Reddish Musings

I'm going to do something shocking.

I'm going to defend the Twilight series.

...okay, back from puking in my mouth a little.

All right, so, much like any other popular young adult fiction in this decade, the Twilight series are under attack from "concerned" parents.  These parents are so concerned with what their children are reading that they are challenging the books' rights to be in public libraries.

Now, part of me quails at the idea that this means Twilight and Harry Potter are somewhat related to each other.  In fact, according to this article, Harry Potter books aren't even in the top 10 of challenged books anymore, meaning Twilight is beating the HP series at something.  Even if that "something" is really "pissing off Christian parents who can't be bothered to actually investigate what their children read," that just isn't right.  Come on, pastors! Keep preaching the evils of black magic over the evils of lame vampires!

I kid.

Whenever I hear about books being challenged, banned, or burned, it makes me angry.  I don't care what is in the book, how much I like or dislike the material, the author, the characters, any of it.  The idea that someone out there can decide what is okay for me to read angers me.

But these parents have been on crusades since public libraries began, I imagine. There have always been "edgy" authors who endorse sex, magic, drugs, alcohol, and anything else that these people feel will cause their children to immediately join gangs and go to jail without passing Go.  There will always be misguided parents who feel that the only way they can keep their children in line is to purify the world around them, rather than encouraging their children to make good decisions based on their shared morals. It's sad, really.

The idea that libraries should not be allowed to carry these books at ALL shows no trust in your children, no ability in yourself to monitor what your children read, and an obnoxious arrogance to assume you can control OTHER people's reading choices.

However, like I said, these little wars against books have been happening for a long time, so I don't really waste my time getting worked up over every indictment against a novel with dirty things in it.

What upsets me this time around is that some people are supporting it, only because it's Twilight.


I get it.  I do.  I don't like the books, either.  But before we all grab our torches and pitchforks, remember who you're giving the power by joining the fight.  You are not giving power to the intelligent elites on the internet.  You are not giving power to people with good taste.  You're giving power to people who argue that Pokemon endorses communion with demons.  You're giving power to people who think Harry Potter  teaches you how to kill people with "Latin Words."  You're giving power to people who wanted to ban Shel Silversteins A Light In The Attic because it had "a suggestive illustration that might encourage kids to break dishes so they won't have to dry them."

If you don't like Twilight, that is completely okay.  You're not alone.  But I'm pretty sure I read some books that other people don't like. I also know that it's way more fun to bicker about taste in books than it is to all read nothing but The Bible* all day.

So, encourage people to read better things.  Don't ban them from reading the bad things.

~Red

*Nevermind the part where The Bible has a lot of magic, sex, drugs, and murder in it, too.  Somehow that always gets overlooked.