Censorship, Stupidity, Viruses and Immune Systems...

"Restriction of free thought and free speech is the most dangerous of all subversions. It is the one un-American act that could most easily defeat us."—Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas," The One Un-American Act." Nieman Reports, vol. 7, no. 1 (Jan. 1953): p. 20.

There has been an annoying spat of censorship events at various schools recently. The most recent was twitted about by He With His Finger On The Pulse Of All Things Biblio, M. Lieberman of BookPatrol. The story revolves around a teen poetry anthology (POETRY...being read by TEENS. Holy crap) called Paint Me Like I Am:

Paint Me Like I Am is a collection of poems by teens who have taken part in writing programs run by a national nonprofit organization called WritersCorps. To read the words of these young people is to hear the diverse voices of teenagers everywhere.

Unfortunately, "[t]o read the words of these young people" has apparently offended ONE mother of a teen who complained of the Superintendent of the Vineland, NJ school her son attends. Sup. Charles Ottinger read the offending poem and said "in no way, shape or form" should the book be allowed on school shelves. The principle did an interesting, though also egregious, thing in that rather than complying with the Super's order to pull the book, he TORE OUT THE TWO PAGES that contained the offending poem so the rest of the book could be shelved for student use. [Side note, while I appreciate the Solomonetic approach of splitting the proverbial book...tearing pages out is a rather lame solution. You are *still* censoring the book *AND* you have mutilated the book itself.] The poem, which I have tragically failed to find in full online, is apparently laden with "bad words" and written from the point of view of a drunken abusive step-father...arguably not a "happy, shiny people" piece.

I am tired of the Lowest Common Denominator being allowed to define and direct our schools and libraries (and government, but that is another rant). One person complains about a given book [or books] and FAR too many schools/libraries are willing to just roll over and pull the material. Sometimes it is because the administrator is of an equally small mind but more often than not, I wager, it is because it is just not seen as a fight worth having. I suggest that it is a fight worth having...to fail in this fight is to guarantee the ascendance of mediocrity and the rule of the narrowest mind. 

Children do not need to be protected from challenging material, they need *context*. They do not need to be told they are not able/old enough/mature enough to read certain things, they need the intellectual guidance to *understand* the material as written. To refuse the exposure doesn't "protect" a child, it denies from the child a necessary skillset for adult life...the ability to read, absorb, contemplate and embody challenging ideas...in all their forms. 

A virus analogy is quite apt. It is well established that our over-use of certain antibiotics in children has lead to not only to the evolution of drug-resistant bugs but, far more dangerous, the impairment of kids/young adults immune systems to be able to fight common bugs. Kids *need* to get sick...because it is by exposure/illness that the body builds antibodies to fight future infections. We make kids *more* susceptible to *serious* illness by denying them the ability to get sick now and again and, thereby, allowing them to build up antibodies.

Reading...the exposure to the ideas embodied in books...works on the mind in much the same way. The more you read, the greater your ability to comprehend complex/difficult/challenging material in all forms. Context is the critical variable...obviously there is a burden put upon parents (and teacher, etc) to help kids understand the things they read, *especially* when that material upsets or troubles them. But is is through that process of getting upset and resolving those feelings that a child *learns*. Denying children challenging material is simply to deny them the ability to learn.

Children are not infants. They do not need to be protected from the likes of the Brothers Grimm; the racism of Huckleberry Finn or the violence of Lord of the Flies or the language in Of Mice and Men. They need context. They need to be able to read these things and talk about them...with parents, teachers and peers. They embody the things they read and it makes them stronger...and smarter...and able to process bigger, more complex challenges down the road.

Treating kids like they need to be protected from any thought or idea that might challenge/offend/frighten them serves *no* purpose but to impair their ability to rationally analyze the data that bombards them every day. Dumbing down our books and, worse, dumbing down our libraries does nothing but dumb down our children. They deserve better. They *need* better.

At a time when the world is becoming more complex and arguably more dangerous, there are far too many people doing all they can to impair the next generation's ability to analyze and rationalize. Dogmatically held positions are held sacrosanct and those that dare challenge them with logical analysis are dismissed as "elitist". We need kids to read more...to be exposed to more...to build up the intellectual capacity to combat the myopic worldview that is becoming far too prevalent. 

