Day 197: The Countess

The Countess by Rebecca Johns.  ISBN: 9780307588456 (ARC - published Oct. 12, 2010).

After her husband dies, Countess Bathory pursues her husband's friend, Thurzo, with the hopes of remarrying and securing her position for the sake of herself and her young son.  Thurzo is not a physically attractive man, but Bathory comes to find him attractive in other ways.

I get this.  My fiance is not what most people would call an attractive man.  He's got this big head, if we were in another era he would be wearing Professor Farnsworth glasses, and his lack of hair would be astonishing if it were not for the over abundance of forehead which makes up for it.  No one would mistake him for being handsome, although you would not necessarily run from the room screaming either.

He makes up for it.  He's not rich, or successful, or cultured, but he has a sweetness and a sincerity that people who know they're attractive tend to lack.  Danny is open and warm with me in a way that my more attractive lovers have not been.  It's as if without the dignity that comes with beauty, we can truly be ourselves, we can be as ugly as we want with each other, but more often we are tender and loving.  He knows when I show him affection that it is more than genuine, that I love him despite how he looks and all his flaws.  And I find comfort knowing that he realizes exactly how lucky he is to be loved by me, rather than just being one in a long string of girls who have fawned over him.

I've even come to like the way he looks.  He is by no means pretty, but there is something satisfying and wonderful in looking at him and seeing his particular brand of unattractiveness. He almost does become handsome after awhile.  Everyone else may still see a frog, but I've started to see, if not quite a prince, my groom.

My review can be found on Goodreads.

Day 196: Call Me Kate

Call Me Kate by Molly Roe.  ISBN: 9780981461939.

I could not read this book without thinking of my own research regarding immigrants to America.  My focus was on attitudes towards German immigrants, German-Americans, and Americans with German heritage during the Civil War, World War I, and World War II.  While some of my research necessarily involved attitudes towards other "non-white" whites,* I did not focus on it as much as I likely would if I were to publish my senior project as a book.

I think given current attitudes towards certain groups in our society that this topic is a good reminder to people.  I'm sure there are quite a few Irish Catholics and even German Americans who have forgotten that they were once a persecuted and denigrated population.  Being of German, Jewish, Irish, and other random stock, I am quite glad that things in the United States changed and we became more accepting of other ethnic groups.  Our past shows that we can change, and gives me hope that things will continue to change in a positive manner.  We have such a long way to go though, and it seems lately like we've been taking steps backwards.  

Because of the economic situation people seem to be more likely hate the people who are already poor.  While this includes white people, I think most people who think of "welfare mothers" and Prop 8 housing still think of African Americans.  Then there's the "relatively" new overwhelming hatred of Muslims spurred on by extremely misinformed people who think that extremist Muslim groups are representative of all Muslims.  This in turn has extended to anyone who even looks like they're of Middle Eastern decent, regardless of whether they actually are or not.  And of course I have to mention that stupid, stupid law in Arizona where you can be pulled over for "looking like an illegal immigrant."  I don't know what the hell that's supposed to mean.

And finally, there are homosexuals, bi-sexuals, and the gender queer.

I'm sure most of my readers are aware of the recent suicides that have made the news.  But honestly, this isn't news.  These suicides have been going on for decades if not centuries.  As bad as all of the other bigoted behavior, somehow I think this is worse.  It affects people across all age, sex, gender, racial, religious, and economic lines.  And what's even more terrible is that you don't actually have to be gay to face this kind of bigotry; all you have to do is be perceived as gay, such as this young boy who decided to be a cheerleader.

Or myself.  This is a topic that is especially hurtful and made a good portion of my life miserable, especially as it came from people on both sides of the fence.  First, there were the people who hated me because they thought I was gay.  Then there were the people who hated me or at least teased me because they thought I was gay, who wanted me to be gay, and were angry that I wouldn't come out of the closet.  So to make them happy, I'm going to finally come out.

I'm straight.

Mostly.

