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I Am Not A Pornographer

2008-01-30 · John · watch on YouTube · Books & writing · advocacy activism

John argues that his novel Looking for Alaska is not pornographic, that teenagers can read critically, and that a few objectors should not decide what other parents' children read at Depew High School; he asks nerdfighters to attend the school board meeting and write letters.

What is said

00:00:00 — Greeting; part one: I am not a pornographer

00:00:14 — Looking for Alaska to be taught at Depew High School with a permission slip; objectors call it pornographic

  • ★★ John learns his first novel, Looking for Alaska, published almost three years ago, is to be taught to 11th-grade English students at Depew High School near Buffalo. — 00:00:14 · Looking for Alaska
  • ★★ John says the school wrote to parents with a permission slip: children of parents who agree read the book, others read a different book. — 00:00:35 · Looking for Alaska
  • ★★★ John reports that a few people without 11th-grade children call the book pornographic, say it will cause immoral thoughts and actions in children, and want no one to read it. — 00:01:00 · Looking for Alaska

00:01:17 — Why the book is not pornography: the '-ography' gag and the purpose of the sex scene

  • ★★ John says the issue is not about him, but being told his novel for teenagers is pornography makes him mad. (playful) — 00:01:17 · Looking for Alaska
  • ★★★ John defines pornography as designed to titillate and doubts any halfway normal person would find anything in his book arousing. (hedged) — 00:01:48 · Looking for Alaska > «Pornography is designed to titillate.»
  • ★★★ John says the book's one frank sex scene is deliberately awkward and unerotic, written to contrast empty physical intimacy with the next scene's emotional connection. — 00:01:56 · Looking for Alaska
  • ★★★ John says the novel argues physical intimacy can never stand in for emotional closeness, so it argues against vapid physical interactions, not for them. — 00:02:20 · Looking for Alaska

00:02:36 — Teenagers can read critically; a few parents should not decide for others; book banners

  • ★★★ John tells those who say teens lack critical sophistication to stop condescending: readers of Animal Farm or Huck Finn don't take them literally (Godot, he jokes, doesn't help). — 00:02:36 · close reading
  • ★★★ John says a few parents should not decide what other parents' children read in school; each parent may sign or not sign the permission slip. (hedged) — 00:03:06
  • ★★ John says it angers him when small, well-organized groups of would-be book banners try to take over America's public school systems. — 00:03:15 · United States

00:03:22 — Depew teachers stand up for the book; ask to attend the Feb 5 school board meeting and write letters

  • ★★ John says many Depew teachers, administrators and school board members are standing up for the book and for teachers' and parents' rights. — 00:03:22 · Looking for Alaska
  • ★★★ John asks nerdfighters living in or near Depew to attend the school board meeting on February 5th to support those defending intellectual freedom. — 00:03:37 · Nerdfighteria
  • ★★★ John says he has written a letter defending the teachers and asks viewers to email their own letters to him to forward on. — 00:03:45

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