A National Disgrace

[iggy]

I found this ad in a 1941 magazine for elementary school teachers:

 

[whomerjay]

"The old dime novels in which an occasional redskin bit the dust were classic literature compared to..."

 

Jeez

[Aman619]

wow/// as much as things change, people are always remain the same. Read Sterling North's boxed oped piece about comics. He moans about everyone who is responsible for these dammmed comics: The parents who dont know and dont care what their kids read. And the unimaginative teachers who force dull stupid twaddle down eager young throats. To, of course, the completely immoral publishers guilty of a cultural slaughter of the innocents!"

 

this guy (in 1941) was way ahead of his time. It took Wertham another 10 years to get his crusade going! btw-- I looked up Stering North. He wrote RASCAL, the kids book about the little boy and his pet raccoon. It was a best seller and later a hit Disney movie.

[Point Five]

"Lurid, time-wasting comic magazines..."

 

This is awesome, iggy. Thanks for posting it!

[Sal]

Mr. North's piece isn't any different from what critics have been saying for centuries, all the way back to Cicero. what's being passed off today is pap, garbage, unintellectual trash...and it's hurting our collective intelligence.

 

the difference between those and the psychotic ramblings of Wertham is that the latter wanted to ban the things, rather than use Mr. North's advice, and steer kids towards literature

[october]

Mr. North's piece isn't any different from what critics have been saying for centuries, all the way back to Cicero. what's being passed off today is pap, garbage, unintellectual trash...and it's hurting our collective intelligence.

 

The ironic part is that quite often that "trash" becomes tomorrows classics. Ulysses, Tom Sawyer, Leaves of Grass, Slaughterhouse Five, Uncle Tom's Cabin, ect, ect, ect were all targets of censorship in their day. Now they can be found on the syllabus of most English classes in the nation.

[Point Five]

Nice point, Andy!

 

In general I do get the idea that there was something of a backlash towards the explosive growth of kids suddenly reading comic books in 1939/1940...the sheer scale of it must have baffled and worried a lot of adults. My copy of Superman #4 (cover date of Spring 1940, not long before North's article above would have been published) tellingly devotes a full page to providing kids with a list of "established classics of literature", and the idea was that the editors would review a different classic each month...seemingly a pre-emptive strike of sorts to the notion that comics had no redeeming value.

[mica]

I collect these. I have about 8 of them. One of them is slightly oversized. It sticks out above the rest of the books in my box. Not bad stories, and the art is fairly nice as well.

 

Nothing spectacular, but OK.

[Psiknight]

 

Superman heroics, voluptuous females in scanty attire, blazing machine guns, hooded "justice" and cheap political propaganda were to be found on almost every page.

 

 

[Psiknight]

Mr. North's piece isn't any different from what critics have been saying for centuries, all the way back to Cicero. what's being passed off today is pap, garbage, unintellectual trash...and it's hurting our collective intelligence.

 

The ironic part is that quite often that "trash" becomes tomorrows classics. Ulysses, Tom Sawyer, Leaves of Grass, Slaughterhouse Five, Uncle Tom's Cabin, ect, ect, ect were all targets of censorship in their day. Now they can be found on the syllabus of most English classes in the nation.

 

To quote Homer Simpson, "Leaves of Grass my ."