Andrew Albano

“Having books with adult topics available in libraries limits parents’ ability to choose when their children are mature enough to read specific material. “Literary works containing explicit sex, oral sex, explicit & violent descriptions of rape, masturbation, vulgar and obscene language” were on the approved reading list for grades 7-12, according to Speak up for Standards, a group seeking age-appropriate reading materials for students in Dallas, Texas. 

If books with inappropriate material are available in libraries, children or teens can be exposed to books their parents wouldn’t approve of before the parents even find out what their children are reading. 

Bans are necessary because “opting your child out of reading [a certain] book doesn’t protect him or her. They are still surrounded by the other students who are going to be saturated with this book,” said writer Macey France. “

I can understand that parents would not want their children to be exposed to literature with sexually explicit scenes, gore, or ideas that they may not agree with. However, if a parent wants to limit the information that their child has access to then they might as well ban them from using a phone, or the internet. The accessibility to anything in the world is in the palm of almost every child in grades 7-12, even though we try to think that they wouldn’t see some of the inappropriate things online. The internet is a great tool that is useful for learning, but it also has many dark sides to it including pornography, violence, random chat rooms, illegal websites, access to buy illegal goods, and much more. I am one who uses the internet regularly as do most people I would assume but there is a dark side to it, and in many cases including my own I wasn’t taught how to stay away from these types of things.

To ban novels that have similar experiences that can be found online would be a tragedy. The best place for a child to learn about these unfavorable subjects are under the supervision of an adult that has their best interest in mind. Some parents may be unwilling to have these kinds of talks with their kids, the sex talk for example can be a weird thing to talk about with a child, a parent doesn’t want to think about their child having sex, they want to preserve that innocence that they have. Parents have the best interest at heart for their children at all times, but sometimes the lack of information could be vital in their kids emotional, physical and mental growth. Allowing these novels that have moments that revolve around sexuality, sex, gore, violence and whatever else could allow teachers, trusted adults, to show young students what they mean, its place in society, why people do it, and how to teach the best way to approach them. Would you rather your child go into the world blind and not know how to do something, learn possibly harmful ideas from the internet, or learn valuable and beneficial skills from that of a teacher? Learning how to practice safe sex, consent, what sex is, and what/how people do it is something that is part of every middle school and high school curriculum. Although sometimes lacking, sex education is part of what children learn in school because it better prepares them for the real world the about to enter, without the shelter of mom, dad or school to ease them along. After high school, students are thrown right into the real world and have to figure it out for themselves, hopefully some of the knowledge that teachers have passed on to them could help in the future life; like how learning how to write makes you a competent person, learning what sex is, and how to do it safely makes you a competent person.

“…they are ashamed of a child who studies literature, or philosophy, or who wants to paint or dance or sing. American parents, too, are moving rapidly in this direction, despite a long liberal arts tradition. But educators for economic growth will do more than ignore the arts. They will fear them. For a cultivated and developed sympathy is a particularly dangerous enemy for obtuseness and moral obtuseness is necessary to carry out programs of economic development that carry out inequality. It is easier to as objects to be manipulated if you have never learned any other way to see them.”

I think the strongest connection between liberal education and citizenship has to do with seeing people as more than just a number, and seeing them as human beings. In the busy, bustling world we live in now it is easy to forget that other people, that you don’t interact regularly with, have feelings and lives of their own. I feel like this has been an offset of the technological and scientific boom of the late 20th and early 21st century that we are subject to living in. I think this disregard for others could be due to the way that children are being taught, and how society has viewed the humanities. Social media has created a rift in the communication, and personal skills that many young students have. This lack of skill is something that could be easily fixed through the use of liberal art classes, that encourage more than just numbers and equations on a paper, its thoughtfulness, how to portray ideas into words, getting these ideas to other people, and so much more. There are so many ways that liberal arts can further the communication skills, personal skills, thoughtfulness, individuality, life skills, empathy, cultural knowledge, historical accounts, and much more. The humanities have recently been viewed as undesirable and “bad jobs”, yeah they may not be as high paying as others, or be something that is blowing up right now. But the humanities have had a place in society for thousands of years, and will be the jobs that really can’t be easily replaced. You can show a robot how to be a data analyst, or have create new softwares, but could a robot be a phycologist, a writer, a teacher, or a social worker. The humanities are not easily replaceable skills that can be filled by machines, not that the science and technological fields would be easy to replace with machines. The main difference when it comes down to it is that the humanities are the course that teaches students the skills that are needed to be a person, understand other people, themselves, cultures, perspectives, ideas, and learn lifelong skills that will follow them forever. The humanities help to make people their own individual citizen that can understand how to be themselves while apart of a collective whole.