It's 215am...I am confident I should read the above and edit out 1/2 or so...but I wont. I'm tired. It is all Brian Cassidy's fault, for telling me to blog my rant after I had twitted about it. If you are interested, see the ALA's Censorship in the Schools resources and definitely bookmark Blogging Censorship. In the end, I'm with Oscar Wilde:

There is no such thing as a moral book or an immoral book. Books are well written or badly written. That is all.

No, I can not ever forgive you....

So Lee Isreal's book, Can You Ever Forgive Me?: Memoirs of a Literary Forger is out. No link, it is not worthy. I am have a soft-spot for literary crime [when it does not involve...er...me]. There are some great stories of brilliant forgeries, elegant frauds and clever manipulations. Of course the punch line is that, in order for the stories to be "known", the evil-doers have been caught and the work/inscription/letter has been relegated to the "forgery files" (mind you, a collectible area in and of itself).

For every "great" forger, there are doubtless a dozen or so marginal ones, passing off Dickens' signed in ballpoint pen...a random search on ebay at any given time will doubtless offer up a wide selection of "inscribed" of dubious veracity. Somewhere between the two poles rests the likes of Ms. Isreal. She is/was, in brief, a book thief and a forger. I did not know her personally, though there are many in the book world that did/do. I have read a galley of her book and will not bother getting a copy. I was planning to review it, as I have been reading a great deal about literary forgeries of late, preparing for a presentation, but then I read Kevin MacDonnell's review on one of the ABAA listserv groups. It is better than any I would have written and he was kind enough to allow me to post it here:

It's 125pp of over-written chatty arrogance, heavily padded with facsimiles of what she considers her best forgeries, of which she is brazenly proud. She describes her forging career as "fun" and drops celebrity names faster than a flasher can drop his trousers, a simile that comes to mind because by the end of the book you feel like you've been assaulted by a forger-flasher.

Although she churned out some celebrity biographies years ago, she happily calls her forgeries "her best work." The closest she comes to explaining why she did it is that she fell on tough times, needed money, and besides, she was alive and the people whose letters she was stealing and/or forging were dead. No further reasons given. At one point she uses the phrase "screw with history" but never gets around to confronting her immorality, and many of her behaviors that she describes at length with glee are appallingly sleazy.

With the exception of Catherine Barnes she describes most dealers as greedy and stupid. The closest she comes to admitting guilt over the thefts is when she says that guilt is mitigated by her help in recovering the stolen letters of "drunken American writers." But she makes very clear that she has little or no guilt over her forgeries. She has contempt for the court system, and readily admits that she never attended AA meetings that were a requirement of her probation and calls community service "bullshit."

Her account of Alan Weiner is that he extorted her for $5,000 in return for not testifying against her, but Alan's conversations with me at the time made clear that he pressed harder than any of her victims to get her convicted, was disgusted by her, and wanted her to spend a long time in jail. I mentioned previously in this list that she left a vile message on his answering machine after his death for the sole purpose of bringing more pain to his grieving family.

Much of her account also relies heavily on what she claims Jack, her accomplice, did or did not do. Both Alan Weiner and Jack are dead, so the reader can draw his own conclusions on whether to trust this account by a convicted thief and forger. By the end of the book it's clear she doesn't want to be forgiven; she wants to be admired. But the reader will find it impossible to find anything to forgive or admire in this vulgar display of narcissism.

This sums her and the book up as well as any could... It would be interesting to find out if she is still under the terms of her probation...as she explicitly states that she has violated the terms and actually having to serve out her sentence would probably be a good thing.

If you want a good read about better forgers, read Charles Hamilton's Great Forgers and Famous Fakes (1980 or the 1996 2nd Revised). A fair number of them I can forgive...for the art of their work, the chutzpa of the attempt and/or the humor of it...but I really find no reason to forgive Ms. Isreal. While it makes a cute title, I don't think she actually wants or cares about forgiveness, nor do I think she deserves it. [Again, thanks to Kevin for his permission to reprint his review.]

