Consciousness and the Banned Book Baloney

Main point: where do you want to put your thoughts and energy?

Here, we have this problem: MAUS, a book that came out in the 80s/90s (30–40 years ago), is now being banned. Shit, what are we going to do?

First, is one book worth stressing over? Some suggest so, after all, we’re talking about the Holocaust here. Do you remember hearing about that horrific experience? Let me assure you, it was a bummer. Let’s step back for a moment, there’s a reason why I asked if this is worth stressing over. I asked this because there are literally hundreds of thousands of books on this specific topic. One less isn’t going to silence the most publicized, tragic event in modern history. But, it’s the only graphic novel that talks about it! Sorry, spoiler alert: it ain’t, you could almost fill a bookshelf.

Second, um, there’s like this thing called the internet. There isn’t a real way that this book can be completely wiped off the map. Students can literally read the graphic novel online, probably in any of those schools. Plus, out of the entire world, only a few, compared to a bajillion schools are banning this book.

But, the point is, Jon, that this book has nudity. Okay… so what? If anyone wants nudity, they have plenty of other options. Again, first point: there is so much nudity and saucy references in so many other books that would make MAUS look like a baby board book.

But the real point is, Jon, they’re not teaching the Holocaust in super great…