Technolandy

Day 2 (of 2025/26) Alberta book ban vs Margaret Atwood

Video: https://www.instagram.com/reel/DOJ-f0JEvXh/?igsh=MXF2Zmhic2NmNTRnZQ==

I love dystopian fiction (Atwood’s Oryx & Cracke is one of my all time favourites) but I really loved Atwood’s retort to the recent Albertan school library book ban… along with other similar books that feel more like ‘hiding the blueprint to authoritarianism’ than protecting kids from reading ‘spicy’ books… 

There should always be books on shelves that push thinking… with language or suggestive scenes, much ‘as seen on tv’ – with the most important person available: a full time librarian (and a second who teaches STEM/steam/research for prep coverage…). These are the experts who know when a reader is ready… spoiler: it ain’t their age

It was ‘fun’ for me to then see the Albertan government “roll back” some of the ban by declaring that this would not impact “classics”

Probably because Margaret Atwood w has written a short story for 17-year olds about two “very, very good children” named John and Mary. A beautiful short story for Alberta’s “curriculum”:

John and Mary. They never picked their noses or had bowel movements or zits. 

They grew up and married each other, and produced five perfect children without ever having sex.

Atwood said the duo paid no attention to the poor and “forgiving your enemies and such; instead, they practised selfish rapacious capitalism.”

Atwood goes on to say that the duo never die because “who wants to dwell” and they lived happily ever after.

But while they were doing that The Handmaid’s Tale came true and [Premier] Danielle Smith found herself with a nice new blue dress but no job,” she said, referring to the high-ranking wives of commanders in her book who wore blue while the handmaids, in red garments, were subjected to produce children for elite couples in a totalitarian and theocratic state.

“The end.”

Nice and boring and bland. Fortunately, the Albertan government made some ‘edits’ to its book banning policy – https://www.theglobeandmail.com/canada/alberta/article-alberta-book-ban-libraries/ wanting to make it more clear that really, it’s about gender identity, sexual orientation and human sexuality rather than the suggestive scenes (descriptions of violence are still totally encouraged!?!) The ‘strugglle’ with declaring “the direction will be to take books with pornographic images out of the libraries and to leave the classics alone’ is twofold:

1. What if I point out that books like GenderQueer are “Instant Classics”? Does that mean it gets to stay on the bookshelf? (Again, if we have full time librarians, we need not be as worried about who sees what books… better coverage than in bookstores!!)
2. Who decides what is ‘pornographic’ in imagery… I’ll pick on genderqueer and say that the imagery is artistic while others have said it’s porn… the broader porn problem is that it has always been challenging to define, but often… “I know it when I see it”. No librarian is putting ‘smut’ onto bookshelves – but often nudity and sexuality discomfort/obscenity is in the eye of the beholder… and the best ‘agent’ to work with this issue is… a full time librarian – because readiness for ‘spicy writing’ and sexual content is NOT based on age. 

It’s cute that the albertan education act says parents must ‘opt in’ before students under 16 are taught about gender identity, sexual orientation or human sexuality… I guess that means all bathrooms are like the ones at home: agnostic of gender? Sports teams and acting roles are likewise not going to be focused on gender… no more chats about ‘blue/pink jobs’ and don’t even think about using a shortened name (My own daughter Alexandra went by Alex and Allie frequently I school… but no nickname shortenings now…!) The quiet part that gets noticed is that they don’t want to talk about which books are based, when the only examples are #bipoc and #SOGI / LGBTQ2IA+ characters and authors… just like the not-so-subtle attack on names… you know the rollback will be around allowing ‘cool’ nicknames and shortenings just not ‘those ones’….

As usual, get the list of banned books and read ‘em – most of them are fabulous!

Draft Video Script: “Ah yes, Alberta’s book bans — because nothing says ‘protect kids’ like hiding the blueprints to authoritarianism!”

“Margaret Atwood nailed it. Her ‘perfect children’ story ends with The Handmaid’s Tale coming true — blue dresses for some, red ones for others. And now Alberta ‘rolls back’ bans but only for ‘classics’? Who decides what’s classic or ‘porno-classic’? Spoiler: apparently not trained librarians — because they’re the ones being cut, too.”

“If you want kids safe, we need full-time librarians and more people to read the banned books – not just cherrypicked components. Most of them? Absolute bangers. GenderQueer is an ‘instant classic’ do instant classics get the same ‘back on the shelf’ treatment?