Every time this happens, Im not sure whether to find it funny or sad.
That would have seemed insane.
And yet, here we inexplicably are.
(L-R) Olivia Cooke, Thomas Mann and RJ Cyler in 2015’s ‘Me and Earl and the Dying Girl’Everett
This barely registers as news to me at this point.
Shutting those windows, to me, is tragic.
But my book is sort of a different case.
(Theyre both straight cisgender boys, one white, one Black.)
I cant stress this enough: these boys have never had sex.
Theyre just trying to make each other laugh by being gross and over-the-top.
If you have ever known or been a teenager, you are probably familiar with this phenomenon.
But theres something troubling about whats happening with my book, too.
Let me take a stab at explain.
Even I have to admit, in that context, my book sounds pretty bad.
But so might a lot of books.
That doesnt mean the Bible actuallyispornography, of course.
That would just show how it can be dishonest and misleading to read something out of context.
This is an important part of what schools call reading comprehension.
Just to define our terms: the function of pornography is to stimulate erotic arousal.
I think this is a totally fair question to ask.
Maybe not most kids.
Who might not otherwise realize that reading can be fun.
And that to me is really important.
We hear this all the time.
So lets talk about the survival of America.
Our country is in a literacy crisis.
To me, this is catastrophic.
As a nation, were bad thinkers, and its because were bad readers.
The notion that books harm kids is utterly perverse.
The harm is done by not teaching them to read.
But this is where Id like to leave you with some hope.
The colossal number of targeted books, disturbing as it is, reflects a deep and optimistic truth.
Gen Alpha, or whatever were calling them, also reads.
This is why the young-adult genre has exploded.
And if you worry that these book bans might slow them down, dont.
Parents should know this already.
There is no force on earth greater than a teenagers will to do something youve told them not to.
So good luck, Moms For Liberty.
Youre fighting the sea.
