Tag: literature

Too On Brand: School Purges 1984, Animal Farm, Lord of the Flies, and Others to Promote ‘Diversity’

You really can’t make things like this up. 

Seriously. Liberals may want to purge libraries of “wrongthink,” but you would expect that anybody with an IQ above room temperature could have figured out that tossing out more than half your books in a school library, including 1984 and Animal Farm, would be a bad look. 

But no. Not in Canada, apparently. And certainly not at the Thames Valley School District in London, Ontario. Out of a High School library of 18,000 books, 10,000 were “deselected” and tossed into the trash because they didn’t fit the vision of having an “inclusive” library. Presumably, that explains why they tossed out books by J.K. Rowling, which I assume were quite popular with the kids; she engages in wrongthink about gender, and needs to be purged. 

A London, Ontario, secondary school binned more than 10,000 library books between January and March this year under the Thames Valley District School Board’s “inclusive libraries revitalization project,” eliminating more than half of the school’s 18,000-book collection.

H.B. Beal’s library once held one of the largest collections in the board. Today, fewer than 8,300 books remain. The estimated value of the discarded materials exceeds $180,000.

Education Minister Paul Calandra moved quickly to halt further library culls while the ministry investigates the Beal revitalization project. A spokesperson for the ministry confirmed last week that “the minister has directed that all current and future library collection reviews be paused, pending further evaluation.”

According to board documentation, the project aims “to revitalize the collections of Thames Valley schools to ensure they are culturally responsive, reflect our diverse student population, and contain accurate and up-to-date information.” The project adds that it will focus on “deselecting texts with harmful images, messaging, slurs, and racial epithets to facilitate the safety and well-being of all students.”

Some of the books “deselected” blow your mind, not because it would surprise you that radical leftists would want to hide them, but because it makes their goals of purging the library of any ideological diversity so blatant. They literally purged books about…book banning. 

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Insanity: Loyola University Maryland’s Department of English Claims Literature Promotes “White Supremacy”

In the latest insanity from liberal education, according to The College Fix, “Loyola University Maryland’s Department of English recently announced its commitment to ‘anti-racism,’ claiming literature promotes ‘white supremacy.”

The department of English proclaims on its website, “Literature and the literary canons have been used to validate “white supremacy.”

It’s clear that DEI and Woke ideology remain the dominant ideology at Loyola.

The department is even considering renaming the website.

The department also echoes Woke slogans like “black lives matter,” “racism is based in white supremacy,” and “confronting racism requires that we actively facilitate conversations about it in the classroom.”

This department is biased and has an anti-Western civilization bent in that it views Western and English literature as inherently bad.

The English department even made the absurd promise to “acknowledge the centrality of whiteness in the history and evolution of literary canons.”

The department pledges to “hire a professor of African American literature and include more authors of color in their curriculum. It will examine all classes and commit to “making anti-racist teaching central in each one.”

This sounds more like a struggle session than anything else.

They went even further than that, absurdly saying they would “avoid centering the experiences of white students” in the classroom by “interrogating the presumed invisibility of whiteness in the classroom and the concept of the ‘universal reader’ as always being white and male.”

Loyola University in Maryland was founded by the Jesuits, a Catholic order.

According to The College Fix, “The school’s English department sees that Jesuit mission as a “commitment to serving an urban, majority-Black city with a history of racial injustice.”

Even a Professor at Emory called out this Woke direction the school’s English department is headed in.

Prof. Bauerlein rightly argued, “The position of the Loyola department gives neat evidence for why English has become such a marginal discipline.”

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University adds ‘trigger warning’ to James Bond novel ‘Dr. No’

An entertainment staple for over 50 years, the suave British spy James Bond has been featured in numerous novels and 26 films, the most recent being “No Time to Die,” actor Daniel Craig’s last as Agent 007.

News broke this past week that the film franchise’s new owner, Amazon Studios, digitally removed 007’s handgun from various Bond actors’ poses. But after fan outrage, Amazon put the guns back … and offered no explanation, according to OutKick.

The Pierce Brosnan pose for “Goldeneye” looked particularly stupid.

Now the University of Portsmouth in the U.K. has included the Bond novel “Dr. No” on a list of 50 books that have trigger warnings, according to The Telegraph.

“Please note: James Bond films and novels are popular to this day but contain many problematic issues such as racism, misogyny and xenophobia,” the university said. “We will be discussing the problems with this text in all of our seminars.”

The school said it “encourages students ‘to engage with teaching texts in an informed way’ through content notes.”

Content warnings recognise the diverse lived experience of students and that there can be content they will find challenging or potentially distressing as a result of their experiences. It is our duty of care to our students to do so. The warning enables students to prepare emotionally, engage more deeply and discuss the issues raised by the content critically and constructively.

Ian Kinane, a lecturer at the University of Roehampton and editor of the International Journal of James Bond Studies, defended the trigger warning.

