I sometimes think that the great Edward R. Murrow did more long-term harm than good, because he seems to be one shining example of journalism amidst a horde of terrible parasites who have convinced themselves that they're all acting like him.
Murrow stood up against slander and against lies. Most journalists seem to deal shamelessly or obliviously in both.
Which brings me to the "controversy" surrounding Maus. Now, to be crystal clear, all of my contempt in this fisk is aimed entirely at adults, not at the children who are now buying and reading this book. They're kids--they shouldn't have to navigate stupid stuff like this yet. The adults, though...
I came across this article at NPR, and it got on my last nerve, so I decided it called for a fisk--not just because it was painful, but because it seems like very few other people are dealing with this appropriately. Larry Correia was good enough to treat this situation with the appropriate reaction, but many others weren't. So, I decided it was time to throw my take into the mix.
Backwards from the last one. My comments are in italics, and the original article is in plain text.
Why a school
board's ban on 'Maus' may put the book in the hands of more readers
Couldn’t be because journalists portrayed the idea dishonestly or disingenuously to whip up a frenzy against any sort of restraint in school curriculum
and therefore garner more clicks and social clout? Nah.
To be honest, I was going to ignore this whole thing
until I saw Count Dankula picked this up. Then I decided I had to comment on
this, because the articles around this are so disingenuous. Dankula has shown
himself to be a stalwart defender of free speech, but this is not an attack on
free speech. It’s not an attack.
A Tennessee school district's controversial ban on the Holocaust
graphic novel Maus appears to have spurred
efforts to get copies into the hands of more readers nationwide.
Aaannd, we’re already off with a stupid take. The
Tennessee school removed the book from their library and from their eighth-grade
curriculum because of unnecessary swearing and naked mouse pictures. I don’t
mean naked mouse pictures like normal art, a la the mouse Scar almost eats in The
Lion King—it looks more like the naked cats in the 2019 Cats movie.
You know, the one that everyone was universally creeped out by because the CGI
was freaky and the cats were too human-like. It’s in that vein.
Wikipedia has a really eyebrow-raising picture from
inside the book. It’s the first picture you’ll scroll down to at this link. Oh, and here are some
more from Rebel News.
Eighth graders. This was required reading for
eighth graders.
Now, it would be one thing if the local government
of this district had banned the book from the entire area, forbidden adults
from reading it or forbidden kids from reading it on their own time. That’s one
thing. But that is not what happened. It was just simply made that the
school would not provide it for kids to access. Schools. Can. Do. That. Schools
are not obliged to provide the same services as bookstores. Schools are allowed
to limit the activities and materials on their campuses. Especially for eighth
graders.
News of the McMinn County School Board's unanimous vote to
remove Maus from its curriculum
What?! Is that an honest phrase there? Not that they
banned it, but that they removed it from the curriculum?
— and replace it with
something else —
According to the School Board’s (admittedly
retroactive) statement, that “something else” would “accomplish
the same educational goals in a more age-appropriate fashion”
(the entire statement is worth reading).
earlier this month made headlines last week as the world was
preparing to mark International Holocaust Remembrance Day.
If those headlines include the word “ban”, they were
disingenuous. But we all know that headlines don’t have to be accurate.
The Pulitzer Prize-winning book tells the story of author Art
Spiegelman's relationship with his father, a Holocaust survivor, by depicting
Jews as mice and Nazis as cats. The school board reportedly objected to eight
curse words and nude imagery of a woman, used in the depiction of the author's
mother's suicide.
"Reportedly" objected to eight curse words and nude imagery? Another article says those objections came from the publicly available minutes from their meeting. How is that "reportedly" objecting to the curse words and nudity? Or did this NPR journalist just not go to the minutes?
Also, schools are perfectly allowed to ban books with those words
and images. It may be only a few, but schools can still do that. It’s their
curriculum. Unless the students aren’t reading a single book outside of what
the school requires them to read (which is a different problem entirely), they
can still get their hands on this book.
Spiegelman told NPR and WBUR's Here and Now that the board's decision is "not good for their children,
even if they think it is."
Oh, okay, if he says so. Meanwhile, those people who
actually know their kids and live in that district—they can’t know as much as
this author whose parents survived the Holocaust.
The U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, the Anti-Defamation League, the NAACP and other groups have
criticized the ban,
It’s not a ban.
noting the important role the book — which was originally
published in serial form beginning in the 1980s — plays in teaching students
about the Holocaust.
When I was in eighth grade, I read Night
by Ellie Wiesel, who survived Auschwitz. I think there may have been a little
swearing, and there was definitely some description of nudity, but it wasn’t
visible.
