It would seem there is a mysterious vault at the Brooklyn Public Library, according to an article in yesterday’s New York Times blog, City Room.
The linked article discusses books that have been relegated to a back room because they have been deemed too offensive for the public. There are few requests (eleven since 2005, one of which was to John Green’s Looking for Alaska).
People have objected to the book, as you probably know, for denigrating religion. That seems weird to me, as it grapples with a teen who believes in Some Kind of God and is actually trying to figure out what that God means to him. And, you know, John Green is Christian. Silly people. I know there was a bit of a furor over Looking for Alaska, but it just seems completely unwarranted.
Of course, the panel that reviews books for … removal … generally sides with the book. Don’t worry: John Green will stay on the shelves. New Yorkers aren’t dumb enough to remove a fantastic read like Looking For Alaska from their general collections.
Anyway, I’ve decided that one of my projects this fall will be to make an appointment to visit the Brooklyn Public Library’s Hunt Room. I want to see which books have been relegated to their vault of objectionable material. And I’ll write here about it, of course. (Although I’m guessing folks will be flooding to the Hunt Room now that there’s an article about it.)
Looking for Alaska… contains sexual acts, drug use, alcholol abuse, foul language, trespassing/breaking and entering, and, oh yeah, suicide. Lots of OMG ways to deem it offensive. Religion seems trivial compared to all the rest.
What a great project! I was shocked by the kerfuffle in Wisconsin this summer about a group that tried to get Baby Be-Bop off the shelves. Can’t wait to read what you find.
sxott: You’re right. There are lots of depictions of teenagers doing stuff that they do. And that there suicide question was never answered definitively, either. There’s no point in deeming any of it offensive, though.
Andrea: I’m very excited to see those unholy tomes. But of course, it could take seven hundred million years before I get an appointment.
I really don’t read the character death in Looking for Alaska as a suicide at all. Perhaps there have been heated debates about the death-in-question in other forums out there, but I emphatically interpret it as an accidental death with extenuating circumstances (i.e. potential alcohol, high speed, etc).
I’d expect Greene would avoid weighing in on the issue specifically, in order to encourage more debate and discussion about the book. Obviously, as the author, if he’d wanted to specifically address it, he would have. He’s told the story exactly as he wanted to: and the death is officially left open for interpretation … but I just feel like its a stacked deck and his writing leans more to a “not a suicide” ending …
A tangent, of course, this talkback is about questionable content. Brina, I agree with you – LFA offers a non-didactic look at modern teens who (among other things) ask questions about morality and religion of each other and themselves. I think its encouraging to have books out there featuring teens who have sex/drink/do drugs AND engage in healthy moral debates. Really, a book about goody two-shoes teens who sit around debating religion wouldn’t be very interesting at all …