Waiting for the Beat

Philip Pullman has revealed he was delighted to discover his novel Northern Lights was one of the most “challenged” titles of the year in America, with numerous calls made to have it removed from libraries.

“Firstly, I had obviously annoyed a lot of censorious people, and secondly, any ban would provoke interested readers to move from the library, where they couldn’t get hold of my novel, to the bookshops, where they could,” Pullman said, pointing to previous objections to the film of The Golden Compass, which he said resulted in soaring book sales.

“Religion grants its adherents malign, intoxicating and morally corrosive sensations. Destroying intellectual freedom is always evil, but only religion makes doing evil feel quite so good,” he said.

Quotes from Phillip Pullman - Read More at guardian.co.uk

The first thing I did after receiving the email about how horrible the book was go out and get a copy.   After reading it I still couldn’t believe that anyone would want to ban this book… maybe talk about how wrong you think it is or “educating” children about how harmful it could be… but pulling it from shelves?  Isn’t that just evil?

Of course Phillip makes a good point here.  I still remember peering through the black l marker on censored books in my religious wacko school… I would often write the “dirty” word that they tried to disguise on the upper corner of the page so that it could be easily found again…  Guess I’ve always been a liberator…

“I’d rather them blow up some hot dogs or some ketchup and mustard and relish than have it be a real bomb, better safe than sorry.”

Chad Durbin
(as he gives in to osama bin laden)