Condensed Banned Books

Alas, it's a bit too late for Banned Book Week, but there's never a bad time to read something that's a bit too naughty. If you're short on time, read these condensed versions of banned books — such as the end of Of Mice And Men:

""Say whad'ya doin?" Curley's wife pouted.
"I bin pettin' the pup," said Lennie. "But it seems ta not be movin'."
"That's cos you gonna' squashed it. Why don' you play with my purty hair instead?"
"Oh naw," Lennie said. "Ah've gonna' squashed her too"
George heard the men coming for Lennie. "What you gonna dun' this time?" he said, placing his arm round Lennie's shoulder.
"We still gonna get us some lan', George?"
"We sure are, Lennie."
"An' rabbits?"
"Lotsa rabbits," George said, putting his gun to the back of Lennie's neck and pulling the trigger, thereby killing the American Dream.

Really, not much worse than a Cliff's Notes.

Censoring Of Mice and Men

Stupidity doesn't wait for Banned Books Week to make a spectacle of itself: a woman wants Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men to be removed from an English course's reading list, because of overt use of the word 'nigger'. The less attention we pay to that naïve woman, the better — however, the school spokesman does an excellent job of explaining just why banning books like Steinbeck's works (Grapes of Wrath is often equally contested):

"It's not a pleasant part of our history," David Smith, a spokesman for the school district, told KMBC-TV. "But kids these days need opportunities to learn about it, understand it, not in a sanitized 21st-century way, because that's how we move forward in society."

via - For video of the woman announcing her dislike of the book (including a "I'm not trying to ban it") comment, KMBC has more.