Alternatively, there’s The
Hiding Place, which has a description of Ravensbruck, and a description of
being forced to walk naked without actually showing it.
Maus now appears to be in even greater demand, and, in some
cases, supply, in Tennessee and beyond. Online sales are skyrocketing, and
multiple bookstores are giving away free copies to students.
It doesn’t bother me that students (who definitely
already know what those things are) are reading these books. It bothers me that
people are sooooooo offended that students aren’t required to read that at
school. It bothers me that people seem to believe it is necessary for kids
to read this specific Holocaust book.
Spiegelman told CNBC that he was heartened
by the response, noting it's not the first of its kind.
"The schoolboard could've checked with their book-banning
predecessor, [Russian President] Vladimir Putin," he wrote. "He made
the Russian edition of Maus illegal in 2015 (also with good intentions —
banning swastikas) and the small publisher sold out immediately and has had to
reprint repeatedly."
That is a false analogy. There is a huge
difference between a national leader banning the book in his entire country for
all people there and a school board deciding that the students couldn’t get
that book from the school itself and maybe couldn’t bring that book into the
school.
Backlash to the ban
has spurred book sales and donations
It’s not
a ban.
As criticism of the ban spread across the internet, it appears
that many readers rushed to order copies for themselves.
It’s not a ban.
The Complete Maus had been the No. 1 bestseller on Amazon's online
bookstore on Monday morning, moving up from the seventh spot on Friday.
The top three bestsellers in the "Literary
Graphic Novels" section are The
Complete Maus, Maus I and Maus II.
Other booksellers are taking steps to get the book and its important message into the hands of more readers.
Night had the same message. The Hiding Place had
the same message. But those just don’t count because…?
Ryan Higgins, the owner of a California comic book shop,
offered via Twitter to donate up to 100
copies of The
Complete Maus to
families in the McMinn County area. Illustrator Mitch Gerads and screenwriter Gary Whitta have made similar
offers.
Are you implying that parents can’t just go buy the
book in their own county because the school isn’t having it as part of their
curriculum? That’s rather condescending…
Fairytales Bookstore and More in Nashville is partnering with
school librarians to give away free copies of Maus to local students, and
patrons are encouraged to donate to the cause at a discounted price.
Does anyone remember that scene in The
Order of the Phoenix, when that magazine with Harry’s interview was suddenly
all over the school? It was all over the school simply because Umbridge banned
it. But, if you remember the scene correctly, you’ll note that Umbridge said,
“All students in possession of the magazine The Quibbler will be
expelled.”
We’re getting the same reaction, but to a completely
different situation. The book wasn’t banned. Students aren’t expelled just for
having it. As far as I can tell, they aren’t even being punished for having it
even in school. It was only removed from the required reading.
Nirvana Comics in Knoxville announced last week that it had started a
program to loan or donate a copy of the book to any student who requests it
and, within a day, had received donations from all over the world.
Wow. This isn’t overkill at all, no…
Imagine, for one moment, that this kind of reaction
came in response to Macbeth being replaced with Richard III…
It later started an online fundraising page to support the purchase
of copies for students locally and nationwide, and has nearly quadrupled its
financial goal with more than $79,000 raised as of Monday morning. Organizers
said all extra funds will go to local and state organizations to help support
untold stories.
Wow, there are a lot of people who don’t read past
headlines!
“Help support untold stories.” The Holocaust is
nothing like an untold story! There are other options to tell this story.
The mere fact that this specific Holocaust book isn’t required reading
for eighth graders doesn’t mean that it’s banned!
As most of this article keeps proving!
Do you remember this
story about removing another book from an elementary
school curriculum? I bet you don’t, and in all probability have never even
heard of it. This was the appropriate response. This was appropriate reporting.
The nonsense over Maus is entirely overblown.
"We thought this would be a local support to help a
magnificent piece of literature stay in the hands of students in the McMinn
county," they wrote on Saturday.
Because it’s no longer required reading, it’s
no longer in the community?!
"But ... this has become a global priority!"
I couldn’t possibly ask for a better sentence to
prove that people’s reaction is total overkill. Making it no longer required
reading for kids in one grade in one tiny county in one state is now spreading
this to kids all around the country.
Rich Davis, who owns Nirvana Comics and has led the campaign,
told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency that because the county
is only home to about 50,000 people, the outpouring of support could
potentially make it possible "to donate a copy of 'Maus' to every kid in
McMinn County."
As I said, overkill. And why are they donating these
books?
