Wholestyle on the Web: Week of10/02/2009

It’s Friday!  That means you get to check out all the wonderful wholestyle-approved articles that have been popping up all over the place, in one convienient location.  I do apologise for the lack of pretty pictures in this edition, but it appears that my server’s having a hard time and may possible have contracted swine flu.  Here’s hoping it’s better soon!

• Almost Fearless: 67 Travel-Friendly Jobs to Consider
• Already Pretty:  Compare and Contrast
• Apricot Tea:  The Things My Mother Taught Me
• Athena Magazine:  A Question of Nipples
• Boing Boing:  The American Burquini and Modesty Throughout the Ages
• Bonne Vie:  The I in “Relationship”
• The Coveted:  Do Fashion Blogs Glamorize Smoking?
• Cupcakes and Mace:  The Lost Symbol – Dan Brown Review
• Dancing Down the Moon:  VeganMoFo – Cookbook Whores of the World, Unite!
• The Demoiselles:  Wing Tips – There is Nothing Wrong with Your Hair
• Denim Debutante:  Celebrate Lee National Denim Day
• Dramatis Personae:  Ashe Mischief’s Shopping Bill of Rights
• Gala Darling:  Yayoi Kusama
• Her Bad Mother:  Snips And Snails And The Unbearable Heaviness Of Roman Polanski
• Mother Henna:  Silent Truth is No Longer Silent
• No Titles:  What Writers Need to Do
• Positively Present: Light Up Your Life – 5 Ways to Make Your Path Brighter
• Rabbit Write:  Stupid Girl
• Yes and Yes:  The Five Beauty Tips That I Know

That’s all for this week, kids!  Enjoy your weekend and roll around in some of those newly-fallen leaves for me.

Edited: October 2nd, 2009

Banned Books Week

September 28 – October 3 is Banned Books Week in North America [I know, I know, it's practically over.  My site exploded, gimme a break!]. It’s a great time to reflect on the reasons great literature is attacked and what it says about us as a society. There are at least 400 challenges made to literature every year, largely by parents (57%) and against schools (70%), most of them for language and “age inappropriateness” (fun charts here).

The official 2009 tallies aren’t in yet, but here’s the list of challenged books from 2008 and the reasons for their status:

1. And Tango Makes Three, by Justin Richardson and Peter Parnell (anti-ethnic, anti-family, homosexuality, religious viewpoint, and unsuited to age group)
2. His Dark Materials trilogy, by Philip Pullman (political viewpoint, religious viewpoint, and violence)
3. TTYL; TTFN; L8R, G8R (series), by Lauren Myracle (offensive language, sexually explicit, and unsuited to age group)
4. Scary Stories (series), by Alvin Schwartz (occult/satanism, religious viewpoint, and violence)
5. Bless Me, Ultima, by Rudolfo Anaya (occult/satanism, offensive language, religious viewpoint, sexually explicit, and violence)
6. The Perks of Being a Wallflower, by Stephen Chbosky (drugs, homosexuality, nudity, offensive language, sexually explicit, suicide, and unsuited to age group)
7. Gossip Girl (series), by Cecily von Ziegesar (offensive language, sexually explicit, and unsuited to age group)
8. Uncle Bobby’s Wedding, by Sarah S. Brannen (homosexuality and unsuited to age group)
9. The Kite Runner, by Khaled Hosseini (offensive language, sexually explicit, and unsuited to age group)
10. Flashcards of My Life, by Charise Mericle Harper (sexually explicit and unsuited to age group)

If you’re not familiar with those challenged titles, perhaps you’re familiar with some of these, all of which have either been challenged or outright banned at various points throughout history:

• The Great Gatsby
• A Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy
• Lolita
• Charlotte’s Web
• Brave New World
• Winnie the Pooh
• The Old Man and the Sea
• The Lord of the Rings (series)
• A Separate Peace
• 1984
• War of the Worlds

Ban attempts get librarians, academics, and booklovers hotter than anything else (and not in a good way) because it reflects the willful ignorance of a society and its attempts to put blinders on our children. We want to “protect” people from “harmful” ideas. Which is a total crock of horseshit.

My mother has a button that she would wear to school when she taught middle school English. It proudly encouraged others to “READ BANNED BOOKS”. Do you, have you, will you?

Take a look at this list of the most commonly challenged books of the 20th century and see how many you’ve read [I’ve read 18 of them]. Aren’t you glad you did?

Edited: October 2nd, 2009