“He was encouraging me to take a stand.”
May 1, 2024 5:21 PM Subscribe
His Book Was Repeatedly Banned. Fighting For It Shaped His Life. (Robert Cormier and The Chocolate War, NYT gift)
Holy shit I just started reading this book this morning. It was on my tbr and I have completely forgotten why I put it on my list. Spookyyyyyyy!
posted by MiraK at 6:07 PM on May 1 [2 favorites]
posted by MiraK at 6:07 PM on May 1 [2 favorites]
I never understood the stance against The Chocolate War. It felt, to me, like a next logical step in reading that went from Ramona The Pest and Amelia Bedelia, and developed themes also present in books like Pipi Longstocking... there was a long list of "child in rebellion against authority" books to be read, and so coming upon The Chocolate War, which was very much the same themes only applied in a more realistic and older setting... it felt part of the same.
The junior high library at the school I went to was full of things like Robert Silverberg and Robert Heinlein, not to mention the entire wall of Harlequin Romance novels... plenty of things that maybe parents of kids in grades 7-9 might actually question their kids reading. I read plenty of SF/F out of that library that was reading level appropriate and interest level appropriate but certainly not age level appropriate. But then, who is to say what is appropriate for anyone at which age?
Anyway, the banning of that particular book always felt a little weird to me. It is because of the word "bastard" and refusing to do what the school tells you to do outside your school hours? Yeah, giant shrug from me.
posted by hippybear at 6:33 PM on May 1 [6 favorites]
The junior high library at the school I went to was full of things like Robert Silverberg and Robert Heinlein, not to mention the entire wall of Harlequin Romance novels... plenty of things that maybe parents of kids in grades 7-9 might actually question their kids reading. I read plenty of SF/F out of that library that was reading level appropriate and interest level appropriate but certainly not age level appropriate. But then, who is to say what is appropriate for anyone at which age?
Anyway, the banning of that particular book always felt a little weird to me. It is because of the word "bastard" and refusing to do what the school tells you to do outside your school hours? Yeah, giant shrug from me.
posted by hippybear at 6:33 PM on May 1 [6 favorites]
This was one of my favorite books as a teenager.
It felt so grown up: the power relations between the students, and between the students and the adults, were complex and believable.
Looking back it's not surprising that I found the story compelling. That was in the 1980s and I was in an all white school in apartheid South Africa, trying to find ways to show my resistance to authority.
My little efforts were not particularly meaningful, like being the only one refusing to stand for the national anthem, and putting photographs of police brutality in the collages we had to make for class assignments. My friends did *not* support me, and I identified hard with the protagonist of The Chocolate War who is, above all, alone.
Interesting how it's the sexual stuff that gets emphasised in the calls for banning, rather than the challenges to authority.
I'm not sure wether it's in TCW or it's sequel, but there's a scene where the school bully finally has the chance to set a Vigils task, and he immediately goes for inflicting sexual humiliation. It's such a revealing scene as it sets up the contrast with how Archie Costello (the leader of the Vigils) ran things.
I found this review that deals with masculinity in TCW, I think there's a lot of subtle stuff going on with that.
posted by Zumbador at 9:54 PM on May 1 [8 favorites]
It felt so grown up: the power relations between the students, and between the students and the adults, were complex and believable.
Looking back it's not surprising that I found the story compelling. That was in the 1980s and I was in an all white school in apartheid South Africa, trying to find ways to show my resistance to authority.
My little efforts were not particularly meaningful, like being the only one refusing to stand for the national anthem, and putting photographs of police brutality in the collages we had to make for class assignments. My friends did *not* support me, and I identified hard with the protagonist of The Chocolate War who is, above all, alone.
Interesting how it's the sexual stuff that gets emphasised in the calls for banning, rather than the challenges to authority.
I'm not sure wether it's in TCW or it's sequel, but there's a scene where the school bully finally has the chance to set a Vigils task, and he immediately goes for inflicting sexual humiliation. It's such a revealing scene as it sets up the contrast with how Archie Costello (the leader of the Vigils) ran things.
I found this review that deals with masculinity in TCW, I think there's a lot of subtle stuff going on with that.
posted by Zumbador at 9:54 PM on May 1 [8 favorites]
Interesting how it's the sexual stuff that gets emphasised in the calls for banning, rather than the challenges to authority.
Yeah, that's often the case with bannings in the US. It's such a trope that it got turned into a joke on the show WKRP In Cincinnatti - the station has been approached by a Moral-Majority kind of watchdog organization about songs that the station can or can't play, and DJ Johnny Fever grumbles about them by saying that "they're a group of people who play songs slower and slower and every so often they say 'ooh, there's another naughty word!'"
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 4:02 AM on May 2 [5 favorites]
Yeah, that's often the case with bannings in the US. It's such a trope that it got turned into a joke on the show WKRP In Cincinnatti - the station has been approached by a Moral-Majority kind of watchdog organization about songs that the station can or can't play, and DJ Johnny Fever grumbles about them by saying that "they're a group of people who play songs slower and slower and every so often they say 'ooh, there's another naughty word!'"
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 4:02 AM on May 2 [5 favorites]
The newspaper ad referenced in the article is exactly the kind of thing that would have made teenage me want to devour those books.
posted by vverse23 at 7:45 AM on May 2 [4 favorites]
posted by vverse23 at 7:45 AM on May 2 [4 favorites]
"I will not sell the chocolates"
But I'd recommend their War over I Am The Cheese - I found the Cheese's backstory extremely difficult, nay impossible to swallow.
posted by Rash at 8:21 AM on May 2
But I'd recommend their War over I Am The Cheese - I found the Cheese's backstory extremely difficult, nay impossible to swallow.
posted by Rash at 8:21 AM on May 2
At my all-boys Catholic high school back in the 1980s, both I Am The Cheese and The Chocolate War were required reading for my English class (the former in freshman English; I forget when we read the second but not having read it).
posted by Gelatin at 12:46 PM on May 2 [1 favorite]
posted by Gelatin at 12:46 PM on May 2 [1 favorite]
I think -- I've not read this since -- that this book was in my UK primary school library in the 1980’s and I found it astounding as a 7/8-year-old that some older kid said "read this, it's got swearing" up until I was asked to read to my teacher and picked a bit where swearing happened so it got taken away from me and removed from circulation.
posted by k3ninho at 10:02 AM on May 3
posted by k3ninho at 10:02 AM on May 3
I did not, personally, particularly enjoy this book. It never resonated with me. But I had a roommate in college who said that there was a passage in here that kept her from committing suicide.
posted by bq at 8:32 AM on May 6 [1 favorite]
posted by bq at 8:32 AM on May 6 [1 favorite]
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As bad as the fights over books were in the 1980s, things seem so much worse now, in part because the book banners now have Facebook groups where they share lists of books so they don't even have to bother thinking for themselves at all.
posted by hydropsyche at 5:49 PM on May 1 [4 favorites]