BANNED BOOKS ON BANNED BOOK WEEK?

Banned books sounds like a term from the Middle Ages, or the Spanish Inquisition where you might pay with your life if the wrong book was found on your property.

Book bans are nothing new, and don’t last, but in our hyper-alert social medial world that makes it feel like the world is collapsing every other minute, it feels dire.

Is it dire?

Of the stack of books in the top pic, I’ve owned and read them all, some for school, some for me.

For instance, I’ve read Catcher In The Rye as a young student, an older student, and recently.

What I like most is that the author experienced WWII in Europe in what is called the worst battle of the war, The Battle of Hurtgen Forest.

He didn’t return to write a war book like Joseph Heller and Norman Mailer. Instead, he wrote Catcher.

It feels like a therapy book for a PTSD guy before it was called PTSD.

J.D. Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye is about a boy struggling to grow up in 1950’s New York. The novel is narrated by the 16-year-old protagonist, Holden Caulfield, from the bed of a mental hospital. It begins with his expulsion from an elite private school, the fourth such school from which he’s been expelled. After clashing with some schoolmates, Holden decides to leave school early and try to live on his own in Manhattan, but he battles the pull into adulthood. A key theme in this novel is the loss of innocence that happens in the process of growing up. 

Is it worthy of the title of ‘Banned Books?’

No.

Slaughterhouse Five On List Of Banned Books

I’ve been a Kurt Vonnegut fan since high school English class.

After reading one of his books, I read a bunch more.

Then I learned more about the author.

He was captured during the Battle of the Bulge and transported to a German town that was fire bombed.

The Battle of the Bulge followed the Battle of Hurtgen Forest where Salinger and Hemingway met up.

Despite the continuing attempts of censorship of Slaughterhouse-Five, the book has not fallen out of print. There are nearly 300 editions of the book, including translations into over 20 languages. It has been well-loved and critically acclaimed throughout the years, being nominated for the Nebula Award and Hugh Award, as well as being produced into the 1972 movie starring Michael Sacks.

Vonnegut said he smoked so much because he wanted to kill himself, but he was frightened of suicide.

Makes sense for another PTSD guy writing about war from a different perspective.

Is Slaughterhouse Five a good candidate for a book ban?

No.

Is BoomerPDX A Banned Blog With A Banned Blogger?

Who would ban a blog and a blogger?

Bloggers who give ‘exposure’ to business by writing a review, then expect a return.

And don’t get it.

For example:

**ALL BLOGGERS BANNED FROM OUR BUSINESS**

Following the backlash received after asking an unidentified blogger to pay for a hotel room, I have taken the decision to ban all bloggers from our hotel and cafe.

The sense of entitlement is just too strong in the blogging community and the nastiness, hissy fits and general hate displayed after one of your members was not granted her request for a freebie is giving your whole industry a bad name. I never thought we would be inundated with negative reviews for the simple reason that somebody was required to pay for goods received or services rendered.

The girl in question was never identified in my original post, but she herself went on to create a video explaining how she was “exposed” with “malicious intent” for asking for a freebie. This kind of victimization is very prevalent in the blogging industry, and is in keeping with their general modus operandi of wanting everything for nothing.

If any of you attempt to enter our premises from now on, you will be ejected.

Many thanks,

Paul Stenson

www.charlevillelodge.ie

P.S. Perhaps if you went out and got real jobs you’d be able to pay for goods and services like everybody else. Just a thought!

Blogger Expectations To Recon With

I wrote about Portland in “Division Street, Not Divided Portland.”

Did I use my celebrity status as an urban influencer to snag freebies?

Free lunch? Free beer? Free desert for later? No, no, and no.

Division isn’t a ‘Blogger Gets Free Stuff’ street.

I’ve yet to find that street, and I don’t have high confidence it exists anywhere.

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I wrote about Portland’s 82nd Avenue.

Did I expect free heroin, free prostitutes, and a free pass in case I went on a crime spree?

I was in the neighborhood for a wedding, not some blogger meet-up for free swag.

What is it about these bloggers who act like the world owes them for their work?

I’ve written a ton of posts and columns.

All for no return, but I knew that going in.

How many views does blogger need to get paid?

If you have more than 100,000 pageviews a month on your blog (total pageviews, not unique) you should be blogging full-time (i.e. earning more than $3,500/month from your blog). That doesn’t mean that the second you hit that 100,000/month pageview mark that someone will send you a check.

My biggest month is March 2021 when Reddit followers showed up long enough to read a post about the statue of David’s endowment. 8500 showed up that month.

I had 1000 the month before and 1000 the month after, so the surge didn’t feel special. I’m only 99,000 page views away from a payday.

This month, September 2022, is clocking in at 5000 as I write. Instead of a random traffic surge based on an old post, this is a random traffic surge based on what I’ve written.

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You can see I’m closing in that 100,000/month benchmark after ten years of blogging on boomerpdx.

But what I’m actually hoping for is one reader, just one, from the ‘other side.’

They will leave a comment that will read:

Dear Blogger Dave,

We have read your work and would like to make you an offer to write for us.

You won’t need to change anything. We just want the option to post your insightful posts on our platform.

We will pay you the going rate you would receive if you had 250,000 page views a month, with an escalator built in for posts that go viral on our site.

Sincerely,

The Blog Gods

I’d need to consider this offer, right?

I wouldn’t ban it like banned books.