Monday, November 22, 2010

Silly Seattleites

I'm going to do a local puff piece, ready? It was between this and a grizzly Monday morning pick-axe murder — we needn't entertain morbidity, no matter how pressing or, local.

They never cease to amuse. Here's the play-by-play in handy bullet point, public school style simplicity:

I did not draw this. I found it on the internet.
  • Native American 10th grader reads Huxley's Brave New World, doesn't like it.
  • Mother complains to school, "Wasn't Huxley into Ahimsa... I don't like the Hindu-hippie bullshit!". Actually, she said this:
    • the book has a "high volume of racially offensive derogatory language and misinformation on Native Americans. In addition to the inaccurate imagery, and stereotype views, the text lacks literary value which is relevant to today's contemporary multicultural society." 
  • School officials send a letter to Huxley, asking him to, quote, leave this place. After Huxley failed to pick up the books, they banned it. (I will note: this school is named after Nathan Hale — the American revolutionary/spy that the Commie Red Coats hugged hung in 1776)
  • Mother — now on a roll and feeling the awesome power of forcing appeasers to appease — requests (demand might be a better word) that the book be removed from the entire Seattle school district curriculum. Her "resettlement" plan for the books — based on the following quote — remains unclear:
    • "We're not trying to in any way censor that book, we're just saying it does not belong in high school." 
  • Mom (real name: Sarah Sense-Wilson) cites a study she recently completed:
    • "Most of the kids I've talked to don't even like the book so I doubt it would even get an audience in the library."
  • Ostensibly, one Seattle School District meeting did not allow enough time for deliberation, the decision on whether to remove the book is pending. 
Based on the "comments" I've read, it seems like Seattle's snarkiest are actually against exiling the book — they either like the book, hate Native Americans, or both.

Now, I'm with Sarah Sense, getting this book out of the classroom is the right move. I mean don't you know that Ridley Scott is taking the book directly to the people via the Big Screen? Ridley Scott + Leonardo DiCaprio = A better sci-fi boner than I got from Blade Runner. If the kids read the book, that will ruin the movie!

Hot Sauce!

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