Genuinely, one of the measures that’s stopped book banning the most when districts implement it, is having the would-be banners fill out a form that demonstrates if they’ve read the book or not. Like where they have the summarize the plot and characters and do a mini book report and give a review. It stops them in their tracks. This is why in my high school, every time someone wanted to ban a book it ended up going nowhere. There was one where a conservative student wanted to ban the manga “Legal Drug” for having a marijuana leaf on the cover, then got the form that required them to actually read and either balked, or read it and realized it was not pro-drug at all.
(The other one that reduces book bans even further is “requiring the would-be banner to be affiliated with this actual school in some way, either by being a student, faculty/staff or a parent of a child at the school” because the vast majority of bans are “activists” with no affiliation with the school who just travel around trying to do this in districts all over the U.S. IIRC a few years ago someone crunched the numbers and just 51 parents were responsible for all the book bans that year nationally. 51! In a country with 50 states, with over 300 million people total!)
Unfriendly reminder not to be a terf or a Zionist on my page, I do not want you here. Do not read my content, do not interact with me. You’re a fucking weirdo & you shouldn’t be getting any happiness from my stuff.
i love reading sad books bc when your own grief is stopped up inside you like a clogged drain you can grieve for a character on a page and understand that you’re also grieving for yourself a little bit
‘There is a theory that watching unbearable stories about other people lost in grief and rage is good for you—may cleanse you of your darkness. Do you want to go down to the pits of yourself all alone? Not much. What if an actor could do it for you? Isn’t that why they are called actors? They act for you. You sacrifice them to action. And this sacrifice is a mode of deepest intimacy of you with your own life. Within it you watch [yourself] act out the present or possible organization of your nature. You can be aware of your own awareness of this nature as you never are at the moment of experience. The actor, by reiterating you, sacrifices a moment of his own life in order to give you a story of yours.’
-Anne Carson, ‘Grief Lessons: Four Plays By Euripides’
For the first time in a really long time, I’m not afraid to fall asleep. And, yeah, you’re right, it’s probably not because I listened to the pine needles or whatever, but I’m gonna take what I can get.
Wasn’t going to drink tonight but then I remembered the only reason Vanessa Anne Palmer is dead is because she didn’t have the heart to kill the person who ultimately killed her
I feel like politicians’ insults about each other have really gone down hill. These days it’s all “moron” and “loser”, so childish. Think what you will of Paul Keating, but he gave us such gems as “he’s a shiver waiting for a spine”, “debating him is like being flogged with warm lettuce”, “he’s like a lizard on a rock: alive but looking dead”, “he’s all tip and no iceberg”.
Where’s the creativity these days?!
Some of my favourite Paul Keating insults for your enjoyment:
You boxhead, you wouldn’t know. You are flat out counting past ten
I suppose that the Honourable Gentleman’s hair, like his intellect, will recede into the darkness
He’s wound up like a thousand-day clock! One half more turn and there’ll be springs and sprockets all over the building. Mr Speaker, give him a valium
Oh, look, it’s just Howard being Howard, isn’t it, you know? The little desiccated coconut’s under pressure and he’s attacking anything he can get his hands on
The Opposition could not manage a tart shop
For John Howard to get to any high moral ground he would have to first climb out of the volcanic hole he’s dug for himself over the last decade
And my personal favourite:
If there was a university degree for greed, you cunts would all get first-class honours
