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Dropped $40 on a censored graphic novel from a banned book list, ended up agreeing with the school board after reading it.
The violence in Maus was way more graphic than I expected, and after flipping through it I can see why some parents in my town got upset, even though I still think banning it outright was a step too far, but has anyone else read something from a banned list and felt kinda conflicted afterwards?
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charles_chen935d ago
A friend loaned me a copy of "The Handmaid's Tale" that was on a banned list and I got why some people found it intense, but the uncomfortable parts made the point stronger in my opinion. The book was rough to get through but that's kind of the whole purpose of it, to make you feel something. Your mileage may vary, but sometimes the stuff that gets challenged is the stuff that actually needs to be read.
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roberts.jordan5d ago
The Handmaid's Tale example is interesting because that one's more about themes than straight-up graphic imagery like Maus has. But here's the thing I keep wondering with these debates: where do we draw the line between "this made me uncomfortable on purpose" and "this is just too much for a kid to process"? Because Maus has those panels of mice being hanged and it's not a metaphor, it's literally showing genocide in a way that hits different than reading about it. Did the discomfort you felt reading Handmaid's Tale feel different from the kind of discomfort that makes parents call for a ban, or is it all the same reaction just aimed at different buttons?
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