Gotta love this kid. Her Catholic school banned a bunch of books so she started keeping them in her locker and loaning them out to other students.
Nekochan wrote about the recent book ban: “I was absolutely appalled, because a huge number of the books were classics and others that are my favorites. One of my personal favorites, The Catcher in the Rye, was on the list, so I decided to bring it to school to see if I would really get in trouble. Well… I did but not too much. Then (surprise!) a boy in my English class asked if he could borrow the book because he heard it was very good AND it was banned! This happened a lot and my locker got to overflowing with banned books, so I decided to put the unoccupied locker next to me to a good use. I now have 62 books in that locker, about half of what was on the list.”
Brilliant.
41 comments
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cholten99
September 5, 2011 at 9:48 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
She’s getting a ton of recognition on the ‘net this week and, damn, it’s well deserved!
Artor
September 5, 2011 at 9:49 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
This happened a few years ago. Could you find an update & let us know how thing shook down Ed?
wheatdogg
September 5, 2011 at 9:51 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Unfortunately, the chances of Nekochan keeping this a secret from the teachers is now close to nil. Once it hits the Intertubes, people can put 2 and 2 together and her cover is blown.
Still, I admire her pluck. Fahrenheit 451 in a school locker.
The article says the school also banned The Canterbury Tales, 1984, and Paradise Lost. I can understand banning Catcher in the Rye, and maybe 1984, but the other two? Especially Milton. True, it doesn’t adhere to Catholic dogma, but it’s a classic of religious literature.
What on earth can these kids read, I’d like to know? McGuffey readers?
Occam's Blunt Instrument
September 5, 2011 at 9:55 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
That’s fucking with the man!
blorf
September 5, 2011 at 9:57 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
The list of books is staggering, I mean Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy is banned? The Canterbury Tales? Really? She made WIN on cheeseburger a few days back.
D. C. Sessions
September 5, 2011 at 9:57 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
The school deserves some credit here for doing one of the only things that could get most high-school kids to actually read those books.
Reginald Selkirk
September 5, 2011 at 10:06 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Could you please explain what that means? Or alternatively, stop using it?
Possibly you meant “one of the few things.” Or maybe you meant “the only thing,” but then you considered the possibility that there might be other things, and hedged your bet. At any rate, the phrase you settled on is absolutely meaningless.
Thank you for letting me get my Monday morning rant out of the way early.
Michael Heath
September 5, 2011 at 10:14 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
My school banned Jaws when I was a sophomore; that successful banning was led by a school board member who was the pastor of our town’s biggest fundie church (he was also my pastor). So of course I read it. I now regret the Board not banning a better class of books though the motivation by the young English teacher who put Jaws on his classes’ required reading list was concern kids weren’t reading but instead watching too much TV; where Jaws was supposed to serve as evidence reading could be as enjoyable if not more than watching TV.
Malcom Gladwell wrote a provocative book called, The Tipping Point, which reviewed how ideas and trends could start with a very small population. In my early high-school years in the mid-1970s that had many of us reading the S.E. Hinton novels because the kid considered the coolest among us read them and recommended them. [It was a surprise to even his closest friends he even read outside school given his antipathy towards authority figures.] So my hope here is that the banning of these books and this student’s reaction serves as a tipping point which re-popularizes these books for this young student’s sphere of influence and hopefully even beyond.
Dr X
September 5, 2011 at 10:17 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Reginald Selkirk,
It’s called a colloquialism. I’m surprised that an intelligent person wouldn’t know that. Or perhaps English your second language?
The Christian Cynic
September 5, 2011 at 10:22 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Reginald, as a teacher of English and frequent pedant, let me put this as nicely as I can: kindly fuck off with your useless peeving. “One of the only things” means “one of the few things” (and frankly sounds more natural to this native speaker). (See also this post by an actual linguist.)
The Christian Cynic
September 5, 2011 at 10:27 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Also, on topic: They banned the Hunger Games trilogy? That makes no sense to me whatsoever. (Then again, neither does banning A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court, Animal Farm, or Paradise Lost.)
brianengler
September 5, 2011 at 10:37 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
A similar alleged incident was addressed a couple years ago on the Library Journal web site (http://blog.libraryjournal.com/annoyedlibrarian/2009/06/01/banned-books-in-fake-lockers/) and seems to have been dismissed as a hoax. As neat as it sounds, I wonder if this latest incident is real or just another internet legend that never dies.
386sx
September 5, 2011 at 10:50 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
I didn’t know “Yahoo Answers” was an “online advice column”. Maybe it is I guess. I never would have thought of calling it that though. This has naive reporter and urban legend written all over it.
