Femme On

Banned Books Conversations: Where Radical Readers Discuss Prohibited Prose

Banned books are works that have been removed from a library shelf or school curriculum. Over the course of Banned Books Week, this series will cover seven different books, the reasons they were banned, and the value in reading them.

Host: Tonya Todd
Video producer: JP Butler
Audio producer: Ria Carrogan
Graphics: Mike Burton

Guest panellists

Sherry Rosenthal: Professor of English at the College of Southern Nevada. She's working on a novel and is the author of nonfiction books, short stories, poems, & essays.

Books on amazon; contact about panels sherry.rosenthal@csn.edu

Ria Carrogan: Communications professional by day, the rest of the time podcast producer of Femme On. The podcast at Femmeon.show, Instagram @femmeoncollective

Amanda Skenandore: Author of 4 historical novels, soon to be 5 and is a registered nurse. 

Find her at Amandaskenandore.com

Summary
Tonya hosted a lively discussion with Sherry Rosenthal, Ria Carrogan, and Amanda Skenandore about 'The Kite Runner.' 

Sherry said she didn't expect this sort of censorship to take root in the United States. In the past it was an idea that never seemed to happen. Books that offended her include titles by Ayn Rand, and Machiavelli but she would never support banning them, because as awful as anything might be to some, who is to be the arbiter?

Ria finds the reasons for the banned books fascinating, mainly that they are rarely what she predicted. The vocal minority is dangerous and many of their reasons seem unethical. Banning means closing the discussion and when ideas are not talked out they can become dangerous. She feels that by banning books, you are deleting history. Ria breaks her own rule for diet books.

Amanda is often surprised at the books on the banned lists, particularly this one, The Kite Runner. She is offended by casual racism in some books, but although she doesn't personally enjoy reading it, it is important to preserve these books in other times for how things were. We should not be banning any books because we need to keep them in the conversation. 

All three panelists enjoyed the conversation and agreed that The Kite Runner is an important book to read. Amanda added that reading it now gives us an opportunity to examine the twenty years we spent in Afghanistan and how we left them.