Banned Books Week!

This week, September 25- October 1, is banned books week.

There are a lot of reasons books get banned, but what it all boils down to is that something offends someone.  Usually they’re big themes, like language, sexuality, racial or ethnic tensions, violence, religion, or addiction.  But the one thing that all banned books have in common is that someone, somewhere, found value in what the author had to say.

I’m anti-censorship.  I think that the only kind of censorship that should exist is personal censorship.  By that, I mean that if you don’t want to read it (or don’t want your minor children to read it), then don’t.  Most schools, even if a books is assigned, will allow a child to read an alternate if their parent objects.  But don’t negate my reality, or what I want to learn about the world, by demanding it be pulled out of schools, taken off the shelf at libraries, unwelcome in a bookstore.

Provocative themes make us think.  They expand the world, get us talking.

I haven’t liked every book I’ve ever read.  Some of them have even offended me.  But that doesn’t mean I want to control someone else’s exposure to it.  In reality, we’re more and more exposed to all kinds of themes and content.  On the internet, on TV, on billboards, through overheard conversations in a restaurant, on social media.

The upside of that is that there are all these wonderful ideas floating around, being shared.

The downside of that is that there are some offensive ideas floating around too.

I believe in balance, and that we can’t have one without the other.  In the interest of being able to obtain all those wonderful ideas, I’ll deal with the ones I don’t like too.

Just because it offends me, doesn’t mean if will offend you.

And vice versa.

Exposure to a variety of ideas encourages independent thinking, synthesis, discussion, and sometimes debate.

Let’s not lose sight of that.

Here’s a link to the most challenged books of 2015.

Here’s a link to the most challenged books of 2000- 2009.

What do you think about challenged books and censorship?

French Fries, Salad, and How This Post is Actually About Books

I’ve said time and time again that I prefer novels to “literature” because novels tend to contain plot, whereas much literature focuses on language.  That’s true, and I stand behind that.  However, many classics and literary fiction, I’m finding, also contain ideas.  I love ideas and thought exercises.  In looking at the books I most enjoy, they blend plot and character with ideas.  The books aren’t just about Jane Doe who does something and interacts with Jack and Jill and does some stuff.  The books I love most are about concepts.

The Fault in Our Stars, for example, was laced with existentialism.  I read complaints that teenagers don’t really talk the way August and Hazel do, but I disagree.  As a teenager, I was an amateur philosopher, discussing grand ideas with my friends.  As two teens intimately acquainted with dying, I can believe that August and Hazel would look to symbolism and philosophy to find their place in the world.

I’ve realized recently that many of the books I read most are not the ones I actually enjoy the most.  I really like reading romance novels.  They’re easy to get through, fun to read, and fast.  But on the enjoyment scale, most of them hit around a 3 out of 5, meaning I liked them but didn’t love them.  Same with many YA novels.  In contrast, books like Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, The Martian by Andy Weir, and Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel are among the books I enjoyed most last year, because they’re about concepts and ideas as well as plot and character.  They’re about racism, loneliness, isolation, the characters’ places in the world while being narrated by an engaging person in an interesting plot.

One of the things I like best about my book club is that the other women pick books I’d probably never choose to read on my own.  Some of those books have ended up being favorites of mine.  Or if not favorites, have made me think.

Now, how does this post relate to the title?  Well, French fries are my favorite food.  I could eat them all day, every day, except that they’re not actually that good for me.  I love salad, but it never seems as appealing to eat as French fries do.  Yet, sometimes when I dig into a salad and taste all those fresh flavors, I’m reminded of why I love them so.

Books are kind of like that.  While there’s nothing wrong with junk food novels, when I fill up on them, I don’t have any room left over for the good stuff.  Yeah, sometimes those other books end up being bland and flat, but every once in awhile, I find one that’s so fresh, full of invigorating ideas, that it causes me to look at the world differently.

I live for those books.

 

Apparently I Can Only Do One Thing At a Time. Maybe Two.