Trebuchet
September 5, 2011 at 11:08 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Assuming this is for real, I’d guess the majority of the teachers in the school know what’s going on and secretly approve. It does seem pretty unverified, however.
raven
September 5, 2011 at 11:11 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Don’t know if this is a hoax or not. But schools occasionally do ban books for bizarre reasons that make no sense. It’s usually weird sects of christofascists pushing it.
The latest was the school district in Missouri that banned Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse 5. Why are they afraid of Billy Pilgrim and the Trafalmadorians?
Modusoperandi
September 5, 2011 at 11:11 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
If urban legend, it’s genius. Imagine, adults making something adults like (in this case, books) “hip” and “cool” to the kids these days by convincing the kids these days that adults really don’t want the kids these days to have access to them.
They did the same thing with drugs and sex. Those sneaky adults.
Ellie
September 5, 2011 at 11:19 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
This story first started making the rounds in 2006, and I don’t remember the gender of the original “locker librarian.” Has anyone determined if there is any truth to the story at all?
386sx
September 5, 2011 at 11:21 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
From the article: “Concerned about getting in trouble for violating school rules, Nekochan wrote a letter to an online advice column to ask if it was “ok to run an illegal library” from her locker.”
I wonder why the reporter didn’t just say it was Yahoo Answers instead of the vague and annoying and archaic-sounding “an online advice column.” Do they teach vague and annoying archaic-sounding in reporter school or something?
democommie
September 5, 2011 at 11:48 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
“Unfortunately, the chances of Nekochan keeping this a secret from the teachers is now close to nil. Once it hits the Intertubes, people can put 2 and 2 together and her cover is blown.”
Yeah, she might get expelled, but is their a downside?
Dr X
September 5, 2011 at 11:49 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Count me as a skeptical Catholic school alum. The Vatican used to “condemn” certain movies and books for all Catholics, but these books would not have been on such a list. Book banning is more of a fundie-Evangelical activity. I wouldn’t be surprised if the reading lists at some Catholic high schools are more provocative than what might be found in many public high schools.
slc1
September 5, 2011 at 11:58 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Re Michael Heath @ 10:14 am
What was the rational for banning Jaws?
Scott Simmons
September 5, 2011 at 12:05 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
brianengler–The blog post you link to links back to the same Yahoo! Answers entry as Ed’s reference. So this does refer to the same incident (from circa 2008, it would appear). Their reasons for doubting whether this actually happpened appear to mostly revolve around the profile of the person who submitted the question, which has since been made private. So–who really knows? It’s an inspiring story even if it didn’t happen, I guess …
Michael Heath
September 5, 2011 at 12:17 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
slc1:
The paperback cover showing a nude female swimmer and the casual and repeated use of profanity. There could have been additional justifications; those are the two I remember.
steve oberski
September 5, 2011 at 12:59 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
What was the rational for banning Jaws?
There were no sharks on the ark.
democommie
September 5, 2011 at 3:14 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
“The paperback cover showing a nude female swimmer and the casual and repeated use of profanity. There could have been additional justifications; those are the two I remember.”
What the fuck was their fucking problem?
Reginald Selkirk
September 5, 2011 at 3:49 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Dr. X: American English is my native language. Despite having lived in several locations in three distinct regions of the USA, I did not hear that particular colloquialism for the first ~ 45 years of my life. I am not alone in noting the lack of information conveyed by “only” in that sentence.
The Christian Cynic
September 5, 2011 at 4:22 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Reginald, beware of the Frequency Illusion. Doing a Google n-gram search suggests that both “one of the only” and “one of the few” have both increased in frequency in American English (so “one of the few” isn’t necessarily being replaced as the phrase of choice), but the increase for the former is so small – something like 0.00002% over the last 40 years – that it’s unlikely to have gone from being non-existent from American English in the time period you mention to being so commonplace that people feel the need to peeve about it.
And either way, that doesn’t mean that “one of the only” is nonsensical or should in any way be proscribed.
countmagnus
September 5, 2011 at 4:55 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
I liked the story at first, too, but on second glance it sounds like urban legend bunkum. This two-year-old blog entry addressed basically the same story, and the con points are pretty conclusive to my mind:
http://blog.libraryjournal.com/annoyedlibrarian/2009/06/01/banned-books-in-fake-lockers/
Would be a great young adult novel and/or television After-School Special (do they still make those?)
Reginald Selkirk
September 5, 2011 at 4:55 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
And either way, that doesn’t mean that “one of the only” is nonsensical
It is. It makes no sense. See numerous criticisms at the site I already linked, I don’t feel a need to repeat them.
that it’s unlikely to have gone from being non-existent from American English in the time period you mention…
There are other possible explanations, such as regional usage. I do not know that it has a regional bias since, as I said; I did not encounter it for about 45 years, despite being exposed to such cultural gems as Hee-Haw and Beverly Hillbillies.