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Kamala’s Memoir Is So Bad, It’s Hard To Believe She Read It

The reviews are in for former Vice President Kamala Harris’ memoir, “107 Days.” The book is bad on its own merits. And worse for what’s left of Harris’ reputation. 

First, an unforgivably tardy critique of former President Joe Biden’s decision to stay in the presidential race. Harris never managed to artfully separate from Biden after she took his place as Democratic nominee. 

“‘It’s Joe and Jill’s decision.’ We all said that, like a mantra, as if we’d all been hypnotized,” Harris writes, according to a screenshot. “Was it grace, or was it recklessness? In retrospect, I think it was recklessness. The stakes were simply too high. This wasn’t a choice that should have been left to an individual’s ego, an individual’s ambition. It should have been more than a personal decision.”

An honest Democrat strategist might say the same of Harris’ decision to run in Biden’s stead. 

But Harris isn’t done complaining. 

“I shouldered the blame for the porous border, an issue that had proved intractable for Democratic and Republican administrations alike,” Harris whines. Note: President Donald Trump’s second administration has proved the issue is more than tractable. 

Harris spins securing the border as an utter impossibility. 

“No one around the president advocated, Give her something she can win with.”

What would that be? Third grade math? Slurring her words during interviews?

Harris claims she was “castigated for, apparently, delivering [a speech] too well.” 

The Biden White House’s “thinking was zero-sum: If she’s shining, he’s dimmed. None of them grasped that if I did well, he did well. That given the concerns about his age, my visible success as his vice president was vital. It would serve as a testament to his judgment in choosing me and reassurance that if something happened, the country was in good hands. My success was important for him.” 

If Harris managed to speak with half the lucidity she mustered for this book, she might’ve had different presidential odds. 

Instead, Harris blames “a series of mistakes, committed over years, mostly by other people,” according to a review of the memoir from Semafor. 

“I didn’t have enough time,” she writes, according to The New York Times (NYT). 

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‘Sounding bodies:’ NEH spends $12,600 on professor’s ‘musical erotics’ book

The National Endowment for the Humanities underwrote a digital access book about sexuality in Victorian literature by a Siena College Professor.

The State University of New York received $6,600 to create an open access edition of Professor Shannon Draucker’s book, titled “Sounding Bodies: Acoustical Science and Musical Erotics in Victorian Literature.” The NEH’s Open Book Program “supports the conversion of recently published books funded by NEH into eBooks that are freely available online.” 

This is on the top of the $6,000 Draucker herself previously received for the book.

The book compares listening to music to orgasms, according to an NEH description.

“Can the concert hall be as erotic as the bedroom? Many Victorian writers believed so,” the description states.

The book reports how 19th-century “acoustical scientists” “described music as a set of physical vibrations that tickled the ear, excited the nerves, and precipitated muscular convulsions.”

“In turn, writers—from canonical figures such as George Eliot and Thomas Hardy, to New Women novelists like Sarah Grand and Bertha Thomas, to anonymous authors of underground pornography—depicted bodily sensations and experiences in unusually explicit ways,” the book states.

The Fix reached out to Draucker and asked via email if she believed she may have a harder time receiving grants from the NEH under the Trump Administration. She did not respond to emails and phone calls in the past month and a half.

The Fix also emailed Rebecca Colesworthy, the recipient of the open access grant, and asked what the money goes to and if she had any concerns about the funds being taken back by the Trump administration. She did not respond to an email on Sept. 19.

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Outrage erupts after Amazon sells book about Charlie Kirk’s assassination HOURS after the shooting

Outrage and online conspiracy theories spread after a book about Charlie Kirk’s assassination was listed for sale on Amazon.

On Wednesday, social media users shared images of a book available on Amazon titled ‘The Shooting of Charlie Kirk: A Comprehensive Account of the Utah Valley University Attack, the Aftermath, and America’s Response.’

However, many irate users on X pointed out that the publication date listed on the retail giant’s website showed ‘September 9, 2025,’ the day before Kirk was fatally shot during his college campus speaking tour. 

The existence of the book and the bizarre date immediately set off wild speculation that the assassination was an orchestrated plot against the conservative influencer.

Speaking with the Daily Mail, an Amazon spokesperson confirmed that the book was listed on September 10, noting that the publishing date was wrong due to a system error. 

‘The title in question is no longer available for sale. Due to a technical issue, the date of publication that had been displayed for this title, while it was briefly listed, was incorrect, and we apologize for any confusion this may have caused,’ the spokesperson said.

They added that the 81-page book was actually published ‘late in the afternoon’ on September 10, the day Kirk was killed in Orem, Utah. 

While the book was briefly available on Amazon, it was advertised as being written by Anastasia J Casey. However, the Daily Mail could not find any record of a published author by that name.