I identify as being a straight female-bodied person.  I have had the occasional crush on other women, but I am primarily sexually attracted to men.  On the other hand, I have been treated as a lesbian or gender queer person for so long that I sometimes find myself identifying as, or at the very least with, gender queer people.  I am somewhat hesitant to call myself gender queer, because I don't feel that I rightly belong in that community.  I am sort of in a strange cusp where I don't really belong to either group, and I have come to terms with that.

And I want to say, to everyone, it does get better, and it will get better.  Unfortunately, you have to be the one to push it forward.  After being taunted and harassed for being a lesbian for so long in 9th grade I decided I had nothing to lose and began going to P-FLAG meetings.  I decided the best thing I could do was to push for equal rights and to assist family members with newly outed gay members in their adjustment and hopefully their eventual acceptance of said members.  It was a way of not only working through my own issues as being an "outed lesbian," but also of trying to improve the situations of other outed gay people in the long run.  I faced a lot of hardship from that decision, but it also gave me a lot of strength and resources in standing up for myself and the people who felt they couldn't.

I am still mistaken as being a lesbian and gender queer.  For the most part it has become easier and less hurtful.  I lead a more or less good life.  I'm in a healthy relationship (with a man!).  I have friends of all backgrounds, various degrees of male, female, and other gendered-ness, gays and lesbians and bi-sexuals, and I am generally a happy person.  I am glad that I didn't commit suicide when I was 14, and to anyone out there who is considering it, I hope that in 10 years, or even sooner, that you will be able to say the same.

I look forward to the day when homosexuals become as accepted as the Irish are now.  I hope we are close to that day.  In the meantime, I accept you for who you are, and if you need to talk to someone, please, please, please do not hesitate to reach out to me.

 My review can be found on Goodreads.
You can follow the rest of the book tour, here.

*The Irish and Italians would not be considered "white" until later.  If you're interested in the subject of "whiteness" I highly recommend Painter's The History of White People.

Day 195: Packing for Mars

Packing for Mars by Mary Roach.  ISBN: 9780393068474.

So, I think the main thing this book taught me is how much I freakin' love gravity. It makes most bodily functions easier and cleaner.  It also prevents me from becoming a spinning ball of misery and vomit.

In space, no one can hear you scream, because you're more likely to be horking your lungs out.  People apparently get motion sickness without gravity because our brains are designed to find up and down, which is no doubt useful on a planet, but space does not give a damn about your silly "up and down" notions.

I'm not one to get sick very easily, but I somehow doubt my stomach is any stronger than those of people who routinely ride something called a vomit comet.  I've been on boats, airplanes, and tiny prop planes before, but you can easily fix the motion sickness by getting to a place where you can see the horizon.  Motion sickness stems from your inner ear telling you that you're moving, while your eyes are telling you a much different story.  In space, your inner ear is constantly trying to reorient itself and figure out where the hell you are.  You do apparently get used to it eventually, but in the meantime...lots and lots of puking, and usually with almost no warning.

So not only are there likely to be floating turds, but you can expected unexpected astro-yak in the mix.  Thankfully even puking in your space suit has been accounted for.  This is awesome, because of all the ways I don't want to die, drowning in my own vomit is somewhere near the top of the list.  On the other hand, it means having your space spew blown down into your suit.  It's away from your face...but...yeah.

Once again, I think I'll leave space exploration to the professionals.  In the meantime, me and Walt will hang out in the cryochambers and be sent up later when things aren't so messy.

A good review can be found over at one of my favorite book blogs, eclectic/eccentric.

Day 194: Packing for Mars

Packing for Mars by Mary Roach.  ISBN: 9780393068474.

First off, I'm going to recommend that anyone disgusted by bodily functions not read the posts about this particular title.  Roach more or less tells us everything we wanted to know about how astronauts do things in space, even though we don't really want to know.  For the 12-year-olds in my audience, keep reading.

Oh my god, I don't want to go to space anymore.  As cool and amazing as it would be to fly in a soup can and be able to look down on the earth, I now fully appreciate the joys of pooping with the aid of gravity.  I am very much in awe of the scientists who were both willing and able to figure out the problems of dropping loads waste management in zero gravity.  And unfortunately not all of the problems have really been solved.

