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December 12, 2008
“I Should Be Allowed to Think,” or Howling at City Lights: Poetry Friday
One of the things we librarians like to talk about when we get tired of dealing with overflowing toilets and broken printers is a concept called “intellectual freedom.” If you aren’t in on the code, intellectual freedom is the idea that no one can tell you what to think—and, by the way, no one can, even in countries that make a policy of trying to, which ours, on paper, doesn’t.
The American Library Association endorses a Library Bill of Rights, and while there is a fair amount of controversy over this document even in library circles, it basically outlines the notion that information and thought are rights rather than privileges, something everyone deserves. I believe in this. People who don’t think what I think annoy me from time-to-time (okay, whatever, practically every day), but I do believe in their right to consume information and draw conclusions as solidly as I believe in my own right to do so. This belief is one of the things that makes me so gung-ho about being a librarian.
If you’ve been reading this blog for a while, you might know of my fondness for Allen Ginsberg, and so when I was in San Francisco, I visited City Lights, the bookstore/publisher that is famous for publishing and defending Ginsberg’s Howl and Other Poems, a book that has been taken to court and otherwise challenged and censored continuously since its publication in 1956. “Howl” is the one with the famous beginning, “I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by madness, starving hysterical naked.” (You can read and hear the whole thing here.) It is, as They Might Be Giants notes, in no small part about the importance of intellectual freedom, about how psychologically damaging it can be to live in a repressive society.
“Howl” would not make my list of favorite poems, but I am glad City Lights decided to publish it and that they’re still hanging around selling and publishing books. I bought a book to thank them for their work. I considered Howl for sentiment’s sake but wound up with Bambi vs. Godzilla by David Mamet because I read the first chapter while I was there (they have signs ALL OVER inviting you to sit and read) and that first chapter very much made me want to read the second. (Plus, OMG, I love Bambi Meets Godzilla. Lucas does, too—when he saw the book on my dining room table this morning, he was like, “That movie is a BOOK TOO?” I was like, “Um, not exactly.”)
I think the lesson of San Francisco is that art is awesome.
[Roundup at Wild Rose Reader today.]
Posted by adrienne at December 12, 2008 07:56 AM
Comments
I gratefully acknowledge WTAT for her help in obtaining that B vs. G clip. How did I miss that?
My son just finished 1984. Intellectual freedom is on his mind. He even pulled a quote from it for his Facebook page.
Posted by: Sara Holmes at December 12, 2008 01:05 PM
Ooh, City Lights! I'm going to the symphony next weekend when I'm home (*she says casually, and then shrieks*) and across from Max's Opera Cafe is where A Clean, Well-Lighted Place For Books used to be -- it's another indie now, but it's where Lawrence Ferlinghetti used to hang out -- I go there and soak up the ambiance, too.
Of course, I have no yet EVER picked up anything as awesome as Bambi v. Godzilla. Ever.
Posted by: TadMack at December 12, 2008 02:10 PM
Sara, I first saw Bambi vs. Godzilla at a church youth group retreat. We watched a film of it, like they showed it via a projector. It's one of those moments that stayed with me.
TadMack, Your homes are in pretty darned cool places. I am going to have to remember this Clean, Well-Lighted Place for Books the next time I'm in SF, which is just next month. Shouldn't be hard, although sometimes I forget what day of the week it is, so.
Posted by: adrienne at December 12, 2008 02:58 PM
Word to every word of that post.
Posted by: jules at December 12, 2008 09:36 PM
I have been trying to determine if you are the former Adrienne Caroselli,who attended St. Bernadette's and Archbishop Predergast.I was 1 year behind you and saw your profile on Classmates.com but was unable to contact you.
Posted by: john nash at August 17, 2009 09:38 PM
No, that's not me.
Posted by: adrienne at August 19, 2009 09:13 AM