I have never read an Updike book myself, so I don't really know what is in them and I don't know if a 12 or 13 year old would be interested in them or not. However, what is the problem? As I have pointed out before, if a young child tries to read an adult book the probability is that he or she will not understand it and will become bored with it and then stop reading it. No harm is done. In college I had to take organic chemistry classes. I had a horrible time understanding those courses and was extremely bored, but somehow I made it through and actually passed. As tortuous as it was no harm was done to me or anyone else that I struggled through those courses. Similarly, most young children will face the same kind of boredom if they try to read an adult book and if they are not being forced to finish it they won't. They will quit and go back to something they can understand and enjoy. If Updike is beyond 12 and 13 year olds the same thing will happen. The point is that an occasional child will be precocious enough to understand, enjoy and benefit from adult books. A policy that bans them from even getting a chance to try those books simply because of their status is completely unfair to them and interferes with whatever benefit they might gain by exercising their precociousness. Maybe some 12 or 13 year olds will be unable to fathom Updike and maybe some will. Let them find out for themselves. As for whether you would want them reading Updike or not is irrelevant. You may read what you like, but you do not have the right to interfere with what others read. There are a lot of books that I would not like people reading too, regardless of their age. Those books that were mentioned as promoting hate are examples. I am supposing that what is meant is racist hate mongering. I would also prefer it if people would just stop reading religious, occult and right-wing political diatribes. But I don't have the right to stop anyone. I will not try to stop anyone. It is unfortunate that much of that kind of material is exactly the kind of thing that inspires people to become censors and to advocate censorship in the first place. But if I am going to be against censorship I must require myself to even be against the censorship of pro-censorship materials. About as far as I can allow myself to go is to insist that I have no obligation to make such materials available. In interest of that I do not scan or submit racist, religious or right-wing material. I will not object to others doing so though. And I will do nothing to prevent anyone from reading it.
_ _ _ "Socialism is an attack on poverty." - W. E. B. Du Bois The Militant: http://www.themilitant.com Pathfinder Press: http://www.pathfinderpress.com Granma International: http://www.granma.cu/ingles/index.html----- Original Message ----- From: "Candice Attrill" <candicat87@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: <bksvol-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> Sent: Monday, June 28, 2010 5:29 PM Subject: [bksvol-discuss] Re: opening a can of worms I expect
I understand what you mean, but i think it would become confusing to say what's in kids is in kids and if it isn't classified that way it's not. I'd find nothing wrong with a teenager for example though reading shakespear or Nicolase Sparks, but might take issue with a young (12 13)year old reading an Updike book. I found one at 13, and still hide from them, but I know that's a personal thing and not bookshare's doing My point with that is by your first email saying not to mark anything adult because none of the above authors would be listed under kids it doesn't mean that the material is just as abrasive for each author. On 6/28/10, Roger Loran Bailey <rogerbailey81@xxxxxxx> wrote:No, it is not censorship to say that a book has certain content. As I have said before, if it was only a matter of providing information I would have no problem with marking books as adult myself. I think it would be overkill because there is already a children's category and, even though some booksmight be miscategorized, it is generally the case that books in the children's category are for children and books that are not in the children's category are for adults, but at least redundant information isharmless. The problem is that when a book is marked as adult on Bookshare a large number of people are prohibited from accessing it on the sole basis of their status. That is censorship. Okay, parents can go through some process that is not entirely clear to permit their offspring to access these books. The parents, however, are not the ones reading the books. That is censorship too. When I was in the position of playing a parentlike role for a certainchild I did encourage her to read and I never shied away from making recommendations, but I most certainly never either prohibited her fromreading anything she wanted to read nor insisted that she read anything thatI chose and that she was uninterested in. _ _ _ "Socialism is an attack on poverty." - W. E. B. Du Bois The Militant: http://www.themilitant.com Pathfinder Press: http://www.pathfinderpress.com Granma International: http://www.granma.cu/ingles/index.html ----- Original Message ----- From: "Candice A" <candicat87@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> To: <bksvol-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> Sent: Monday, June 28, 2010 5:04 AM Subject: [bksvol-discuss] Re: opening a can of worms I expectIs it ubserd to mark it that when at times adults who are offended by suchmaterial can filter it out of their search result and parents can sign awaver saying their child can read it? I don't think it's sensor ship justto say that it has cirtain types of content. No different than movies saying violence and nudity etc. It's letting you know it is there. In general the person, or the kid's parrents can make the choice on whetheror not the person reads it. I just don't want to miss mark something whichis why I asked here. ----- Original Message ----- From: "Roger Loran Bailey" <rogerbailey81@xxxxxxx> To: <bksvol-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> Sent: Sunday, June 27, 2010 10:06 PM Subject: [bksvol-discuss] Re: opening a can of worms I expectAmazon doesn't ask you how old you are before they sell you a book. Thatis just another example of why this whole adult designation business is so absurd. _ _ _ "Socialism is an attack on poverty." - W. E. B. Du Bois The Militant: http://www.themilitant.com Pathfinder Press: http://www.pathfinderpress.com Granma International: http://www.granma.cu/ingles/index.html ----- Original Message ----- From: "Candice A" <candicat87@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> To: <bksvol-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> Sent: Sunday, June 27, 2010 9:50 PM Subject: [bksvol-discuss] Re: opening a can of worms I expect I buy all of my books from amazon.com does it mark books restricted? i haven't really bought anything really steemy there. book wise. ----- Original Message ----- From: Shelley L. Rhodes To: bksvol-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx Sent: Sunday, June 27, 2010 9:19 PM Subject: [bksvol-discuss] Re: opening a can of worms I expect You have definitely opened a can of worms, smile. My theory is if I bought it in a restricted section of a library or bookstore then I am going to mark it adult. If I didn't then it is not marked adult. Shelley L. Rhodes, VRT and Ludden Black Labrador Guide DogThe ultimate sense of security will be when we come to recognize that weare all part of one human race. Our primary allegiance is to the human race and not to one particular color or border. -Mohamed ElBaradei, Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (b. 1942) ----- Original Message ----- From: Candice A To: bksvol-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx Sent: Saturday, June 26, 2010 11:01 PM Subject: [bksvol-discuss] opening a can of worms I expect Hello all, There has been a discussion on mine and a few other's twitters that got me wanting a bit more clarification on this. In the manual it states that adult content is anything sexuallyexplissit or that insites hate. Now the sexually explissit part is quiteeasy to understand, but the second part seems much less clear. It says ifwe're not sure to just leave it marked as adult, but I've been told somany different things over the years it's hard to really tell anymore. I know this is comparing 2 vastly different programs, but I'll give you theexample that when I was fifteen my parents thought I was reading racey material so put an adult blocker on my account with nls.A year later I called them requesting the bible, but because the biblehad violence and strong language I was not allowed to take it out on loneuntil I was eighteen. I also worked at a library where they always woulddo a check on a book for anyone under eighteen before letting them takethe book out including myself and I don't know what guidelines they used.So as for the hate thing does it become if there are race riotts in the book? Is it if there is one religion that hates another? Are all books with nazis out? I mean I know this can't be the case for educational purposes, but is the line drawn at talking about what hate speech and activities are or if they happen in the content of the book? 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