Please excuse the silence...

Because the chaos of trying to get ready for a major show is not enough....

So, I was already a bit tweaky because I had the NY shows (ABAA and Westside Shadow) this coming weekend and the MARIAB Boston Fair the next weekend. This would normally be enough to bring me close to the edge.

On Friday, I committed to flying to the west coast to visit a client...leaving Monday and returning on the redeye Tue/Wed...landing in NY (where, I hope, I will meet my wife who will drive the van down...with the books...on her birthday). Flight, hotel, car arrangements are all made...I should be packed for the show tomorrow and all will be well *twitch*.

I met today with new clients with some truly exceptional items...that I must catalogue between now and...you know...Thursday. While packing, driving, flying, twitching, twitching, twitching.

I love what I do...truly, deeply, passionately....perhaps masochistically. Wish me luck, I should be in rare form by the Boston weekend. *twitch* No loud noises or sudden movements.

Anyway, I may be a bit silent here for a bit...I will, however, do my very best to blog the three fairs.

Arrest in thefts from NY State Library

NYTimes is reporting on a history buff who discovered items he knew to be institutionalized on ebay and assisted authorities in catching the thief. Daniel D. Lorello, who worked at the New York State Library Archives for 29 years, admitted to stealing 300-400 items in 2007 alone...and he began stealing material back in 2002. Apparently much/most of it was minor material and was sold either to local dealers or on ebay.

The local dealers who bought from him will undoubtedly do their best to assist in returning material to the Library. Ebay, of course, doesn't care at all if items sold through them are stolen or not.

quick update...Northampton in brief, etc...

It is late and I must be to bed. Back from Northampton fair, more on this to follow, too tired now. It will likely not be tomorrow (perhaps late in the day) as I am heading north to an auction. Too much driving (and flying) of late.

I feel minorly obligated to be more diligent about posting (and/or being somewhat salient when doing so). I have had at least a dozen people at the last two fairs tell me how much they enjoy this blog. The first few I could write off as people with too much time on their hands and/or *really* low standards...but the total number has compelled me to conclude that there are an unreasonable number of humans "out there" reading this drivel (*or* there are a *lot* of people with too much time on their hands and/or really low expectations). Regardless, I will try to do better going forward.

Some interesting things afoot: two interesting auctions this week and some short and some tactical decisions in the works. Much fodder for my ramblings...and an overview of Northampton (with pictures of this and Seattle booths for your viewing pleasure (and/or amusement).

chum in the water...

I know, I know. I am a very bad blogger. It is summer, I am up to my eyes in work, projects, family and a bizarre assortment of other distractions. I'm sorry. I'll try to do better.

I offer, for all who have not seen it previously, the following vid of Andy Rooney on the NY ABAA fair. It is a great piece. Sorry re the link, but CBS does not allow embedding and I could not find a copy elsewhere:

http://www.cbsnews.com/sections/i_video/main500251.shtml?id=2830217n

Politics in America...

Ok, I admit, it is early Monday morning and my defenses are down...but I would have less contempt for the political process (such as it is) if all national election material was executed with this amount of creativity, humor and...er...silliness.

I know I've been silent of late. Things have been crazy busy (new collection and 67 lots from a recent auction to be catalogued and writing projects that I could not duck). I'll catch up soon...thank you for the snarky messages.

quick update and mea culpa...

Thank you for your notes, pleasant, pleading and snarky. I do apologize for my silence of late. I have *many* things to post about and no time at all to do so. However, I will find the time in the next few days. As a teaser, posts will included, but not be limited to, the following:

1: Auctions adventures (I've had great luck and fun of late)
2: Princeton reunions (and books their special collections)
3: Coffee (Ahab's Revenge and other great roasts)
4: Preparing for bookfairs (Portland bookfair is this coming weekend, come one, come all)
5: The joys of laser prints and technology in general (aka, the revenge of unintended consequences)
6: Book hunting, book hunters, the good, the bad and the downright rude and surly.

More to follow...promise...really....