Apparently floating runaway poop is a very, very common occurrence.  Imagine: you're just kicking back watching the earth speed away from you and wondering at how amazing it is, only to have a hard flash-frozen floater bump you like a small, friendly brown dolphin.  I don't know about you, but I'm flailing in "ick factor" right now.

So, not only does gravity help keep poop in it's place, but it also helps tell you when it needs to go there.  Without gravity you are prone to soiling yourself and actually have to plan trips to the bathroom, regardless of whether or not your body is telling you to go.  Apparently in zero gravity, even the fluids inside you bounce around, oh god, pooponauts are using your colon as their own private space shuttle.  Roach actually inserts bits of NASA transcripts and in one there's an exchange between two astronauts where "poop time" is scheduled, as in one of our heroes of space turns to the other and says, 'Dave, I'd like to take a crap sometime.'  Ah, the glamorous life of an astronaut.

I'm not going to give you the details of actually pinching loaves in space, but let's say it involves far more work than I'm willing to put into it and being far more intimate with fecal matter than I ever want to be.  I'll let the other guys fly to space, but if they ever figure out artificial gravity, and need a good librarian, I'll be happy to take a job at the International Lunar Library and Archives.  Just don't ask me to shit like an astronaut.

 A good review can be found over at one of my favorite book blogs, eclectic/eccentric.

As a bonus, I created this work for Better Book Titles, which is an often hilarious and amazing blog if you have a basic knowledge of literature.

Day 193: a general update

Hey there readers, good to see you again after my break.  Banned Books Week wore me out.  Still, it was an exciting time and I seem to have picked up a few new followers, so at the very least it was productive.  My "holiday" wasn't much of a holiday as I've still been working on blog stuff, but it was nice to do so at a much less hurried pace.  I've started my new group of reading and I thought I'd let you know what you can expect over the next few weeks.  As always I reserve the right to drop books from my list, so if you're wondering "Where'd that title go?" I just couldn't finish it.

On the 9th I'll be participating in my first book blog tour for Call Me Kate.  If you want to get a jump on the blog tour, you can find the list of participants here.  I'm pleased to be part of a book blog tour, and hope I'll be asked to participate in the future.

For the lurkers out there, I encourage interaction with my blog.  If there are particular topics or books you want me to read or that you think I'll like, feel free to make suggestions via email.  I want to thank people who have been linking to my blog, I appreciate the traffic and I think we now share one or two followers.  I'll be returning the favor at some point by creating a page for the blogs that I follow for those interested in where the heck I get my reading list from.  Now on with the books.

Packing for Mars by Mary Roach.
I'm currently reading this, although by the time this post publishes I likely will have finished it.  I rather enjoyed Roach's interview with Jon Stewart, but who wouldn't get a perverse thrill from reading about runaway space poop?  So far the tone has been light without being flippant and the science focuses mostly on the psychology, which is more or less accessible to all.

The Subtle Knife by Philip Pullman.
If you read my posts on The Golden Compass you shouldn't be surprised that I was eager to put the next book on my list.  Hopefully there will be enough of a break between the books so that it won't seem terribly repetitive.  It's interesting to me to see how my perception of Compass changed from sort of indifferent to "Oh crap, I need to read the next book" somewhere between pages 200 and 300.  So I'm the last person on earth to read these, shoot me.

Role Models by John Waters.
Saw the interview on Colbert Report for this one.  For a while there it seemed like Colbert and Stewart had fascinating literary guests on two or three times a week.  Now that we're into Big Movie season the guests are running towards the mundane, i.e. the movie star "personalities" who have pretty much all been whitewashed with the same typical responses.  They're just a little too prepared and too well groomed to prove interesting.  I was drawn to this one because for a period of about 10 years I disavowed and rejected the mere idea of role models.  I'm starting to move away from that again and see some value in role models, so I'd like to see what Waters has to say about it.

