Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson - Talking About A Banned Book with Velshi and Author

A COMMENT ABOUT CENSORSHIP - By the Author - These are scary days in which to raise teenagers. I know. I’ve had four of them. Part of the problem is that we have a generation that has been exposed to unprecedented amounts of sexual behavior in the media and on the Internet. They see it, they talk about it, their hormones react, and a lot of kids wind up in painful situations.

Literature is the safe and traditional vehicle through which we learn about the world and pass on values from one generation to the next. Books save lives. Contemporary young adult literature surprises some people, because it is an accurate reflection of the way today’s teenagers talk, think, and behave. But these books must be honest in order to connect to the teen reader. America’s teens are desperate for responsible, trustworthy adults to create situations in which they can discuss the issues that are of the highest concern for them. Reading and discussing books is one of the most effective ways to get teens to think through and learn about the challenges of adolescence. Most of the censorship I see is fear-driven. I respect that. The world is a very scary place. It is a terrifying place in which to raise children, and in particular, teenagers. It is human nature to nurture and protect children as they grow into adulthood. But censoring books that deal with difficult, adolescent issues does not protect anybody. Quite the opposite. It leaves kids in darkness and makes them vulnerable. Censorship is the child of fear and the father of ignorance. Our children cannot afford to have the truth of the world withheld from them. They need us to be brave enough to give them great books so they can learn how to grow up into the men and women we want them to be.--Included in the book, Speak (along with discussion guide, sexual assault survivor kit resources.

U.S. Department of Justice, 44 percent of rape victims are under the age of 18 and 46 percent of those victims are between the ages of 12–15. It makes adults uncomfortable to acknowledge this, but our inability to speak clearly and openly about sexual issues endangers our children. It is immoral not to discuss this with them.

Whenever I get a chance, I watch Velshi's Banned Book Club, hosted on MSNBC. This morning it discussed The Lord of the Flies, but I was more interested and had bought the last book discussed which was Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson. The book was originally published in 2011, has sold over 2.5M copies, has received awards, made into a movie, and has now been featured in The Philadelphia Citizen. An interesting interview should be heard first, as the author laments that her book(s) continue to be viewed as worthy of being...banned...

Laurie Halse Anderson’s YA novel Speak poignantly explores the immediate aftermath and emotional repercussions of sexual assault, along with the concept of consent. It is among the first young adult works to explore this reality. Speak has appeared on the American Library Association’s “Top 100 Most Banned and Challenged Books” since its publication in 1999 — climbing higher on the list each year. Read on at

As I've mentioned before, the right of choice, for me, is always immediately associated with rape/incest... Thus the actions of the Supreme Court, whose members are now controlled by the far-right republicans, as well as republican leaders all over the United States are quickly now being responded to by action by women and men all over the country, who are working to ensure these rights that were arbitrarily lost by, we all know, purely by political actions, are to be reinstated.

Statements like, "Don't Say Gay," are similar in intent to incite fear and/or anger, just as much as those who are presently running for congress who claim that they will force abortion to be banned across the nation. And, further, and most important, that they will make no exceptions! Not for the mother's life, not for rape...and not for incest! Even the elimination of birth control is being discussed... 

I am a Christian; I do not condone abortion as a means of birth control, which many often claim is the "primary" way abortion is being used. However, I very much believe that child birth is known to be a dangerous situation, and I believe that the health care before, during, and after birth is a period during which many choices might need to be made, for valid, personal reasons. To return to a point where we no longer can feel secure in proper and effective medical care during pregnancies is totally unacceptable... and, to show a parallel of its importance.  Consider the Afghan women who are now being forced to wear the full-body clothing, as well as having loss of loss of their rights to education! Forced upon them by tyrannical, domineering men!

It appears that Trump has ultimately incited...and indeed allowed misogyny to break free to those men who do not feel a need to have a "partner" in their relationships. Rather, they prefer to be the dominating individual in any relationship. This certainly is not based upon God's love, yet it is being puched down our throats by those republicans now in office who have started what is being considered a catastrophe by the majority of women...and many men... in our country.

CODE BREAKING 

Hairwoman has been buying new earrings. One pair hangs all the way down to her shoulders. Another has bells in them like the pair Heather gave me at Christmas. I guess I can’t wear mine anymore. There should be a law. 

It’s Nathaniel Hawthorne Month in English. Poor Nathaniel. Does he know what they’ve done to him? We are reading The Scarlet Letter one sentence at a time, tearing it up and chewing on its bones.

