{"id":1285,"date":"2016-05-31T16:21:23","date_gmt":"2016-05-31T20:21:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/bbark.deepforestproductions.com\/column\/?p=1285"},"modified":"2016-05-31T16:21:23","modified_gmt":"2016-05-31T20:21:23","slug":"banned-books-awareness-into-the-river","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bbark.deepforestproductions.com\/column\/2016\/05\/31\/banned-books-awareness-into-the-river\/","title":{"rendered":"Banned Books Awareness: Into the River"},"content":{"rendered":"

Marred by controversy, a Young Adult novel by New Zealand author Ted Dawe, will finally be released to North American bookshelves and tablets on June 14. The award-winning novel follows the story of Te Arepa Santos, holding onto his Maori heritage at a posh Auckland boarding school where bullying is commonplace.
\nInto the River<\/em> won the New Zealand Post Children\u2019s Book award and is aimed at a teenage, largely male audience. Dawe said this audience was hard to reach. \u201cI have taught in secondary schools for the past forty years. Much of this time has been spent encouraging boys to read. Part of the challenge was to find books that \u2018spoke\u2019 to them. This meant books about issues that were relevant to them and written in a style that was authentic,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are many issues that young adults cannot take to other people. They want to do their own thinking about them. There is no better, no more private medium for this than the novel.”<\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

“In this relatively safe context the teenager can navigate through issues such as race, sexual orientation, body issues, class discrimination, and bullying and harassment. They can test their responses against the main characters and calibrate the differences without the need to discuss.
\nThe novel, self-published by Dawe in 2012, Into the River<\/em> was about to become the first book in 22 years to be completely banned.
\nOriginally deemed Mature, but unrestricted, for audiences 16 and older by New Zealand\u2019s censor board, the infamous Office of Film and Literature Classification, noting that the novel contained \u201csex scenes, offensive language, and drug use.\u201d Following an appeal from Family First New Zealand, a conservative organization, it was then rated R14 by the Film and Literature Board of Review in December, 2013, which made it illegal to \u201csell or display the book\u201d to those aged 14 and below, with a fine between $2,000 and $7,000 (USD).
\nAccording to librarians who spoke with Dawe, prior to the restriction, the novel had been \u201cthe most borrowed New Zealand book in the country\u2019s library system.\u201d After a conversation with librarians on the fate of his novel, the Auckland Libraries filed a request in 2015 to re-examine the restrictions, which led to an interim restriction filed by Don Mathieson, president of the Film and Literature Board of Review, making the novel illegal to sell outright, as well as prohibiting the display of the book in a public place. With that, the novel became impossible to obtain within New Zealand.
\nThe small group of protestors in Wellington read the book in plain sight, risking the fine, along with copies of other banned novels from history including Henry Miller’s Tropic of Capricorn<\/em> <\/a>and JD Salinger’s Catcher in the Rye<\/em><\/a>, both of which have been previously covered by this column.
\nThe restriction \u201ccame like a bolt from the blue,\u201d Dawe says, not only to himself, but to the \u201centire New Zealand literary establishment,\u201d eventually inspiring protests by bookstores and outcries from the New Zealand Book Council and the Publishers Association of New Zealand. The socio-political fallout resulted in worldwide media coverage, including from the Guardian <\/a>and the New York Observer<\/a>, among other sources. Random House New Zealand acquired the book from Dawe in September 2015, and sold North American rights to Polis Books<\/a>.
\nLast October, New Zealand\u2019s Board of Review voted to remove the interim restriction, despite a obstinate opinion by Mathieson, on the grounds that scenes from Into the River, while they may be offensive to some, act more as a cautionary tale. In terms of objectionable scenes, the Board argued, \u201cwe consider they are there as a genuine depiction of some of the dangers that young teenagers may have to face, and to warn of the dangers and wrongfulness of such behaviors.\u201d
\nOf the restriction\u2019s removal, Dawe says, \u201cThe book is now regarded as something of a milestone in New Zealand literary history and has prompted much debate on the nature of YA fiction.\u201d
\nAs the debate spread after the restriction last September, everyone was weighing in on the issue.
\nMedia law expert Professor Ursula Cheer told the New Zealand Herald<\/a> it\u00a0was legal to possess a copy of the book for your personal use but not to supply it to anyone else.
\n\u201cHaving it for your own personal use is okay,\u201d she said. \u201cPassing it around to your friends is not.\u201d
\nIt\u2019s a book, not a joint.<\/em>
\nNew Zealand comedian Raybon Kan tweeted<\/a>: \u201cAs soon as possible, I intend to read Into the River. (Starting with all the pages that fall open by themselves.)\u201d
\nThe lifting of the ban was great news for New Zealand readers, but expect the controversy to factor into the marketing of the novel in the United States, which has had a resurgence of censorship issues on both the left and right side of the political spectrum.
\nOh, look. Someone left a book open. Perhaps eyes and minds will follow.<\/p>\n

Sources: Publisher\u2019s Weekly<\/a>, STUFF (NZ)<\/a>, BBC<\/a>, The Guardian<\/a><\/em>
\n \u00a9 2016 R. Wolf Baldassarro\/Deep Forest Productions<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Marred by controversy, a Young Adult novel by New Zealand author Ted Dawe, will finally be released to North American bookshelves and tablets on June 14. The award-winning novel follows the story of Te Arepa Santos, holding onto his Maori heritage at a posh Auckland boarding school where bullying is […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1286,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[377,378,379,381,2,380],"tags":[388,391,389,390],"class_list":["post-1285","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-banned-books","category-banned-books-awareness-and-reading-for-knowledge","category-censorship","category-literacy","category-social-change","category-society","tag-into-the-river","tag-maori","tag-new-zealand","tag-ted-dawe"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/bbark.deepforestproductions.com\/column\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/40623-1.jpg?fit=200%2C317&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bbark.deepforestproductions.com\/column\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1285","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bbark.deepforestproductions.com\/column\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bbark.deepforestproductions.com\/column\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bbark.deepforestproductions.com\/column\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bbark.deepforestproductions.com\/column\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1285"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/bbark.deepforestproductions.com\/column\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1285\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1289,"href":"https:\/\/bbark.deepforestproductions.com\/column\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1285\/revisions\/1289"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bbark.deepforestproductions.com\/column\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1286"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bbark.deepforestproductions.com\/column\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1285"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bbark.deepforestproductions.com\/column\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1285"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bbark.deepforestproductions.com\/column\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1285"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}