Lord Shplanington, Not A Frenchman
September 5, 2011 at 5:41 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
@Reginald Selkirk
Language is inherently arbitrary. So long as both parties understand what is being said (And I’m sure that you do, even if you enjoy pretending to be obtuse), all words, terms, and phrases are correct.
Deal with it.
The Christian Cynic
September 5, 2011 at 6:02 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Reginald, oddly enough, you totally ignored the post I linked from a linguist on the issue, which specifically notes the site you mentioned (along with many others).
…or the Frequency Illusion? I think you’re assuming that your experience reflects actual language use without considering that you might just be imagining the trend.
Also, anyone who uses a semicolon in such an egregiously incorrect manner as in your last comment has no place criticizing anyone on their language use.
Aquaria
September 5, 2011 at 6:07 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Despite having lived in several locations in three distinct regions of the USA
Funny, I’ve lived in:
The Midwest (South Dakota), the Deep South (Mississippi and East Texas), the West Coast (Los Angeles, San Francisco and Sacramento) and the Southwest (San Antonio, Dallas and the Rio Grande Valley).
The phrase was in regular usage in all of them.
Now I’ll admit that the circles I’ve run in weren’t always the most refined, but they weren’t the most ignorant, either.
And I’ll admit that it’s necessary to call out, say, East Texans, for having ridiculous local language customs, such as:
“Would you carry me to the store?” (Translation: Would you give me a ride to the store in your car?”);
“Fixin’ to” rather than “about to” or “going to”;
Calling the noble shopping cart, “buggy”;
Calling all carbonated beverages “coke”.
It is not unusual to hear the following in an East Texas home: “Mama’s carrying me to the store to get some cokes. What kind you want?” Actually it sounds more like, “Mama’s carr’in me to th’ sto’ to git some cokes. Wha’kine yewwohn?”
Anyway, they’re stupid turns of phrase, and East Texans deserve a thump of the head for mangling the language so vehemently.
But “one of the only” isn’t isolated to East Texas hicks. It’s everywhere. My guess is that it comes from Hollywood.
Dr X
September 5, 2011 at 8:16 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
oops, I meant to say it’s an idiomatic expression.
386sx
September 5, 2011 at 8:39 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
http://www.google.com/search?&q=%22one+of+the+only%22
About 9,510,000,000 results (0.60 seconds)
I don’t think I’ve ever seen a search term return that many results. Lol. :P
386sx
September 5, 2011 at 8:46 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
It’s more popular than Justin Bieber.
bananacat
September 6, 2011 at 1:39 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
The only thing I hate more than prescriptivists is derailing prescriptivists who get some kind of perverted thrill out of attempting to correct someone on the internet. Unless you go back and speak the very first language that existed, you don’t get tell people that language isn’t allowed to change and has to stay constant at some arbitrary point that you personally prefer.
Modusoperandi
September 6, 2011 at 3:45 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Technically, Bananacat, in “the very first that existed” the “very” is unnecessary. Your clear and wanton misuse of language risks making those that read your comment stupider, and as statistics show a sizeable minority (if not a plurality) of said audience has precious little intelligence to spare I can only conclude that you simply don’t care for, or are plotting to destroy, humanity.(1)
1. Moo ha-ha! Now, if you will excuse me, I have to go poison the rest of the internet.(2)
2. Moo ha-ha!
democommie
September 6, 2011 at 4:50 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
The Christian Cynic:
Boy, I know what you mean; I hate it when people make improper use of the semi-colon; also, too, I hate it when they make proper use; of the semi-colon.
Reginald:
Lighten up; you’ll hurt yourself. Try forgetting about people what doesn’t use english good–it’s just that its one of the only ways they know how to.
ambulocetacean
September 6, 2011 at 9:02 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Er… when I was at a Catholic high school here in Oz in the ’80s we *had* to study The Catcher in the Rye and Animal Farm in English class.
Also, when I was at a Catholic primary school here in Oz one of the teachers showed us Jaws on video during some kind of free period. That might have been more unusual, though…
Re American English, why “transportation” and “burglarize”? Why not “transport” and “burgle”? You’re only making work for yourselves.
tomp
September 9, 2011 at 10:39 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
This is an internet myth. I went to Catholic school and half the books on that list were required reading.
tomp
September 9, 2011 at 10:44 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
As to the English nonsense… this isn’t an 11th grade English paper. This is a bunch of people sharing their thoughts on the internet. As long as it is understandable and reasonably spelled I don’t see any problems with slightly off English. Except, of course, for “hanged”! Pictures are hung and murderers are hanged. Unless the murderer is being hung on a hook in your living room next to the copy of the Last Supper.