I was raised in Mormonism that made it a sin to read certain books. It did not go well when my father the Bishop caught me locked in the bathroom reading Valley of the Dolls. Living in times when books are still being burned, banned, and villainized as they are in the U.S. currently, an essay on reading by A.O.Scott in the NYT hit hard and made me remember how restrictive Mormonism aims to be with controlling our life experiences including reading that which is not "praiseworthy and of good report" as specified by the likes of them.

Some excerpts that speak to book banning as a means to enslave:

"Reading, writing, and arithmetic,"the Enlightenment political theorist Bernard Mandeville asserted, were "very pernicious to the poor" because education would breed restlessness and discontent. "Men who are to begin and end their days in a laborious, tiresome and painful station of life, the sooner they are put upon it at first, the more patiently they'll submit to it for ever after."

What about men who are to begin and end their days in a laborious, tiresome and painful LDS Ward? The ward where the bishop tells you that God doesn't want you to delve into the mysteries which is code for "the less you know the easier my job is."

"It was unlawful as well as unsafe , to teach a slave to read," --Frederick Douglass in his "Narrative of Life" recalling the admonitions of one of his masters, whose wife had started teaching young Douglass his letters. If she persisted, the master explained, their chattel would "become unmanageable, and of no value to his master. As to himself, it could do him no good , but a great deal of harm. It would make him discontented and unhappy."

But Douglass did learn to read by bribing young school children --with bread the article says. Douglass: " As I read and contemplated the subject, behold! that very discontentment which Master Hugh had predicted would follow my learning to read had already come, to torment and sting my soul to unutterable anguish. As I writhed under it, I would at times feel that learning to read had been a curse rather than a blessing. I envied my fellow slaves their stupidity. I have often wished myself a beast. I preferred the condition of the meanest reptile to my own. Any thing, no matter what, to get rid of thinking!"

I mean, if the Mormon church is making some people happy, well then . . .

But in time Douglass did free his mind and the rest did follow. And he became a marvelous work and a wonder and the struggle was worth it. And ignorance is the wrong kind of bliss.

Whoever controls what you read controls all of you. You can't complete a puzzle when there are pieces missing. Always make "them" give you all the pieces. Even if it makes you seem like Douglass's "meanest reptile".

    My first thought about the "puzzle pieces" offered by/within mormonism is how they treat Sexual Congress.

    I am reminded of the Prophetic notion that there are natural sex acts and unnatural sex acts and that they know which is which.

    If you can, by yourself/selves, without the aid of props, slides, ropes, rigging or a trapeze, and/or a supporting cast, perform an act, using just your body/bodies, how can you say that act is "unnatural"?

    The first thought at hearing such a claim should be, "Oh, yeah?  Watch me do it again!

Thank heaven you are talking about Sexual Congress and not sexual Congress.

BTW, Nancy sends her regards.

You... you... Tardigrade head!!

No, seriously.

She still speaks of that evening in 1969 that started so well but ended more quickly than she had expected.

I guess we all have regrets over what might have been.

Apologies, D&D, for derailing your thread.

EOD is such a terrible influence on other children. . .

Done & Done Wrote:
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Amazing post, D&D. Poetic. Thought-provoking.

I can't imagine not visiting my little bookshop weekly to replenish our household supply of books. Each of our favourites is shared at least three times over. I should join a book club because yakking about books is a most pleasant activity.

I haven't ever thought about slaves not learning to read (my bad) and certainly have never heard that it was unlawful. How terrible.

It's easy to imagine why despots would want people to remain untaught - thinking it would keep them in line - which only underestimates the capacity for the innate human yearning for freedom and knowledge.


> What about men who are to begin and end their days
> in a laborious, tiresome and painful LDS Ward?

Clever analogy! Too bad it's so sad.


> The ward where the bishop tells you that God
> doesn't want you to delve into the mysteries which
> is code for "the less you know the easier my job
> is."

Funny yet not, of course.

It makes sense to think that a large part of all the rules is for the purpose of keeping people in line. If your information source is limited you are more likely to conform to the expectations of those in charge.

It's definitely a defining moment for a person to realize that *they* are the one in charge of their own life (in a "free" society anyway). So much indoctrination to overcome though for those brought up in confining all-encompassing environments such as some religious groups.


> Douglass: "Any thing, no matter what, to get rid of thinking!"

Ah yes, thinking. The curse of self-serving overseers everywhere when their "underlings" won't conform.


> Whoever controls what you read controls all of
> you.

Absolutely. I was fortunate to have a (shortish) Life Before Fundy Religion to fall back on when I was bombarded first by JWs and then Mormons with the concept, in effect, that they are the purveyors of all truth and one of the cardinal sins is to seek enlightenment from any other source.

