School Bans Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse-5, So Vonnegut Library Gives Copies to Students for Free
August 10th, 2011Via: io9:
Most of us regard Kurt Vonnegut’s classic novel Slaughterhouse-Five as a masterpiece of thought-provoking science fiction, but the School Board of Republic High School in Missouri felt differently. They decided to ban the novel.
And in response, the Vonnegut Memorial Library offered to provide a free copy to any of the 150 students who were originally supposed to read it.
Vonnegut’s novel filters his World War II trauma through the lens of time travel and alien abduction, and in the process creates some fascinating insights into trauma, history and brutality. But the high school banned the book for creating “false conceptions of American history and government or that teach principles contrary to Biblical morality and truth.”
You can’t fault them; they needed room for more Bibles. I wonder if Vonnegut would find any pride in seeing his book standing among such banned peers as Mark Twain’s Huck Finn. These are books that catalyze minds with ideas that are dangerous to the status quo.
Of course, actually reading the Bible makes Slaughterhouse V seem like The Cat in the Hat, especially in regards to false conceptions of history and government and teaching principles contrary to morality and truth.
when i was in high school, which wasn’t THAT long ago, we were required to read slaughterhouse 5 in the advanced classes.
wtf happened??
The whole “Biblical morality and truth” thing is par for the course with the “ban it or burn it” crowd. Perhaps they made a point of banning an acknowledged classic of modern literature simply because they couldn’t understand the book.
If someone had stood up and mentioned in a holier-than-thou sort of way that he was a WWII vet who fought in Europe, perhaps they might not have cut him some slack. Or not.
Heaven knows, the black & white Spartan mindset in full Biblical regalia here has never been much for shades of gray. She’s a witch, burn her!
I will, as one that believes Jesus Christ is who he says he is, say that folks like this and the fake Christian right and such paint Christ incorrectly.
Christ wouldn’t have banned it. Period. He’s all about examining truth. You should have the freedom to, of your own will, decide for yourself what you want to believe in. There always was that option. Accept the Biblical Truth or accept another way. Your choice.
I’ve got a Koran and a bunch of other texts, have read some of them, don’t accept them.
It doesn’t have to be “ban it or burn it”, “us or the terrorists.”