ETA: "But censoring books that deal with difficult, adolescent issues does not protect anybody. Quite the opposite. It leaves kids in the darkness and makes them vulnerable. Censorship is the child of fear and the father of ignorance. Our children cannot afford to have the truth of the world withheld from them."
--Laurie Halse Anderson, author of Speak
I haven't read Speak, but I will say this.
DO NOT LET ANYONE STEAL YOUR VOICE.
Do NOT write the book some puritanical inner censor insists you write. Do not write for the lowest common denominator, the willfully ignorant that will conflate pornography and rape. Write a book that will actually touch a young reader going through a terrible thing. I think most of us can say that books helped save us, at some point. Dare to be the author of that book. Do not let people like this erase real victims and real people.
SAY WHAT YOU MEAN.
Silence is NEVER the answer.
Word. 100% agreed. And you should definitely read Speak - it's incredible.
ReplyDeleteI think I will. I wish, as a young person, that I had come across a book that dealt with that topic. Maybe it would have given me the self esteem to get out of my situation a lot sooner. That is what good books do. They free you.
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