Isabel Allende responds to book challenge in North Carolina.
Last week, several of Watauga County’s commissioners even stepped into the fray. Commissioner David Blust, called for a book rating system and argued that the book offered no life lessons. “It’s filth…. Honestly, what normal family is like this book? The Manson family, maybe, Ted Bundy? I think this is just so wrong,” he told the local Watauga Democrat.
Another, Chairman Nathan Miller, said the book’s inclusion in the curriculum was such an “egregious violation” that he recommended the district dispense with its usual book review policy. And Commissioner Perry Yates called the book “despicable.”
THE MANSONS? TED BUNDY? SERIOUSLY?
ALSO. WHAT'S THE POINT OF HAVING A CHALLENGE POLICY IF DUDES JUST WANT TO THROW IT UNDER THE BUS WHENEVER THEY, PERSONALLY, DON'T LIKE THE BOOK? BAH.
Anyway. So, you know: the conversation has apparently gotten a tad heated.
From Allende's letter (which is reprinted in its entirety at SLJ:
As you know, it takes just one parent who disapproves of a book to pressure the school and eventually the Board of Education. In this case one person has circulated fragments of the novel—taken out of context—among parents who probably have not read the book. The fragments refer mostly to sexual content. The plan is to gather support to ban the book completely, even as optional reading. Since today TV series, movies, videogames and comics exploit sex and violence, including torture and rape, as forms of entertainment, I don’t think that young adults will be particularly offended by the strong scenes from The House of the Spirits, which are always part of the historical and political content of the novel.