I Have Got To Visit This Town On My Book Tour

I've never been to Kansas City, nor have I ever really had occasion to do so, but I'm thinking of making a special trip just so that I can visit Blue Valley, where they are apparently breeding stupid people and then running them for public office. You see, Blue Valley is home to my favorite band of thought police, ClassKC.org (who, it should be noted, have not banned any of my books despite numerous written requests...what does a guy have to do these days?), who recently were pushed back in their attempts to ban several books, and have now taken it on themselves to ban blogs, too. (Apparently, Xanga is ruining the world as we know it.) The latest salvo fired in Blue Valley involves the short story "Rape Fantasies" by Margaret Atwood. The Kansas City Star reports:

The Blue Valley book battle has taken on a new wrinkle, with two prominent figures in Johnson County questioning the use of a short story.

Charley Morasch, an unsuccessful candidate this spring for the Blue Valley school board, and Roger Kemp, father of the slain Ali Kemp, signed a formal challenge asking Blue Valley North High School to remove the short story “Rape Fantasies” by Margaret Atwood, saying it is inappropriate for the curriculum.

The challenge comes four months after a group of parents and community members delivered a petition to the school board seeking removal of 14 novels from the curriculum, citing vulgar language, sexual explicitness or violent imagery. The books were not removed.

Morasch, a Leawood resident, brought the story to the attention of Kemp, whose daughter was murdered at a neighborhood pool in June 2002.

Benjamin Appleby, who is charged in the slaying, has told police that he beat, strangled and attempted to rape Ali Kemp while she was working as a lifeguard.

“Rape Fantasies” is included in the anthology Literature: Structure, Sound & Sense by Laurence Perrine and Thomas R. Arp.

“It’s a huge anthology, and there are tons of things in it,” said Susan Swift, assistant superintendent of education services.

She said the anthology is used in senior Advanced Placement classes, which include college-level course work.

Swift said she thought there had been three earlier challenges to learning resources since the policy was written. None of the challenges resulted in the removal of the material but prompted policy changes, she said.

The story is told from the perspective of several women who describe their rape fantasies. While several of the women describe what one character considers sexual fantasies, another woman describes ways in which she could escape from an attacker.

To challenge a learning resource, such as the story in question, Swift said, a challenger first must speak to the teacher who assigns the book and then to the principal. Morasch said last week that he had met with the teacher and the principal and intends to pursue the matter to the next level.

Kemp, on the other hand, said he had made his point. He said he did not realize that by signing he was participating in a formal challenge.

The next step would be for Morasch to ask a building-level committee, made up of parents, students and teachers, to review the story.

If that committee decided to keep the story in the curriculum, Morasch ultimately could appeal to the school board.

Morasch said he objected more to the idea of rape fantasies in general than to the specific content of the story.

“The last thing you need to do is wave in front of a 15- or 16- or 17-year-old boy a notion like this,” he said. “If you wanted to promote respect for women, this is absolutely the last thing you would have students reading.”

Morasch also expressed frustration with the district and the school board for not removing the 14 books questioned in January.

“I don’t know what it is going to take to have more responsiveness from the school district, but I guess we just keep plugging away until we do,” he said.

This isn't surprising, really, since Morasch told the fine people at ClassKC.org that he didn't believe Pat Conroy's Lords of Discipline should even be allowed in public libraries.

3.      Pat Conroy’s book “Lords of Discipline” contains the following excerpts:

      “Do you see the hand of God coming down from heaven to help you, scumbags?...Because there’s nothing to see, maggot-shits...I’m a fucking maniac…I’d pump this room full of DDT and let all of you die like the roach turds you really are…gives me kind of a warm feeling all over when I think about sticking my swagger stick up your fucking asses and have it come out all slick with your blood and intestines...God has ceased to exist for any of you. He doesn’t care a fucking thing for…you. He’s dead for you all...I am your God and you will obey my commandments or I’ll jack it up your filthy asses...here is what your new…God thinks of your old Bible. He...plunged the sword into the Bible with a deep, savage thrust, then lifted the skewered book aloft...had been soaked in lighter fluid...lit a match...Does your mother fuck, douchebag? Your mother should have stuck a coat hanger up her cunt to kill a maggot like you.”

      Do you feel this book should be on either the required or suggested reading lists of any course taught in the Blue Valley School District?  Why or why not?

Response: It is negative and disgusting, with no redeeming value, and loaded with rage and anger.  What is the point, what is the purpose in reading this?  This should not be in a public library, let alone required for any child to read.

All right, Kansas City. Here's the deal. I'll be in Chicago on or about September 25th. My understanding is that Kansas City and Chicago are in states that are near each other (I do not pretend to know where these states are on a map...I was educated in California, so you'll have to excuse me.). I'll be in Chicago promoting a short story collection that touches on the following story points: suicide, murder, kidnapping, gay sex, straight sex, Elvis as a deity, Jesus has a person who appears dressed as Scarlet O'Hara, the Salton Sea, John Wayne, the Loch Ness monster, people not believing in the Bible, 2nd person narrators (not a thing normally noted as being offensive, except to writers and readers, so it's a wonder it made the cut, but there you go), incest, general criminal behavior, and lots of other stuff that will likely cause your children to produce snuff films as adults. There must be a Borders or Barnes & Noble or some really cool indie book store in the general Blue Valley area, right? There must also be a few liberals in the area involved with the arts, right? You pick up my travel and lodging, I'll provide the entertainment: I'll read aloud from every single book these fucktards want banned, plus every one of my stories, and then we'll wait and see how many people run off to sin themselves silly (or opt to write in 2nd person, for that matter). Hell, I'll even debate some of these people. I'm serious, KC. Bring me to town.

