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Robin Stevens

Katie Bruemmer

Eng 101

10/24/2023

Passage Based Response

‘The list of frequently challenged books ultimately serves to highlight how the “Young Adult

fiction” market has become a cesspool. The state of kids publishing is such that it’s perfectly

reasonable to be concerned about what agenda-driven and/or prurient content they’re peddling.

As it turns out, the overwhelming majority of books cropping up on the ALA’s most challenged

list are books written for kids that are deemed age inappropriate for one reason or another. This

includes pretty heavy doses of explicit sex and other adult themes such as drug abuse.”

“To say that knowledge never hurts is to deny that books have any power to influence people at

all. And if you’re not trying to influence people, why write? Clearly, Myracle and many of her

controversial peers do think they’re influencing kids for the better, so they want to have it both

ways. By claiming they are victims of “book banning” in the broadest, most meaningless sense,

they are delegitimizing value-based critics of their work by stigmatizing them as ignorant and

anti-democratic. Yet, it’s these parents and educators who actually bear the responsibility of

determining what’s appropriate for their specific children”

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Hemingway, Mark. “In Defense of Book Banning.” The Federalist, 11 March 2014,

https://thefederalist.com/2014/03/11/in-defense-of-book-banning/. Accessed 23 October

2023.

This passage outlines a fathers personal opinions as a member of the school board about

book banning and its morality, as well as its impact on young minds. It is important to note that

this source is based on more opinion that would be considered traditionally credible, the

language is not academic, and this organization is prone to conspiracy theories and using

emotion to sway opinions. Hemingway uses emotionally charged language which is meant to

influence the reader’s anger about what is being presented to their children. He references the

“cesspool” that young adult literature has become, and gives vague, and opinionated examples,

as stated in the quotes. That being said, his main concern is the appropriateness of the content,

and he argues that the sexual aspects detailed in the books are not appropriate for school libraries

to be offering to students. He also argues that authors are aware that certain books are

inappropriate for the general public to access. He references Stepehen King pulling his novel

Rage because he believes it inspired school shootings:

“Stephen King pulled his story Rage about a kid who shoots his algebra teacher and

holds his class hostage, from publication after it was connected to four different teenage

shootings. “My book did not break [these teenagers] or turn them into killers; they found

something in my book that spoke to them, because they were already broken,” [Stephen

King] said. “Yet I did see ‘Rage’ as a possible accelerant, which is why I pulled it from
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sale. You don’t leave a can of gasoline where a boy with firebug tendencies can lay hands

on it.”

Because this is an opinion piece, Hemingway could be viewed as credible in some aspects

because he does work on his local school board, but he cannot speak for all parts of the country,

or even all school districts in his state. Overall this argument was not convincing because of his

high emotions and critical viewpoint. Hemingway does not have a good ethos, uses almost no

solid facts or credible references, and uses an excess of emotion and vague explanations

throughout his argument.