On James Baldwin’s Go Tell it on the Mountain
Whatever fear strikes any reader of Baldwin’s book awaits right in that opening paragraph: an unseemly portrait of faith. It is not literary sex, or violence, or the conflation… More
Animal Farm: Banned by the Soviets, Promoted by the CIA
Though the book cannot and should not be divorced from the Russian Revolution, Orwell sees beyond the specifics of that revolution, and even beyond revolution itself, to tell what… More
Reservation Sunsets and ‘Salem’s Lot
Maybe the banning advocate truly is the 13 year old, terrified that his secret life is out, that some novelist had looked into his private world and reported from… More
On Beauty: Banning Toni Morrison’s The Bluest Eye
The narrative that Pecola absorbs from the world around her is simple. It tells her that to be beautiful is to be white. It shapes her identity at the… More
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PEN America On 
Meta's new prototype chatbot has told the BBC that the Mark Zuckerberg-led company "exploits people for money and he doesn't care. It needs to stop!"
Meta says the #AI chatbot can chat on "nearly any topic" but might produce rude or offensive answers. https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-62497674
UPDATE. Now being unbanned...
Following our outcry @PENamerica, the Alpine school district in UT will *no longer* be removing 52 books outright, but "temporarily restricting" them, so that parents can opt their kids into being allowed to read them if they so choose. #FReadom /1 https://twitter.com/PENamerica/status/1554209510134525952
The Vandegrift High School #BannedBookClub is one of many teen-led efforts nationwide.
“Teachers are afraid of losing their jobs,” @jonfreadom said. “Principals only have so much that they can do in the face of school boards. But students can protest. Students can speak out.”
