IN HONOR OF BANNED BOOKS WEEK

     It's Banned Books Week here and now, but a few days after my immersive ROSE UNDER FIRE experience, my mind is still stuck in Nazi Germany.  And so I thought it would be fitting for me to post a link to an article that describes Helen Keller's 1933 reaction to news of a proposed Nazi book-burning fest, which I believe was approximately when Gertrude Stein (who was Jewish) was writing that Hitler should be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize because, after all, if he succeeded in deporting all the undesireables, then there would be peace, wouldn't there?  (Many modern commentators claim that Stein was merely being ironic.  Seems to me like an odd subject to joke about, actually. Other commentators offer credible evidence that Stein was a strong supporter of the collaborationist Vichy government in France. )  Stein had eyes, but she saw not.  Keller, on the other hand, saw more than most.  Read this article about her by Rebecca Onion, published in Slate in May of this year.  Banning books we don't like...  banning thoughts we don't like...  eventually, banning people we don't like.  All links in the same chain.

     Happy Banned Books Week!  (And thanks to Holly Schindler's blog for this fabulous photo).