Don't Ban "Blankets"

The AP published a variant on the tried-and-true "libraries ban books" story today, focusing on parental objections to children having access to certain graphic novels. Among them: Craig Thompson's "Blankets."

Most of the graphic novels you'll find in the book store are compendiums of multiple, previously-published comics books. "Blankets" is a single, book-length (582 pages) volume based on the author's experiences growing up in a fundamentalist Christian household in Minnesota. The story revolves around his adolescent struggles with faith, family, and the intense feelings of his first romantic relationship. A few pages contain exceptionally tasteful portrayals of semi-nudity, causing one concerned Missouri parent to ask, "Does this community want our public library to continue to use tax dollars to purchase pornography?"

I have a lot of sympathy for parents who are concerned about their children being exposed to a popular culture that seems to grow more vulgar, exploitative, and unavoidable by the year. This is true of some mainstream comic books, which tend to feature a lot of consequence-free violence and anatomically improbable women runing around in skin-tight spandex.

But here's the thing: "Blankets" is exactly the opposite of that. It's as honest, touching, and humane as one could imagine. Here are some reviews:

"...a first-love story so well remembered and honest that it reminds you what falling in love feels like...achingly beautiful." -Time

"In telling his story, which includes beautifully rendered memories of the small brutalities that parents inflict on their children and siblings upon each other, Thompson describes the ecstasy and ache of obsession (with a lover, with God) and is unafraid to suggest the ways that obsession can consume itself and evaporate." -The New York Times Book Review

"...recreates the confusion, emotional pain and isolation of the author's rigidly fundamentalist Christian upbringing, along with the trepidation of growing into maturity, with a rare combination of sincerity, pictorial lyricism and taste." -Publisher's Weekly

"...an impressively concrete portrait of emotional emphemera, captured with talent, disarming humor, and a gentle sincerity that glows through on every remarkable page." -The Onion

Children absolutely need to be protected from pornography, but doing so means applying a reasonable definition of what that word means. At its worse, pornography stimulates the basest human impulses with graphic, dehumanizing depictions of violence and sex. It's ironic that the word itself has become debased in a way that seems allow the worst imaginable kinds of violence while drawing a bright line at the portrayal of specific, fairly innocuous elements of female anatomy, regardless of context.

Libraries shouldn't be banning "Blankets," they should be handing out free copies at the door.