It’s all about SYMBOLISM, says Hairwoman. Every word chosen by Nathaniel, every comma, every paragraph break—these were all done on purpose. To get a decent grade in her class, we have to figure out what he was really trying to say. Why couldn’t he just say what he meant? Would they pin scarlet letters on his chest? B for blunt, S for straightforward? I can’t whine too much. Some of it is fun. It’s like a code, breaking into his head and finding the key to his secrets. 

Like the whole guilt thing. Of course you know the minister feels guilty and Hester feels guilty, but Nathaniel wants us to know this is a big deal. If he kept repeating, “She felt guilty, she felt guilty, she felt guilty,” it would be a boring book and no one would buy it. So he planted SYMBOLS, like the weather, and the whole light and dark thing, to show us how poor Hester feels. I wonder if Hester tried to say no. She’s kind of quiet. We would get along. I can see us, living in the woods, her wearing that A, me with an S maybe, S for silent, for stupid, for scared. S for silly. For shame. So the code-breaking part was fun for the first lesson, but a little of it goes a long way. 

Hairwoman is hammering it to death. Hairwoman: “The description of the house with bits of glass embedded in the walls—what does it mean?” Utter silence from the class. A fly left over from fall buzzes against the cold window. A locker slams in the hall. Hairwoman answers her own question. “Think of what that would look like, a wall with glass embedded in it. It would … reflect? Sparkle? Shine on sunny days  maybe. Come on, people, I shouldn’t have to do this by myself. Glass in the wall. We use that on top of prison walls nowadays. Hawthorne is showing us that the house is a prison, or a dangerous place maybe. It is hurtful. Now, I asked you to find some examples of the use of color. Who can list a few pages where color is described?” 

The fly buzzes a farewell buzz and dies.

~~~

Note from Gabby: If I had Hairwoman for a teacher, 

I'd be saying the same as Melinda! Boooring...

Melinda is the main character of Speak. The book is written somewhat like a diary--as if, she writes there only when she has something important to say... Such as when her English teacher forces the entire class to explore, analyze, and discuss the selected book for this year,.. and determines that it should be read and digested...one sentence at a time... Can you even imagine this? No wonder Melinda had flashes of being a good student...and then, just ignoring the whole class topic scene...

Of course, after she was raped, at age 13, and didn't tell anybody, she had a lot to think about besides school, parents, and friends. Like, how she really hated the fact that she didn't scream and get him off of her... how she didn't know how to share this, after, when she came back to the beach party, crying, her best friend slapped her in the face for calling the cops... And, especially, just how did she think she could ever tell her parents, especially since they didn't know she had been at a party, drank enough beer to be considered drunk, and that, at first, thought it was cool that a senior thought her cute enough to ask her to go for a walk with him... And that, when he asked, she didn't realize what he was asking and by the time she did and started speaking, that he held his hand over her mouth and proceeded...

Melinda decided that, since she didn't immediately speak to the police and parents, that she just wouldn't say anything...And she began to not "speak" any more than she had to. Her parents at one point even took her to a doctor, with whom she wouldn't speak, of course. Little by little she began to return to her usual activities, most of the time being alone. She even had discovered a rarely used closet at school, where she smuggled in a blanket and had several books and pictures, one of Maya Angelou (which the librarian had to take down, because one of her books was being banned), and others which she was creating herself in the one class, Art, for which she had some personal connection. Fortunately the teacher was empathetic and chose to spend a little more time in clarifying what the meaning of art could mean to her personally.

But then, her supposed friend--the one that had slapped her on the night of her rape and had spoiled the party calling the cops, began to date the senior who had raped her... She felt she had to tell her, but could she?

Since Anderson has written the books, thousands of teens have contacted her sharing how much her book meant to her. She was gratified that it included boys, and so she wrote a book, Twisted, hoping she could have sufficient knowledge and empathy to have it respond to boys needs... Apparently it has... Yet many continue to call for a banning of her books!

I found myself reliving my early "me too" situations--ones that I've never shared. Thankfully, none led to rape, but, even so, they were of incestuous actions which were traumatic in a different way from that of a rape by a stranger, I think, but just as destructive of a young girl's ability to...trust...

If I had a daughter, I would make an effort to share with her. As the author clearly states, it is immoral not to...

Too bad, many men do not see anything wrong with rape, including incest... If they only knew--and took the time to learn about their potential girlfriends before they even think about having sex...  One of the results would have been that a court case would never had been needed to determine that a girl/ woman always must have complete control of her own body.

Make sure you get the latest edition of this book, including the additional supporting materials... Get it for yourself...and then another copy for any young teen that you love and have enough concern about her future to initiate a discussion on this very important subject...