bloom not burn

neil gaiman has an interesting post today. he links to this recent guardian article. it had caught my eye and i felt irked,

In a scene which appears to have been lifted straight out of Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451, a group of Christians in Wisconsin has launched a legal claim demanding the right to publicly burn a copy of a book for teenagers which they deem to be "explicitly vulgar, racial [sic], and anti-Christian".

The offending book is Francesca Lia Block's Baby Be-Bop, a young adult novel in which a boy, struggling with his homosexuality, is beaten up by a homophobic gang. The complaint, which according to the American Library Association also demands $120,000 (£72,000) in compensatory damages for being exposed to the book in a display at West Bend Community Memorial Library, was lodged by four men from the Christian Civil Liberties Union.

- alison flood, the guardian, 12 june 09

money quote:

You don't burn books. And, well, you don't sue for your right to burn a library book you don't like. (And that's not just because if you win, that means that people you don't like now have the right to burn your books.)

- neil gaiman

the first half of some recent ramblings went up on queermergent blog last night.

i know where the second half is going, and so i know that i need to read the above article with respect for the right of others to express their views. liberty is for all, or it is for none.

The democratic process, free speech, the ability of people to peacefully dissent - all those are universal values and need to be respected

- President Barack Obama, speaking to reporters on the rallies in Iran

::

i've twice attempted to make it through Ulysses. i know i'm not alone in that attempting. but oh how these honeywords drip...

"O and the sea the sea crimson sometimes like fire and the glorious sunsets and the
figtrees in the Alameda gardens yes and all the queer little streets and pink and blue
and yellow houses and the rosegardens and the jessamine and geraniums and
cactuses and Gibraltar as a girl where I was a Flower of the mountain yes when I put
the rose in my hair like the Andalusian girls used or shall I wear a red yes and how
he kissed me under the Moorish wall and I thought well as well him as another and
then I asked him with my eyes to ask again yes and then he asked me would I yes to
say yes my mountain flower and first I put my arms around him yes and drew him
down to me so he could feel my breasts all perfume yes and his heart was going like
mad and yes I said yes I will Yes."

- from, "Ulysses, " by James Joyce.

and with that, i'm headed back to dublin for some artmaking.*

LB

*scratch that. staying an extra 24 hours so i can be at the tuesday table.