I truly love Nora Ephron. I couldn’t have survived my teens and early twenties without her. Her movies are magic. Her feminist ideals are inspiring. Her writing is beyond honest. I am completely unwilling to admit that she’s gone.
Tomorrow, I will light a candle and watch her movies and cry. Tonight, I’m in total denial.
My heart hurts.
Banned Books Week raises awareness about censorship and freedom of speech in the United States. For more information looky here.
The list of frequently banned and challenged books might surprise you. Classics like “Catcher in the Rye” and “To Kill a Mockingbird” are constantly under attack, however, these novels share real estate with recent phenomenons like “Harry Potter” and “Twilight.” Also on the list: the Goosebumps series, a couple of Judy Blume novels and even “The Handmaid’s Tale” by iconic Canadian author Margaret Atwood.
Why are these books banned? The answer is something like, “blah blah blah sex, blah blah religion, blah blah inappropriate.”
Basically, any book that is scary, sexy or edgy has been censored. Many of these books address LGBT issues and gender politics. Some of them are racially charged books from past and present that discuss inequality. So… you know… books about really important social issues. Also, books have been banned for something as petty as a couple of swears. Like FUCK and BITCH. Take that censors!
Ridiculous? Yes, seeing as I read “A Handmaid’s Tale” when I was 15 and it introduced me to the world of feminism and the amazing writing of Margaret Atwood. And especially since “Catcher in the Rye” was the map I used to navigate adolescence.
The moral of this story is BOO CENSORSHIP!
The Canadian version of Banned Books Week is Freedom to Read Week, taking place Feb. 26th to March 3rd, 2012.
Oscar Wilde's Tomb
As an annoying teenager, I liked the idea of Oscar Wilde. I enjoyed the chirpy rhythm of his dialogue in the mouths of local actors. I liked his daydreamy eyes. It wasn’t a covert until a pretentious professor forced me to read Oscar’s only novel, The Picture of Dorian Gray, in a reeeeeally boring Brit Lit course. I realized that Oscar and I are kindred sarcasm spirits and thus began the love affair. I’m by no means alone. Even today, 111 years after his untimely death, his gravesite looks more like a nightclub than a tomb. Women and men like to leave kisses upon his epitaph and liquor for his spirit.
If you haven’t considered loving Oscar Wilde, here are some quotations to change your mind:
“There is no sin except stupidity.”
“It is absurd to divide people into good and bad. People are either charming or tedious.”
“I never travel without my diary. One should always have something sensational to read on the train.”
“If you are not too long, I will wait here for you all my life.”
“A dreamer is one who can only find his way by moonlight, and his punishment is that he sees the dawn before the rest of the world.”
“A man who does not think for himself does not think at all.”
“A man’s face is his autobiography. A woman’s face is her work of fiction.”
“A true friend stabs you in the front.”
“Consistency is the last refuge of the unimaginative.”
“Every saint has a past and every sinner has a future.”
Tomb in Père Lachaise Cemetery in Paris, France.
Oscar's statue in Dublin's Merrion Square park
