Read Banned Books: Lock In
- Dan
- 8 hours ago
- 2 min read
Read Banned Books
Read the books "the man" says are dangerous. Be a rebel! Read banned books! Think dangerous thoughts! Read Lock In.
Previous entries in this series:
Read Banned Books: Lock In
Okay. Full disclosure. It's been a few years since I read Lock In by John Scalzi. In fact, I made the mistake of thinking the name of the book is Locked In—LOL. What I just discovered in the past month or so is that this sci-fi murder mystery about quasi-comatose quadriplegics using robotic drones to get out and about in the world, while in reality being at home in a fancy-schmancy iron lung-ish device, is banned. BANNED. Insanity, I tell you—pure insanity.
Here is the original list of books and here is the latest batch of books banned by New Braunfels ISD in the Lone Star State. What a list! Scads of great reads on it, BTW. Rather ironic how a state that purportedly stands for rugged individualism allows the government to stick its nose into what young people are allowed to read. Doesn't that seem like something better left to the young people and their parents?
I am truly baffled by how Lock In, which won an award for suitability for adults and young adults, could be banned, so I checked out the process for placing books on the noncompliant list. It seems all one must do is fill out a grievance form or issue a library material challenge. Given the expansive nature of the banned book list, I suspect Lock In was placed on the list because someone took umbrage with the author's views on politics/culture war issues/etc. that he occasionally shares on social media. That, I think, is unfortunate, chillingly unfortunate.
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