Albemarle Removes Sherlock Holmes Book From Reading List

The Daily Progess ^ | AARON RICHARDSON

[Huntress]

That’s the way it worked with me as a kid. Once I read the banned/restricted books, I usually wondered what all the fuss was about.

[Cicero]

Mea culpa. Haven’t read it in a while.

[Talisker]

A parent ... challenged the [Sherlock Holmes] book...

"A" parent?

Not a bunch of parents, or a group of parents, or a council of parents.

A single parent.

What would happen if a single parent challenged the teaching of Islamic studies on the grounds that, oh, I don't know, they slaughter people all over the world that don't agree with them, and they openly declare that they are at war with the entire planet?

Would the school board meet over this?

[momtothree]

“... I usually wondered what all the fuss was about”.

Me, too! In fact, I usually read them again just to make sure I didn’t miss the “good stuff”. LOL> I remember when my son and his English class had to get signed permission slips to read “Tom Sawyer”. They were so excited... a parent had to sign a permission slip so it must be just raw literature. After a few weeks, he said, “What is all the fuss about? I hear more “racial language” in the hallways than I read in that book. When Tom had to paint the fence... that wasn’t symbolic, right?” I laughed so hard that I almost fell off my chair!

[AFreeBird]

The county that is the home of Jefferson banning books! Jefferson seeded the genesis, from his own library, of the Library of Congress!

[Blue Ink]

Misrepresenting the story doesn’t do Doyle or anyone else any favors.

Ferrier, Lucy’s adoptive father, never converts to the religion of his rescuers, and says he’ll die before he sees his daughter married off to any of them. It’s understood that his objection is to their Mormonism, particularly to the doctrine of plural marriage.

So yeah, it’s “derogatory,” just like mentioning clitorectomies and the fact that some people object to the practice might be considered derogatory toward Islam. And our answer should be the same in both cases: “Yeah. So what?”

[LouAvul]

Derogatory? Nonsense. You want derogatory? Read Joseph Smith’s history as a con man in New York State. Read about the Mountain Meadows Massacre. Read about the kooky doctrines. They don’t need Doyle to be embarrassed about their religion.

[Greysard]

I’d say “The Hound of the Baskervilles” would be a better choice.

"The Hound of the Baskervilles" is a long story, with many actors, several sub-plots, and with many motives. It may be also a pretty scary story for a younger student, with a large dog running around and attacking people. It involves a good deal of adult matter as well; one key observation, for example, is the unusual behavior of the protagonist with regard to his "sister." This may be lost on a 6-grader. But the demise of the spaniel will surely be noticed.

[Finny]

Try reading it. It’s not that long, and wonderfully written, like all of Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes stories. Conan Doyle apparently didn’t like Mormons. Neither did Zane Grey.

[Finny]

I agree, Hound of the Baskervilles would be my first choice. “And above all, avoid the moor, when the powers of evil are exalted.” !!!

[Finny]

... just the sort of blood and thunder nonsense you would expect from an Englishman who had never been near America, let alone Utah or the West.

Yes ... but American Zane Grey was even less thrilled with Mormons. His "Riders of the Purple Sage" is a case in point.

[Finny]

Hmmmm ... I have read it, several times, but not nearly as many times as I’ve read the rest of the Holmes stories. The story certainly always struck me as deliberately derogatory toward Mormanism. So was Riders of the Purple Sage by Zane Grey.

[AnAmericanMother]

Poor Tonga was "a" villain, not "the" villain, the peg-legged Small. But it's interesting that so many of Doyle's early villains have extenuating circumstances, so to speak. And so many of the victims are not exactly nice guys themselves . . . there's a "He needed killin'" defense in many cases.

But the whole Mormon interlude in SiS, like Tonga, is just exotic window-dressing. The English Victorians were fascinated by the American West, especially cowboys, wild Indians, and Mormons, but they weren't very interested in the whys and wherefores. Just giving some color to the story.

[AnAmericanMother]

I suspected as much from the context and the style, and Doyle's general reputation as a tolerant fellow.

Glad (but not surprised) to hear that he confirmed that w/ Young's family.

[AnAmericanMother]

"By jove, a curly-haired spaniel. Mortimer will never see his pet again."

I don't think the Hound would be too scary or too complicated for a middle school student. I read it around age 8 or 9 and enjoyed it. Became quite a Holmes fan and probably bored everybody to death over Dr. Watson's middle initial and where 221-B Baker Street actually was . . . .

I think the schools often sell kids short by lowering expectations. If a kid has trouble, give him a boost, don't dumb everything down to the lowest level.

[Sloth]

Sounds like a mountain out of a molehill, but yeah, Baskervilles is probably a better choice anyway.

Or the “Five Orange Pips” story if they really want to be PC, since the bad guys are Klan members.

[SAJ]

A very good point about the English fascination with the ‘wild West’, or indeed with any ‘exotic’ locale. In Conan Doyle’s stories, we see this fascination exhibited again and again: Thor Bridge, Valley of Fear, The Sussex Vampire, The Devil’s Foot, The Dancing Men, The Noble Bachelor and so forth.

[AnAmericanMother]

I think one of the comforting aspects of your typical murder mystery is that the villain is an exotic "other" of some kind. That way little old ladies can read the stories in their beds at night and not be frightened half to death.

Although Doyle's ladies in peril are often in danger from apparently ordinary people or even their own families, e.g. Speckled Band, Solitary Cyclist, Case of Identity.