I’m sorry, but just think
about where all this money could have gone.
Educators and
community institutions are also taking action
Others are making an effort to help the community grapple with
the lessons of Maus and what its removal from the curriculum represents.
What… what it represents? It represents absolutely
nothing! Are they no longer letting you teach the Holocaust? Is the entire
subject of the Holocaust now banned? Is it utterly impossible to teach the
Holocaust without this one book? Can it not be replaced with something like Night?
Is there absolutely nothing else that kids could read?
Scott Denham, a Holocaust and German
studies professor at North Carolina's Davidson College, is offering a free
online course for McMinn County eighth-graders and high school students who are
interested in reading the Maus books.
This goes to show one of two things: a) having a
degree doesn’t make you smarter, or b) college professors are not above using
controversy to increase their prestige or self-image.
"I have taught Spiegelman's books many times in my courses
on the Holocaust over many years," he wrote on a website created for the course.
Denham referred to the course as "a work in progress"
that will only be open to McMinn County students who apply. It will involve
asynchronous tools like a discussion blog and video mini-lectures, as well as
live spaces like Zoom meetings.
Because the one thing eighth graders need after this
is more online school. I sure hope they’re keeping up in their actual
assignments. And why is it only open to students from this one county? What
about the hundreds of counties who don’t have this book as required
reading? After all, if this book is sooooooo important for teaching the
Holocaust, surely you should be worried about the counties that never
had it, not just the county that no longer has it? Right?
Okay, to be fair to the professor—maybe it’s because
this is just a work in progress. But why do you only care now? Why didn’t you
care before this?
Denham expects the primary texts to be Maus I and Maus II but says it might also
include Metamaus if there is
availability at the county's E.G. Fisher Public Library, which "has begun
receiving donated copies of the books thanks to many generous people."
Author Nancy Levine posted a note on Twitter that she
said was from the public library, saying it had received many offers to
purchase Maus and expects to see
"several copies arriving in the coming days."
In lieu of additional copies, the library is asking for monetary
donations in support of its "collection, educational programming and
access to the internet and technology."
Alone in the foolishness of this overall story, this
paragraph made me so happy. It seems as though the library has its head on
straight. This book isn’t banned, and the money going to purchase and donate
this specific book can be better used for other educational purposes. I’m sure
the library can come up with a lot of good uses for that money that will serve
the community.
If only other places had thought the same. If only
other places who received money because of Maus had decided
to funnel that money more effectively.
There are other community events in the works.
Spiegelman told CNBC that his lecture agent is trying to
coordinate a public Zoom event for the McMinn County area, in which he will
"talk and take questions about Maus with local citizens (hopefully teachers, students, clergy,
etc.) in the next couple weeks."
Which just makes his earlier comparison to Putin
even more ridiculous. Do you think Putin would allow for a Zoom event about a
book that he banned? I can’t tell if Spiegelman is really this uncritical or if
he’s just using this for publicity and book sales. (Which, I mean…)
In the meantime, St. Paul's Episcopal Church in McMinn County is
planning to hold a discussion event of its own on Thursday.
If they included the word “banned” with no critical
commentary, then their discussion was as useless as these headlines.
Organizers told NBC affiliate WIBR that many churches may
see the events the book depicts as "not their concern,"
It is absolutely not their concern.
despite the prevalence of antisemitism in and beyond Tennessee.
What?! Citation needed! Also, again—is it impossible
to teach tolerance without nudity, casual sex, and swearing? Is it
absolutely essential to read this exact book in order to teach
tolerance of Jews?
"We are committed to standing against hatred and
harm," they said.
And apparently, we can only
do that if kids read this specific book, and not Night or something
else.
"Together, let's dive into this story so that we might
better live out that call in our time and community."
“Let’s dive into this story”! I agree. Dive into the
story. Look past the poisonous headlines. Analyze the facts. Be calm and
rational. And understand that it wasn’t a ban.
Like I said at the beginning, I was going to leave
this one alone, but when no one famous defended the school board or suggested
that the hysteria was completely uncalled-for, I had to speak my mind, if only
to get it off my chest.
Look, I get that kids know about the stuff
that the board objected to. I get that it has to be frustrating for the
teachers to be forced to change their curriculum, especially a long-lasting
curriculum. As long as parents were properly informed about the contents of the
book, then I personally don’t think this is highly inappropriate for eighth
graders (especially in compared with other stuff out there).
But the way the newspapers have been treating the
school board—the constant use of the word “banned”—the overkill from people who
should know better—all of this is just upsetting.