Kane and Abel by Jeffrey Archer.
I think this one got added because I was interested in the sequel The Prodigal Daughter.  Having never read Jeffrey Archer, I'm a little nervous about this one, especially given the size of the tome.  Luckily, if I don't like this I have an excuse not to read anything else he's written.  At age 25, I only have so many reading years left.  It also uses the "switched at birth" gimmick, so we'll see how well that's aged in the 30+ years since it was written.

Glass Houses by Rachel Caine.
It's another teen vampire novel.  Felicia Day of The Guild fame liked it, so uh, hopefully it won't be like Evermore.  Part of me wonders why I keep reading these if they disappoint/piss me off so much.  Then again it's what's popular and I have this sick sense of duty that I'm supposed to be well read in both popular and good literature.  Those two do not always overlap as often as I'd like.

The Countess by Rebecca Johns.
I pulled this from my library's ARC offerings (because apparently I don't have enough of them lying around).  It looked like a good pick for the October month, as it's about the first female serial killer.  I rather liked the cover on this one, it seems to set a very dark and mysterious tone.

Consider the Lobster by David Foster Wallace.
Sometimes I read things solely for the titles.  I'm willing to admit that I think a catchy title often leads to fresh prose and witty writing.  Not always the case, but then when people ask me what I'm reading we usually spark excellent conversations by the title alone.  This may get the Short Story treatment to be used as filler, we'll see how captivating they are.  This is another cover-grab, the picture of a lobster that seems to be waving borders on adorable.

Haroun and the Sea of Stories by Salman Rushdie.
This is another attempt to bridge my reading gaps.  I haven't read any Rushdie, and given his contributions to literature, I find the need to fix that.

By the way, look for a new Rupert the Magic Pony story, about this time next week.

Day 192: Dan Walker (guest blogger)

Kick-Ass by Mark Millar and John Romita, Jr.  ISBN: 9780785132615.

I was actually going to tackle this subject for my Watchmen post, but Kick-Ass took me a whole hour to read fully, and anyway, Watchmen kind of goes in exactly the opposite direction.

So let's talk superhero fantasies.  When I was a kid, my favorite superheroes were the X-Men.  I've always enjoyed series where you've got a large cast of characters and everyone has their own special power or abilities; my anime-watching preferences can attest to that.  But when you're a kid, stuff like that screws with you, especially when you don't fit in with the rest of the class.  So I spent most of my first 16 years waiting for my mutant powers to develop.  By 18, I was disillusioned and disappointed.  I didn't even have a First Change so I could become a werewolf; what a rip.

But I know strange people.  And it just so happens that a friend of mine did, in fact, offer to start a superhero team with me and a few others in our circle, Kick-Ass style.

You might think this is crazy, but the fact is, people actually do this.  The only thing fictional about Kick-Ass are the characters and setting.  Every now and then, you'll hear some report on the evening news's funny section about people running around in costumes with cans of mace making citizens' arrests or just keeping tabs on ne'er-do-wells and informing the police.  So, yeah, maybe the glamor and ass-kicking parts of this comic are fictionalized as well.  But hey, we've got costumed vigilantes in the United States of America!

And as ridiculous and unrealistic as it sounds, I did consider becoming one myself.  Of course, it would have taken a real feat to get me into shape.  I mean, I've been working out for the past six months or so and I've lost... about 12 pounds?  Maybe less because I'm just now getting back into working out after a month-long hiatus so I could work.  But it's hard work, and it takes a long time.  Also, I wanted to go through something like cold-weather endurance training, and maybe take one of those courses where they train you to identify smells (I think they have those, anyway).  Why?  Because every superhero worth his salt needs a theme, and mine was wolves because I'm kind of obsessed.

Of course, I won't describe my plans beyond that, because you never know.  I wouldn't want to give away my secret identity.

Dan Walker (pseudonym) is a writer from Northeast Ohio, who would be teaching ESL if he wasn't unemployed temporarily working at a bookstore. He received a BA in Creative Writing from Wright State University in 2004 and a Masters in Teaching English as a Second Language from Kent State University in 2009. He will make some lucky librarian a wonderful husband someday.

Day 191: Dan Walker (guest blogger)

Bozo Sapiens by Ellen and Michael Kaplan.  ISBN: 9781608190911.

