THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, September 15, 1996 TAG: 9609170510
SECTION: COMMENTARY PAGE: J3 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BILL RUEHLMANN
LENGTH: 73 lines
America is a great paradox. It was born in dissent and immediately made law a First Amendment to its Constitution guaranteeing free speech. At the same time it is a place that militates against minority opinion.
We don't like anybody to tell us we're full of feces.
We don't even like them to tell us we're full of money.
When writers tell us these things too well, we try to shut them up.
``Censorship is pertinent to what's going on right now,'' says M. Evelina Galang, director of the upcoming 19th annual Old Dominion University Literary Festival.
She points to winnowing NEA grants, under fire for funding ``work that isn't agreeable.'' She points to 116 books banned in U.S. school districts, public libraries and college classrooms over the past year. Yep, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn made it again, and Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451 (about burning books), and Maya Angelou's I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings.
Inappropriate.
Objectionable.
True.
``Be politically incorrect,'' advises the director, ``and have the heart to learn from it.''
Galang, 35, who teaches contemporary literature, also points to today's university students who resist new voices.
``This,'' they complain, confronted with alternative fiction, ``is not Jane Austen.''
That's the point.
So Galang made censorship the theme for this year's ``Forbidden Passage'' festival Oct. 10 through 13.
All afternoon talks, readings and panel discussions on campus are free and open to the public. Tickets for Thursday, Friday and Saturday evening events are $12. Included are literary heavy hitters Tony Kushner, author of the Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award-winning play ``Angels in America,'' Jessica Hagedorn, author of the National Book Award-nominated Dogeaters, and June Jordan, Reader's Digest Writers Award-winning author of A Revolutionary Blueprint.
For further information, call 683-3991.
Concurrently, the eighth annual Southern Festival of Books takes place Oct. 11 through 13 at War Memorial Plaza in downtown Nashville, Tenn.
``The big drawing card,'' publicist Susan Keel told me, ``will be the celebrities we've invited.''
Basketball legend Kareem Abdul Jabbar, author of Black Profiles in Courage. Actress Dixie Carter, author of Opinions of a Tennessee Talker. Comedian Dom DeLuise, author of King Bob's New Clothes.
My personal favorite: Academy Award-winning actor-turned-poet Jack Palance, author of The Forest of Love.
``A number of literary types are going to be here, too,'' Keel assured me.
In fact, the star-studded weekend features more than 200 national and regional authors and poets, among them Richard Bausch (Good Evening Mr. & Mrs. America and All the Ships at Sea), Barry Hannah (High Lonesome), Jill McCorkle (Carolina Moon), and Hampton Roads' own David Poyer (Down to a Sunless Sea).
It's also free and open to the public, except for the $40 awards dinner at the end. About 30,000 people showed up last year, so phone ahead for lodging. Call (615) 320-7001 for further information.
Closer to home is the Mid-Atlantic Writer's Workshop Conference at the Lake Wright Resort and Convention Center in Norfolk, Oct. 31 through Nov. 3.
This one isn't free - $300 at the door - but it has attractions for bookfolk. Featured are wordsmith Richard Lederer (Fractured English), editor Thomas Clark (The Writer's Digest Guide to Good Writing) and romance novelist Jacqueline Marten (Moonshine and Glory). Also on the bill will be spookmeister L.B. Taylor Jr., author of The Ghosts of Virginia, and several others, including yours truly.
``We're trying to give budding writers an incentive to continue,'' said conference business manager Richard Stone of Virginia Beach.
For further information on the conference, call 471-6717. MEMO: Bill Ruehlmann is a mass communication professor at Virginia
Wesleyan College. by CNB