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VICIOUS COMPLIANCE: Smith roasts schools for malicious over-enforcement of graphic book prohibition

Edmonton’s public school board is removing over 200 books, including “The Handmaid’s Tale,” from libraries due to a provincial directive on inappropriate sexual content. The leaked list was verified Friday.

Edmonton Public seems to be practicing “vicious compliance” with the directive, according to Premier Danielle Smith.

The province earlier requested school boards to use discretion in identifying age-inappropriate books for students. By October 1, 2025, all school boards must remove explicit sexual content from library materials under a July 10 ministerial order.

On Thursday, Public School Board chair Julie Kusiek announced that “several excellent books will be removed” this fall, advising those displeased to contact Alberta Education Minister Demetrios Nicolaides. 

Edmonton Public’s book list includes “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings,” “Brave New World,” and works by Alice Munro and Ayn Rand. Many more books, such as “Nineteen Eighty-Four” and “The Great Gatsby,” will be inaccessible to K-9 students.

Minister Nicolaides announced a review of the board’s book list, seeking clarification on book removals. Alberta Education will ensure policies are implemented to prevent young children’s exposure to sexually explicit books.

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Sick sci-fi sex fantasy written by Epstein’s first benefactor people say inspired his twisted island… before author’s SON ended up arresting him

An obscure 1970s sci-fi novel — packed with graphic depictions of teenage sex slaves, breeding clinics, and aristocratic rapists — is suddenly one of the most talked-about books on the internet.

Conspiracy theorists have drawn eerie parallels between its disturbing plot and Jeffrey Epstein‘s real-world sex trafficking ring.

The book in question, Space Relations: A Slightly Gothic Interplanetary Tale, published in 1973 by Donald Barr — a former headmaster of a New York City prep school and father of Trump-era Attorney General Bill Barr — has found itself at the heart of a tangled web of online controversy.

Fueling the speculation is the fact that Donald Barr, a former CIA officer, once served as headmaster at the prestigious Dalton School on the Upper East Side, where Jeffrey Epstein taught in the mid-1970s, despite lacking a college degree.

Though Donald Barr had stepped down by the time Epstein was hired, conspiracy theorists have seized on the timing, the lurid novel, and his son Bill Barr’s role in Epstein’s 2019 death in custody — as proof of a sinister connection.

‘The Internet is abuzz with many bizarre theories,’ reviewer Justin Tate posted on Goodreads about the 250-page book, which is now being sold online for as much as $4,000 a copy.

‘Some read Space Relations like it’s the Da Vinci Code, with hidden clues that might even reveal who killed Epstein. Others marvel over loose connections between Barr’s plot and Epstein’s crimes.’

What has most stunned readers is how eerily similar the fictional universe is to the real-life sex trafficking empire run by Epstein, who abused scores of underage girls in New York, Palm Beach and his now-infamous private island.

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Joe Biden Gets $10 Million Advance to Write a Book No One is Going to Read

Joe Biden just landed another big payday, this time in the form of a $10 million advance to write a presidential memoir.

Does anyone believe that Joe Biden is going to write a book that generates $10 million dollars in sales? More to the point, does anyone really believe that Joe Biden is going to actually write a book?

This is a tome that will be ghost written and will end up on the discount table not long after being released.

Breitbart News reports:

Report: Joe Biden’s Presidential Memoir Sells for $10 Million

Former President Joe Biden (D) will reportedly receive a $10 million advance for his memoir about his four years leading the nation.

Biden sold the title to the Hachette Book Group but its publisher, Little, Brown, & Company, has not set a date for publication. Biden has said he is “working my tail off” writing his book, the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported on Wednesday.

According to the article, former President Barack Obama and former First Lady Michelle Obama made significantly more on their book deals:

Penguin Random House acquired the rights to books by former U.S. President Barack Obama and former first lady Michelle Obama in 2017 for a price that was widely reported at the time as being in the range of $60 million. President Trump didn’t publish a memoir after his first term in office. Alfred A. Knopf, which like Penguin Random House is owned by Bertelsmann, paid $15 million for President Bill Clinton’s 2004 memoir “My Life.”

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“Queer Booksellers” Owned Bookstore in San Francisco Bans Harry Potter and Other Books by J.K. Rowling

Booksmith, a San Francisco bookstore owned by self-described “queer booksellers”, recently announced it is banning books by Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling over Rowling’s pro-woman group.

The British author Rowling has taken a strong stand in the transgender battle, opposing men pretending to be women invading women’s and girls’ spaces and establishing the United Kingdom based private fund, J.K. Rowling Women’s Fund, “A legal fighting fund for women protecting their sex-based rights” for women in the UK and Ireland.

The Booksmith owners were triggered by Rowling’s statement last month she was self-funding the women’s group she founded and was not accepting donations, “I looked into all options and a private fund is the most efficient, streamlined way for me to do this. Lots of people are offering to contribute, which I truly appreciate, but there are many other women’s rights orgs that could do with the money, so donate away, just not to me!”

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