In exploring the human equation, finding out why we make the mistakes we do, the authors of this book draw on a huge swath of information, from biology, anthropology, neurology, psychology, pop culture, common wisdom, philosophy and even religion.  A broad view of a topic like this really appeals to me, because I've always enjoyed knowing even just a little about a lot: the core of a liberal education.

It's sad though, that we don't appreciate this kind of breadth of wisdom anymore.  In school, it's "is this going to be on the test?"  English composition classes are split up into technical and business writing, and lessons are geared to give everyone a chance to use writing in the context of their field.  If it's not going to get me hired, I'll forget it once the semester is over.  Knowing a lot about one subject is what gets us jobs; no one loves the Renaissance men.

And the consequence of this is not only that people don't know a whole lot about their world -- and the resultant fear that comes from that ignorance -- but also that we value knowledge less.  Know-it-alls are the subject of ridicule.  I can't count the number of times I've heard some oranged valley girl, her face contorted in disgust, screech, "Why would anyone know THAT?"  We treat our minds as if they were finite sponges.  Knowing too much about a subject unrelated to our dream job would cause the excess knowledge that we DO require to squish out the other end, rendering us helpless.  But brains don't work like that. Learning keeps us sane, keeps us whole, and it certainly doesn't replace the things we already know.  Unless, of course, those things were wrong.

If I had my way, I'd first get a Master's and then a PhD in linguistics. After that, I'd study math, geology, geography, economics, political science, as many bloody language as I could get my hands on, and maybe art. I'd try and get degrees in all of them, at least Bachelors.  It would take a long time and a lot of money, but it would enrich my life so much.  No one is going to let me do this, though, because living for your field is valuable.  Being a trivia buff is not.

PS: This was a fantastic read, and everyone should pick it up.*

Dan Walker (pseudonym) is a writer from Northeast Ohio, who would be teaching ESL if he wasn't unemployed temporarily working at a bookstore. He received a BA in Creative Writing from Wright State University in 2004 and a Masters in Teaching English as a Second Language from Kent State University in 2009. He will make some lucky librarian a wonderful husband someday.

*This is not a paid endorsement, nor is it necessarily the belief of the regular blog writer.
**Post originally written August 9, 2010 so the regular author could take a much deserved break.

Day 190: Dan Walker (guest blogger)

Rooms by James L. Rubart.  ISBN: 9780805448887.

In high school, our protagonist, Micah, found God and became a serious Jesus freak.  It's just one more thing that Micah's father, an avowed atheist, disapproved of.  We get to see his disapproval early on via flashback: "His dad believed all Christians had a serious crack in their psyche... When Micah started followed Jesus during his sophomore year of high school, his dad wanted to send him to a psychiatrist."  I have to admit, I've felt the same way about the subject.

Seriously, believing that a benevolent sky-father is constantly watching you, waiting to judge you after you die and either draw you into his kingdom of light or toss you into a pit of fire for all eternity: how is that sane?  Only through so many billions of people having believed it throughout history.  God is just one step up from Santa Claus, and we all learn the truth about him before we enter middle school.  And yet, because non-believers are in the minority, one would conclude that we're the ones with something lacking in our psyche: the ability to believe.

Me, I wasn't born with religion.  Shortly after I was born, my mother approached a Catholic priest about having me baptized.  His response -- to a young mother on welfare, no less -- was, "How much have you donated to the church lately?"  So mom and dad consciously split from their faith and raised me a-religious.  I came to my own conclusions about God and creation and the reason for life.  I'm not an atheist --
I'm a deist, a label I would never have encountered if not for Wikipedia -- but religion, faith and spirituality simply don't exist or aren't a big part of my life.

And yeah, I think religious people are crazy, to a point.  It doesn't matter if they're doing good by their faith; it certainly doesn't help if they're waving "GOD HATES FAGS" signs at funerals.  Once someone lets slip that they follow any given religion, I start looking at them funny.  I can't trust them completely.  I'm waiting for that awkward moment when they ask me what my religion is, whether I've found God or Christ -- because let's face it, I'm from the U.S. and most of the religious people I've known in my life have been Christian -- and then try to convert me.