Because, to quote a great American scholar, Rowdy Roddy Piper, I have come here to chew bubblegum and kick ass. And I'm all out of bubblegum.

Comments

[Graham]

2nd person narrator - man, that's going too far.

[Jim Winter]

Hey, ClassKC! Have you seen the episode of DEADWOOD where they say "fuck" a lot? You better aks someone.*

*With apologies to Snoop Dogg. Yo.

[Dean]

2nd person narration? You monster: you'll twist an entire generation.

[Burl Barer]

In 1982 the United States Supreme Court handed down its decision in Island Trees Union Free School District No. 26 versus Pico, a case in which students and parents challenged a school board's removal of certain books from a school library. The board withdrew novels and texts which members considered to be "anti-American, anti-Christian, anti-Semitic, and just plain filthy." A plurality of the Court set limits on a school board's ability to remove books from school libraries. To the plurality, removal was only permissible if books were determined to be "educationally unsuitable." The justices said book elimination would be invalid if partisan political motivation were a decisive factor in the action. (Terry 1986).

Justice Brennan's plurality opinion in the Pico case took its inspiration for the notion of a right to receive information from the case of Right to Read Defense Committee versus School Committee, a 1978 decision from the Boston federal district court. In his opinion in the Right to Read case, Judge Joseph Tauro described the school library as a place in which the student could discover and explore ideas. "What is at stake here," Tauro wrote, "is the right to read and to be exposed to controversial thoughts and language..." (Marek 1987).

The right to receive information can apparently only be exercised by parents for their own children. In McKamey versus Mt. Diablo Unified School District (1983), a California Superior Court judge refused to allow a group of local residents who objected to the presence of Ms. magazine in the school library to block other students' access to the periodical. Judge David A. Dolgin held that while a parent could bar his or her own child from reading the magazine, that parent could not exercise such a right on behalf of all students (NCAC 1985).

[mark haskell smith]

I grew up in Kansas City and when they're not banning books or getting "creationism" reinstated in the schools, they're bulldozing heaping piles of Dixie Chicks CD's. You get used to it.

Better... go get some bbq at Arthur Bryant's or a steak at Plaza III. They love to kill them some cows in that town.

[laurel]

I completely agree with you about the senselessness and ignorance which is behind the attempted banning of books such as Lords of Discipline, etc.....but you should be ashamed of yourself for involving Roger Kemp in your bashing on the group ClassKC.org. Since all he did was sign a petition about one book. Well if you had a daughter who was murdered and then the "thing" who murdered her attempted to rape her also, you might simpathize with a father who doesn't agree with a book entitled "Rape Fantasies." I think that if you are that good of a writer, you could easily explain you viewpoint without the mention of Roger Kemp's name. Even if you didn't mean any disrespect, the mere mention of his name in a posting in which you refer to Blue Valley as "breeding stupid people" suggests you include him in that equation. Oh, and by the way.....Blue Valley is a school district, not an actual place.

[Tod Goldberg]

You'll note, Laurel, that I didn't mention Roger Kemp's name, I merely reprinted the article from the Kansas City Star. I never said a word about the man, nor his family, nor prior to seeing this story knew anything about him. What I'll also say is that despite the terrible things that happened to his child, it in no way means that people who read Rape Fantasies by Margaret Atwood would then be provoked to do the same thing, nor would reading it condone the death, just as watching an episode of Law & Order doesn't condone it either. It's a story that existed before his child's death, it exists now, and it will always exist. His desire to have the book removed because his family suffered a tragedy that, should you ever read the story, bears no resemblance at all to the events surrounding his daughter's death, aside from the word "rape," reeks of a kind of ignorance I'm afraid I can't condone.

[Charlie]

I just last year graduated from the Shawnee Mission school district (Blue Valley is one of our rivals) and clearly recall this whole debate. Now I am doing several weeks worth of English exercises on letters to the editor and readers' comments for my college class. Talk about deja vu! I have read many of the books being disputed, and while they were very unique and definitely presented unusual perspectives, I will never read them again, and I would certainly not recommend them to anyone or allow a child of mine to read many of them. I think a parent definitely has a right to dispute a book if they consider it unsuitable. Parents have primary responsibilty for the development of their children. Teachers are a means to that end; they do not have the authority to require a student to read something a parent does not approve. I freely admit that there are many students who are mature enough to discern and filter for themselves, but I know from plain experience that there are not as many of these as you would like to think. As *I* would like to think! There should be optional readings provided for disputable circumstances. This would pretty much solve the problem. As for other students, if their parents don't mind, and if the students themselves are comfortable with the books, by all means, let them read!

And when you come to Kansas City, by all means sample the best barbeque in the nation at either Arthur Bryant's or Gates BBQ. If you don't like BBQ go to Houston's on the Plaza. Soooo delicious!

[Ann]

You are convicting someone(Benjamin Appleby) on Roger Kemps beliefs. The man has not even had a trial yet. Is it not innocent until proven guilty? What a lynchmob mentallity. And who really cares about Kansas?