Geek As Citizen / Make It So: Banned Book Giveaway

Book Shelf And More

Awhile ago, I heard about how the Merdian, Idaho School district removed the novel “The Absolutely True Diary of A Part-Time Indian” from its curriculum.  So a student helped give away the books as part of an event called World Book Night.

So some parent called the cops on them.  Really.

Now this got me thinking. Not just that some people really need to get boundaries, or that it seem son one realizes that banning something makes teenagers want it more.  It made me think about banned books and geekdom.

Geeks in general don’t like censorship and we’ll regularly read things that will melt people’s brains.  We’re also pro-literacy in many cases, and we’re organized.

Also, frankly, I’m anti-censorship.  Good citizenship is about the intelligent handling of ideas.

So I’m thinking we geeks ought to get in on this Making Banned Books available thing.

CONVENTION BANNED BOOKS EVENT:

So my basic idea is this.

Appropriate conventions (those with a heavy literary element and that are large enough) should host a banned book giveaway.  Have a room, open with donated copies of various banned books that would be available to all comers.  Perhaps there would be donation boxes (or purchased donation slips allowing entrances) that would fund worthy causes – or you just give the books away.

Now this would have to be done carefully as some books may, say, be age-inappropriate and there may be local legal issues.  But careful checking and thought would make this relatively easy to handle.

Such an event would:

  • Promote literacy.  Always good.
  • Promote awareness of banned books and censorship.  Also important – and indeed something I feel we geeks should pay more attention to as awareness fits our “cultural portfolio.”
  • Get people to read books – some banned or controversial books are often damned good (it seems that makes them more controversial).
  • Would act as good publicity – properly handled.  Poorly handled it could be a mess, of course, but I trust you.

I wouldn’t be surprised if other conventions have done this, but I haven’t heard of it before.  So I promote this as an idea.

But I’m not done yet . . .

TAKING THIS FARTHER

See, this is just the basic idea.  The more I think of it, the more I think there’s other things we could try.

  • Many conventions, such as anime cons, draw on media from other countries.  There could also be a focus on controversial literature from source countries. That’d be extra educational.  Speaking of . .
  •  . . . an event like this could be paired with discussion of the relevant literature or literature relevant to the convention theme.  That would be educational.
  • Discussions or panels about censorship and laws, especially in history and perhaps other counties would be interesting.  This could also be useful in areas, like video games.
  • This could easily go beyond books with things like games, movies, films, and so on.  Even banned nonfiction is relevant.
  • Some conventions, those focused heavily on media producers, could also pair this with panels on dealing with laws and censorship, becoming very educational.
  • Entire sub-conventions or conventions could spring up around the idea of dealing with censored and controversial works.  Just noting.
  • Conventions doing this could partner with existing organizations as appropriate.
  • Go crazy with cosplay of infamous characters, etc.  That might be too silly – or pretty neat.

There’s many ways to take this.

CLOSING

So, just an idea that struck me for we geek citizens to consider.  It fits what we do, our love of media, and we’ve got a social structure to do it within.

Any thoughts?

– Steven Savage

Geek As Citizen: Helping Others Publish

When I was at Con-Volution, enjoying a break and the ambiance of the dining area, it was a bit crowded. A charming older woman asked if she might sit at my table as the area was so densley packed, and I figured some dinner company would be delightful. I’m always glad to meet new people, and frankly her manners really impressed me.

We got to chatting, and she turned out to be a fascinating person.  Now in hher 70’s she’d let quite a life, and had considered doing a book about it; over the decades she’d had many amusing experiences and wanted to share them. As our conversation progressed, I had to agree she was right – in fact her life would have made a wonderful romantic/family comedy.

I noted that she could self-publish easily and at least get a book out there, then seek professional publication. She had not explored the world of self-publishing, so I gave her my card and mentioned if she was interested, she could email me. I would be glad to help her out, I noted, since I had been published and she clearly had many stories worth telling.

This got me thinking about we geeks helping others get published.

Read more

Geek As Citizen: The Role Of Republishing

I’d like to take a break from my analysis of Geeks as Citizens to focus on something I’ve been thinking about in regard to our social role – specific advice as opposed to my more general ruminations.

Actually, Geek As Citizen is going to go permeant here at MuseHack. It’s been quite inspiring, I think it’s useful, and it’s more applicable with actual practical examples. This is going to be one of those.

I’ve been speculating (which is my normal state) on how we geeks create and write a lot of things. Certainly I do because . . . well you’re here at this blog. I’ve been doing this and other writing for years.

Chances are you can or are writing various columns, blog posts, message board responses, and more. Sure, some of them may not seem useful, or relevant,for the ages, or even things you want to admit to writing. But I’m willing to bet some of them are pretty important and not overly humiliating.

So I want to suggest that you make an effort to ensure your great content gets a larger spread and a longer lifespan.  Yep, I suggest republishing.

I suggest this as part of “Geek As Citizen” because I consider part of good citizenry in our communities/countries/world to be maximizing our contributions and ensuring they get the widest reach possible. So, as a citizen geek, with so much that you’ve done over the years, I’d advise making sure more people can get it.

(Besides, you’re probably a lot more prolific than you appreciate)

Consider these possibilities:

  • Repost your work (especially past work that’s fallen into obscurity) on blogs and other sites, as long as you observe proper procedure (timeframes, duplication of content policies, etc).
  • Consolidate your work on your own website for easy of access. If you’ve got some long-running stuff give it it’s own website.
  • Take your work and bundle it up in a convenient document like a PDF or ePub for easy distribution (and learn something about publishing)
  • Take your work further and distribute it for free with Smashwords or something similar.
  • Go all the way and rewrite/edit the work into a full-scale book and/or eBook to get it out there. Maybe consider free eBooks and a physical book that actually costs (even if it’s only the POD price).

Now think of the advantages of doing this:

  • First of all you archive your works. Yes, you should be doing it anyway (which perhaps I’ll address more later), but it is the kind of initiative that helps you preserve them for posterity.
  • Secondly, it makes your works accessible in new formats. You didn’t think of Kindle when you wrote that adventure module a decade ago – now you can put it in that format.
  • Third, it lets you publicize your works as you advertise the new format. Even sending files to friends can result in them saying “hey I know someone who may want this.” Of course if you actually put usable content in new formats you might want to promote it.
  • Fourth, it helps you get in the habit of doing this. Trust me, it’s worth it.
  • Finally, it distributes your works. Which is kind of the point anyway, but still.
  • Oh and “double-finally” it gives other people the same idea.

Thus your work survives and propagates and has a chance to do more good. Pretty nice addition to any set of activities a citizen geek may take up.

It might even make you a little money – my books Epic Resume Go and Quest For Employment involved bundling up various tips, blog posts, and advice into books.  You might even find you have another career ahead of you . . .

– Steven “Republisher” Savage