In the woods near my house
Photo Credit: Doree Weller

So, as you might be able to tell by the title, I’ve been having some trouble with multitasking.  I’m getting a lot written on my novel, and I’m almost done, which is super exciting to me.  However, I have not been blogging.  Or doing stuff in, you know, my real life.

I wrote a while ago about how I needed to go on a technology diet, to leave space for creativity in my head when I was being quiet and not occupying it with Candy Crush or checking Facebook.  I was somewhat successful with that.

I’ve found something my muse has liked recently, and that’s taking walks in the pool.  I’m always on the lookout for exercise I enjoy, and since I hate exercise, that doesn’t happen often.  I used to go on hikes with my brother, but since I moved out of Arizona, that doesn’t happen anymore.  😦  I hadn’t found anything to replace those weekly hikes, and I had put on a few pounds.  I tried walking at home, but I hate the humidity, and I hate feeling soaked in sweat.  I joined a gym that had cycling classes and yoga, and while I liked them, I got bored with them after awhile.  Then I broke my finger and couldn’t do yoga anymore, so I quit.

We have a neighborhood pool, and it’s hot here in Texas, so one morning, I decided to go out and walk the pool.  I walked for a half hour, and during that time, I had lots of ideas come to me.  My characters started speaking to me, and I came up with scenes that my book had been missing.  (The only problem is that I have to remember them when I get out of the pool.  Taking a pen and paper in with me doesn’t work that well.  Not that I tried it.)

I love that I’m super productive with my book and getting some exercise.  I just wish I was good at doing more than one thing at a time.

Drawing a Blank

“An essential aspect of creativity is not being afraid to fail.” -Edwin Land

I’ve been drawing a blank about what to blog about lately. I have an idea, and sit down to write about it, but then don’t like it for one reason or another. I don’t like my tone or I feel as if I’m going off on a tangent.

I guess we all probably feel that way sometimes.

Maybe it’s because I was on vacation last week. Before I went on vacation, I had no problems writing blogs, and I did a bunch ahead, figuring that I’d have plenty of time to write more ahead so I wouldn’t have to come up with something once I was back to work.

Oh, I was so wrong.

I didn’t do any blogging during my vacation. I tried to brainstorm, and even sat down a few times. Though I did come up with a few, I didn’t think they were very good.

So here I am, writing about not having anything to write about.

As I usually do when I have a question, I turned to Google. This is what I came up with:

Combat Writer’s Block

Fight Writer’s Block

I found the first link the most helpful, and ended up sitting down and writing 5 blogs throughout the day.  The most important thing when drawing a blank is to  just keep writing something, because eventually, something decent will come out.

What do you do when you get stuck?

Knowing Too Much Can Take Away The Magic

I re-watched the original Sabrina tonight.  It’s got Humphrey Bogart, William Holden and Audrey Hepburn, two wonderful actors.  I can’t remember last time I saw that version of it.  I think I like the more modern version with Harrison Ford, Greg Kinnear, and Julia Ormond a bit better.

I did enjoy the movie, and then I did what I always do… I went to the Internet Movie Database to look up trivia about the movie.  Usually, there are fun facts such as other actors who were considered for the part or something about the place it was filmed.  For this particular movie, the trivia talks about how Humphrey Bogart didn’t like his two fellow actors, and that he thought Audrey Hepburn couldn’t act.

Maybe it was true… or maybe Humphrey Bogart was a jerk, but either way, it sort of takes the magic away.  I was left a little deflated, some of my enjoyment of the movie gone.  Authors often get asked where they get their ideas, and I wonder if people really want to know, or if they just want to be part of the magic.

Let’s face it; for those of us who write, it’s no secret where we get our ideas.  Everywhere.  From everything.  Yes, for me it is the Holy Grail of writing when an idea pops into my head fully formed, and it does happen sometimes.  But more often, I’ll be in the middle of a conversation or going somewhere and think, “Hey, what if…?”

Finding ideas can be hard work, but it can also be fun and satisfying to develop and nurture the seeds of an idea into a fully grown flower.  Or, in my case, a twisted misshapen Venus flytrap type object that might bite you if you get too close.  Hey… to each his own!