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Banned Books Awareness: “The Fat Years”

February 13, 2012 R. Wolf Baldassarro 3

To “rush through the yellow light” is a reference to a common practice for the more daring Chinese journalists who write about sensitive topics before state officials flash the red light of censorship. That’s what happened to “The Fat Years,” a dystopian thriller by Chan Koon-Chung, which is now officially […]

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Banned Books Awareness: Revising history

February 6, 2012 R. Wolf Baldassarro 10

Most people are familiar with the classic saying, “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it,” uttered by George Santayana. He, himself, identified as an American and wrote exclusively in English, but the famous philosopher was born in Madrid and was a lifelong Spanish citizen even though […]

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Banned Books Awareness: “Waterland”

January 30, 2012 R. Wolf Baldassarro 17

Last week I reported that the Plymouth-Canton Schools in Michigan resolved a challenge to the book Beloved; but the same parents that objected to that title also have their torches aimed at another novel- Waterland, by Graham Swift. Matt Dame, along with his wife, Barb, complained that “Beloved” was inappropriate […]

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Banned Books Awareness: “Beloved”

January 22, 2012 R. Wolf Baldassarro 4

Students at the Plymouth-Canton Schools in Michigan got a crash course in politics this week. That’s because one family launched an official complaint on December 20, 2011 to have the fictional novel Beloved, by Toni Morrison, banned from the AP English curriculum due to racial themes, sexual content, and passages […]