Uncharted Book

In The Refugees Nguyen gives voice to hopes and expectations of people forced to leave one country for another, and the rifts in identity, loyalties, romantic relationships, and family ties that accompany relocation. From the culture shock of a young Vietnamese man relocated to bohemian San Fransisco, to the heartache of a woman whose dementia-suffering husband starts to confuse her with a former lover, the stories vividly capture the emotions and numerous hardships of migration.

A collection of eight different stories, The Refugees is a creative collection of shared experiences of a country devastated by war. The captivating writing invites you to meet the characters, not just in the present but their past as well. We are greeted by the ghost, their families, the culture, Vietnam, and the implications of the war on their lives. The stories aren’t connected by common characters but by common experiences of the characters who survived the war in Vietnam and found their way to America. That is not the focus of every story, not just being in America as refugees: but about the universal themes of finding one’s identity, coming to terms with the past and family dynamics.

On the page before the title page Nguyen quotes from two sources in his Preface, Roberto Bolano’s introduction to Antwerp “I wrote this book for the ghosts, who, because they’re outside of time, are the only ones with time.” And a small piece of James Fenton’s poem A German Requiem ”It is not your memories which haunt you. It is not what you have written down. It is what you have forgotten, what you must forget. What you must go on forgetting all your life.” These two quotes really do set the tone and atmosphere for these eight stories. A promise of a better life, the ghosts left behind, but who never really leave, the memories, the struggles to feel accepted and part of this new life.

Viet Thanh Nguyen was born in Vietnam and came to the United States as a refugee in 1975. He grew up in some rougher parts of California during his childhood, but would eventually go to college and become a University professor at the University of Southern California. An accomplished writer with numerous books, including The Sympathizer which won The Pulitzer Prize in 2016 and many other awards.

I would gladly use this book in a classroom. It covers an important topic, the Vietnam War, but in an indirect way that doesn’t shout at you preaching against war. It also tackles other important topics such as, immigration, culture, government ideology, and family dynamics. The characters are very different, but still relatable in so many different ways. Each and every one of them is human like the reader, the only difference being that their path to America was indefinitely more difficult than any American-born reader.

Uncharted Books

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime is a novel about a young boy, Christopher, that is neurodivergent. The story follows Christopher a 15 year old boy gifted at math, who writes a book about his investigation off the murder of a neighborhood dog, Wellington. He is amazingly observant, but his lack of insight into other people’s emotional life hampers his investigation. Throughout the story Christopher has to overcome some of his deepest habits and fears as he uncovers some unexpected secrets.

The structural format and style of the novel are quite different than any other book I have ever read. The chapters are listed in prime numbers, as they Christophers favorite numbers. The narrative style is quite literal, avoiding the use of metaphors, excessive logic, and an extreme attention to details. The chapters are not completely linear, separated by snippets of math and explanations of his condition: how it affects him, and what coping strategies he adopts. This effect is sometimes unnatural and occasionally breathless, which is a little reminiscent of people that I know who are nuerodivergent.

Christophers condition makes him very literal- something that he is aware of. Truth is supreme, so he hates situations where he can’t tell the truth and the fact that “everything you tell is a white lie” because you can never give a fully comprehensive answer to anything. Many novels are fixated on finding the truth, but Christopher’s journey takes the idea to a deeper level. Even though we know Christopher is almost pathologically truthful, his condition means that the observations sometimes miss the real truth of a situation. Most of the humor throughout arise from Christopher’s misunderstandings of situations and the conflict between his lack of embarrassment and desire to be unnoticed by unfamiliar people.

Christopher loves math because it is safe, straightforward and has a definite answer, unlike life. He’s also good at explaining some aspects, ending an explanation of calculating primes with “Prime numbers are what is left when you have taken all the patterns away”. His apparent deviations from logic are justified with ingenious logic, having favorite and hated colors reduces choice and thus stress. He notices and remembers every detail of everything, and can recall it at will, whereas other people’s brains are filled with imaginary stuff, Christopher’s brain contains everything that has happened since he was 4.

Christopher never explicitly says anything beyond “behavioral problems” for him being different than other kids. Christopher talks about the special school he is enrolled in, being the first student in his school to take an A-level course, and his particular tendencies. He hates the colors yellow and brown, does not like to be touched, and doesn’t understand emotions too well. For not wanting to assume anything that is not explicitly told to us, I am going to just say that he is nuerodivergent.

Mark Haddon won Commonwealth Writers’ Prize Overall Best First Book for his novel The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time in 2004. Haddon’s knowledge on Asperger’s Syndrome and autism comes from his work with nuerodivergent people as a young man. Although he is no expert when it comes to special needs, Haddon’s unique character design and perspective brings awareness towards people with mental disabilities. The novel has also been adapted as a play in Britain, making its way in Broadway for a while.

