list and my kids loved some of those! They made them think, which made them ask questions. We tackled some tough issues, and I’m grateful they had good teachers who walked them through those. One of Sarah’s most favorite books was Bridge to Terebithia.
I love the “we tackled some tough issues.” That gets to the heart of this- books should spark thought and discussion between teachers and students, parents and children, strangers and friends.
Thanks for the shout-out! And, I completely missed when you mentioned my blog a few weeks ago (I was out of town that weekend and completely lost track of blogs for a few days). So thanks again!
I laughed at your line “First I thought, you can’t alter literature! That would be like covering up part of a Picasso! Then I thought, what a great word!” 🙂 It is rather ridiculous that anyone would attempt to alter a book like that though–I didn’t even know that’s a form of banning that people use! I’ve already posted a lot about banned books on my blog, but overall I am just baffled by the idea of one person feeling they have the right to tell large groups of others that they cannot read something.
Thanks for doing a BBW giveaway–I actually have not read several of the books on the giveaway list! I need to get crackin’!
No worries about missing the post; glad you stopped by for this one. Yes I agree, altering published books seems absurd in our society.
This is so fun!
No, I do not agree with expurgated words out of books. No. No. However, on a slightly tweaked topic….at BYU, rated R movies were frequently edited to “clean” so that we squeaky clean Mormon kids would come see them 🙂 I got to see Schindler’s List, Last of the Mohicans, and a whole bunch of others ones I might not have seen otherwise. Later, I saw both original films and honestly, I didn’t enhance my viewing…esp. the frontal nudity from Schindler’s list. This practice has since been banned b/c of copyright and I wouldn’t want to do that to all movies, but…
My bigger issue with Schindler’s List would be the bodies of dead Jews being rushed to the burn site. I remember feeling physically ill during that scene. And I was at least 27 when I saw it. (But I am a little sensitive…) Or the scalping and burning at the stake in the Last of the Mohicans. Also made me nauseous. And that is still altering art… Hmm. I guess that’s what they do for network TV, right? You’ve opened up a whole new discussion. And to clarify, the books on the ALA Banned Books list have been books that have received challenges for use in public school libraries and classrooms.