Up is down, left is right, north is south… the world is a crazy place.
Librarians, once the keepers of the archives, are now reveling in the role of censor. Marion the librarian is back with a vengeance!
Last year the ALA (American Library Association) revoked Laura Ingalls Wilder’s name from an award because literal-minded readers among them decided Pa in the Little House books was a racist. This year they’ve revoked the name of one of their own from an award: the librarian Melvil Dewey (1851–1931), who invented the Dewey Decimal System. The ALA has denounced him for his “legacy of antisemitism, sexual harassment, and racism” (Book Riot).
Here’s what I want to know: are librarians also eradicating Dewey’s name from his own system?
We’ve come a long, long, very long way since Hollywood spawned the #MeToo movement.
DO YOU THINK ANNE OF GREEN GABLES WAS GAY? Having read all the Anne books, I am sure she was not.
But Cori McCarthy at Tor.com writes in her article,“Fraught With Destiny: Queering L.M. Montgomery’s Anne Shirley and Diana Barry”:
On the outside, Anne of Green Gables is an enchantingly talkative, acutely sensitive, feminist character for the ages. Anne is also a hero for those who have been maligned for being themselves. The attraction for the queer-at-heart audience only magnifies when you take a close look at one of the pivotal relationships in the story: Anne and Diana’s “friendship.” I use quotation marks here because their friendship is indeed crafted like a love story, with parallels to the inherent problems and joy within queer relationships.
Oh, dear. I think this is a misreading of their friendship. But perhaps one could make a case that Jo in Little Women is gay.
