Benedict Cumberbatch reads a letter from Kurt Vonnegut at Letters Live, Hay Festival

[demmiblue]

[shenmue]

1. ZOMGponies!!!!1!1

[Jim__]

2. Some more of the story

From the Bismarck Tribune:

…

In November 1973, a media firestorm descended on Drake, a town of 650, when news broke that the school district had burned 32 copies of “Slaughterhouse-Five” in the school furnace. The work by Kurt Vonnegut is considered a classic.

The person at the center of the controversy was a new high school English teacher named Bruce Severy. He and his family had moved to Drake the previous year from California. In news reports at the time, much of the town considered them outsiders who hadn’t much tried to fit in with the more traditional, church-going insiders.

Severy, young and idealistic, decided to assign a couple of more contemporary novels, thinking they would resonate with his students — “Slaughterhouse-Five,” published in 1969, and “Deliverance” by James Dickey, published in 1970.

It worked, for the most part. However, one student found the material distasteful and showed her mother, who then complained to the school board. From there, things got out of hand.

…

[sunweaver]

3. Unfortunately, the ignorance is self-perpetuating.

Thank you for posting this - I remember the incident.