This is the first book that I have ever read that has a character with a mental disability, let alone the protagonist of the novel. This new perspective allows a reader to feel less normal, and explore the differences between people around us. A lot of the population has some sort of mental disability, whether it be autism, anxiety, depression or down syndrome. Like any other minority in country, it is nice when you can read about people different from yourself and understand them a little bit more.

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time would be a good book to use in a classroom setting for a multitude of reasons. One being the perspective from a person that is nuerodivergent, most books are from nuerotypical people so this would be a new experience for students. This perspective also changes the way that people think about others with mental disabilities, they are not very different than you and me. Another important issue that arises throughout the book is the way that people around Christopher are affected by his condition. Many people fail to realize the strain and difficulties that can arise from raising a child with a mental disability. Like any drastic change in life, a mental disability can put tension on relationships and disrupt a family’s “normal” way of living. Haddon writes an enthralling novel, keeping the reader entertained and attached throughout its entirety. The new frame of mind from a character that is nuerodivergent, the effects on familial and external relationships, and the battle to overcome fears and habits.

Uncharted Books

Hey everyone, welcome to my first blog post. I’ll be updating this blog a couple times a week to talk about books. The books that I will be talking about are ones that I have read that I think I may use when I eventually become an English teacher.

Johnny Got His Gun is an anti-war novel that released the first few days of World War 2, but concentrates on World War 1. In its essence this book is an anti-war novel, that was its purpose and it served it well, but there is so much more to it than just that. Johnny Got His Gun follows the life of Joe Bonham, an 18 year old that is drafted to fight in World War 1 in 1918.

This book is one of the most disturbing, but quite interesting books that I have ever read. The reader is forced to spend the entirety of the book within in the protagonist’s, Joe Bonham, mind. The reason for this being that due to injuries sustained from war, he has no arms, no legs, no ears, no eyes, no mouth, and no tongue. He cannot see, speak, hear, or taste and is left with a limited sense of touch. Unfortunately for Joe his brain is very much alive and well, trapped in this body with no way out.

A man trapped within his own body, Joe has only his memories and imagination to keep himself busy and amused. Joe brings the reader along many of his thoughts and you can see his life blossom, and be ripped apart. Memories of fishing trips with his now dead father, nights spent with his girlfriend Kareen, and days spent working at a bakery.

Lying on his back for an unknown amount of time, Joe begins to lose his mind, until he begins to tell time. Even this however cannot save Joe from his horrifying fate. Joe eventually finds a way to communicate with outsiders, but even this is doomed as Trumbo keeps us from getting out.

This novel is a stream of consciousness with less punctuation and capitalism, and the reader is thrown into tortuous run ons separated with short ones; and beautiful passages filled with nostalgia… the narrative structure captures the doom of the protagonist magnificently.

This novel is definitely an anti-war novel, written with a purpose– and so sometimes it does slip into straight out pacifist ideals. But since this is all through Joe’s mind the strength of the narrative is not lost to a few pages– and Trumbo still gets his point across. The moist poignant part of these pages would be, They knew that life was everything and they died with screams and sobs. They died with only one thought in their minds and that was I want to live I want to live I want to live.

Dalton Trumbo won the National Book Award for Johnny Got His Gun in 1939. The popularity of the book brought some unwanted attention as well. Trumbo was part of the Communist Party and throughout his career had unpopular left-leaning political stances. Fan letters from Nazi-sympathizers that Trumbo received from the misunderstandings of Johnny Got His Gun led him to hand in the mail to the FBI. The FBI intentions changed and the filed a case on Dalton Trumbo, along with 9 other Hollywood directors and writers, for whether or not the Communist sympathizers had propagandized their American audiences. The “Hollywood Ten” refused to testify and as a result were found guilty of contempt of Congress and were blacklisted from Hollywood for years to come.

The reason why I think that this book would be so beneficial in a classroom setting would be for its humanistic ideals, never losing hope, and just how different and beautifully written it is. Trumbo may have used this as an anti-war novel but I see it equally as a humanistic novel. Over and over again throughout the novel the importance of all people, the Americans, English, French, Mexicans, Germans and all other people on the planet, are equally important and meaningful to Joe. He constantly resents the effects war has on all aspects of every persons life, and how the people that orchestrate wars do not care for those fighting them. Joe puts an emphasis on the “little guy” the ‘everyday Joe’ that you see on the street; how all their lives are affected by the decisions of government officials, higher-ups that aren’t on the frontlines fighting, but in offices far away sending others to their deaths.

Trumbo writes this novel so beautifully, while still allowing his message to shine through to the reader. The persistence of human life to never quit; an ideology for the basic needs of every person, the innate goodness each human possesses, and ability to solve human problems rationally.

I definitely recommend this book to everyone, as frankly it left me speechless by the end.