Especially with the JWs, because they are far more cloistered than are Mormons, this teaching is very effective. If you stay isolated within the group and never read anything "worldly" (which by their definition is everything but their own publications) then you're more likely to be a lifer with them.

I vastly favour the read everything (within reason) approach to life. Within reason to me means at least somewhat mainstream-ish.

My motto since my two negative and uninspiring forays into offshoot religion is don't blinker yourself.

And don't be a stranger at the bookshop!

Where they know my name. Yay!

Douglass: "Any thing, no matter what, to get rid of thinking!"


When I read this I just thought how much that relates to not wanting to see the news or see what this country is doing to itself. I don't want to think about it anymore but can't stop.

'Frederick Douglass in Five Speeches': A conversation with David Blight and Henry Louis Gates Jr.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cd-KDiX8IzM

Oh, thanks for that. I love HL Gates (esp his program 'Finding Your Roots').

I've lined the video up to watch later. Looking forward to it.

Thanks again, anybody.

Thanks everyone. No surprise that EOD immediately gleaned a sexual congress from that. Anything at all will do as a jumping off point. Makes me think of all the senators that got caught with pants down in some motel room after voting against rights for some gays or something.

My own story can't quite compete with that of Frederick Douglas but reading is more than anything what got me out of that church and let me claim myself. And I like visuals with mine.

For me, believe it or not, it was LIFE magazine and a few others. Reading what was gong on in New York City, and all around the country and the world and seeing what people were really doing and I just even as a kid couldn't see any of it as wrong. It just made me want to join them. See it all. Well, maybe skip a few parts after a quick glance.

And what was I supposed to be reading? The BoM. Which did contain the fullness of something, but not any gospel or anything worth knowing. And in my gut I think I already knew it even back then.

When I finally got my last piece of the puzzle-- which oddly enough happened to be the Miracle of Forgiveness-- I just looked up after and said, "I want to experience it all". My last prayer.

Luckily, my parents didn't pay attention to what I read. I got the prize every year for reading the most in each of my elementary school classes. I also had a best friend who I'd compete with in everything in school. She beat me by a long shot. She became a marine biologist. She also quit going to church when we hit jr. high. Her dad was mormon and her mother wasn't. My parents thought she was a great friend and her parents treated me great. I didn't have to live by the idea of my friends all had to be perfect little mormon girls.

I just read. I didn't make a decision based on what the "world" thought or especially the church UNTIL I was in my late teens and I thought I had to read a church book between every other book I read.

Then the music. I worried about that a lot, but I sinned and listened to rock music rather than songs for Sunday (which they have in Cache Valley).

And now I don't give a second thought to what I listen to as far as music and what I read. And I made sure my kids had a lot of good books to read and good music to listen to. Even my good little TBM daughter reads what she wants and listens to all the old music we listened to when they were little. She used to play it on the bus she drove for Princess in Alaska and all the seniors loved the music she played in the bus.

All those rules. All the things that messed up my brain. I didn't read myself out of the church. We all know why I left. Best thing I ever did for myself.

Frederick Douglass wasn't wrong about that. Reading, and more broadly education, are critical.

There are shifts in reading instruction that I've been concerned about over the years. A number of years ago, state and local school districts okayed the use of graphic novels in literacy instruction. I was initially skeptical about that, but have come around to appreciate how those novels can reach and interest many children, particularly boys.

I've also wondered about the use of online books, which is critical in remote instruction. And I've also wondered about the shift to online reading in general -- are kids really getting what they need in order to become literate citizens?

Also, under the Common Core, there has been a huge shift in Reading instruction at the K-12 level to nonfiction text. The aim is to improve literacy in the content areas, which is admirable. But at the same time, I think this shift is killing instruction in nonfiction. I worry about that.

So to summarize . . . there are just too dang many choices? whatcha gonna do? You can't read them all haha. But at least they should all be available.

One reason I like book reviews so much, fiction or not. Sort of like a Cliff's notes thing. The reviewer often puts the best parts in. I like when they quote because I don't want the reviewer's take on it just like I don't want Dallin Oaks "take" on anything.

I enjoy reading book reviews as well, even if my chances of reading a reviewed book are slim to none.

Done & Done Wrote:
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> So to summarize . . .

Shouldn't that word be spelled "summerize?"

"At my age, reading is
the most fun I can have
laying down!"

    --J.W.

YAY! A new kind of congress!

Yes, but he does it with a little electronic device.

I didn't know Kindles were so versatile.

Jesus is the sort of man who discovers all sorts of alternative uses for household items.