Religion makes me uneasy; just ask my fiancée.  Crazy or not, I sure as hell don't trust organized religion.  It's like that awkward moment with the believer, only times ten, a hundred, a thousand.  Deep down, I believe in spirituality over religion, the latter being an organized, communal version of the former.  I'm pretty sure that the organization of religion is the entire reason for what's wrong with it right now.  You get a lot of people together in a community where they all believe the same thing and their beliefs normalize off one another.  They stop being able to deal with people outside the church.  They come to the conclusion that they're right and everyone else is wrong, so they lash out when their beliefs are questioned.  They can take solace in the fact that, at the very least, everyone at church agrees with them.  They belong there, and the rest of the world can go to hell.

Of course, the flip side of all of this is the idea that humans are 'wired for religion'.  I didn't grow up with anything outside of a vague notion of a bearded sky-daddy watching me, yet I still went and sought answers for myself, if only in my own mind.  So we're probably all crazy, which makes us all normal.  It's no stranger than believing in aliens or ESP or ghosts, either, all of which I do.  It's natural to seek answers outside the real world, because the real world is damned boring.  I just wish that people didn't take it so far as they do, demonizing everyone who doesn't come to the same conclusions they have.  A little free thinking can temper that craziness, I think.

Dan Walker (pseudonym) is a writer from Northeast Ohio, who would be teaching ESL if he wasn't unemployed temporarily working at a bookstore. He received a BA in Creative Writing from Wright State University in 2004 and a Masters in Teaching English as a Second Language from Kent State University in 2009. He will make some lucky librarian a wonderful husband someday.

*Post originally written July 31, 2010 so the regular author could take a much needed break.
**Ugh...for those of you with RSS feeds, please ignore the Day 192: Kick-Ass post.  *facepalm* I haven't made that mistake in awhile.

Banned Book Week

I tend to read a lot of banned books.  They're usually worth reading, and nothing like Banned Book Week gets me motivated to actually read the ones that have been sitting on my To-Read list for ages.  While these other posts aren't necessarily of the Banned Book Week variety, I thought they might be an enjoyable look back at some older posts and maybe make you aware of some titles you didn't realize were banned or challenged.  I might not catch all of them since people will ban some pretty tame stuff, but I'll peg the obvious ones for you.  In alphabetical order by title, for your convenience.

Enjoy your freedom to read!

Brave New World by Aldous Huxley (by guest blogger, Dan Walker.)
Catcher in the Rye by J. D. Salinger (by guest blogger, Dan Walker.)
Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest by Ken Kesey
The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky
Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson (posts by myself and guest blogger, Dan Walker.)
To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee (by guest blogger, Dan Walker.)

On another note, I've decided to take a bit of a break from writing blog posts, so if you see a slew of guest posts in the next couple of days that's why.  If you're interested in being a guest blogger, please contact me at acampb8@kent.edu or check my contact page.

Day 189: Catch-22

Catch-22 by Joseph Heller.  ISBN: 978068486513.

Or, the post in which I have a conversation with myself and try to type with a wrist brace so my carpal tunnel doesn't flare up like crazy.

Me:  Banning books is the patriotic duty of every citizen to protect our children from subversive ideas.
Me2: Our entire country was founded on the principle of subversive ideas!  Exactly which ones are you opposed to?
Me: All of them.
Me2: Violence?  Disrespect of authority?  Plotting against the government?
Me: Yes, we should teach our children to be good obedient children who turn the other cheek.  Plotting against the government is treason and should be discouraged no matter what the government does.
Me2: But...the United States would never have come to be if we didn't have a Revolutionary War against the crown of England.
Me: That war was okay, it was patriotic.
Me2: Actually, no it wasn't.  At that time most people still considered themselves citizens of England or other countries that they immigrated from.
Me: Are you calling our founding fathers immigrants?!  How dare you, you cowardly, flag burning heathen.
Me2: What do you call people flooding into countries that are not originally theirs and taking up the resources of the native population?
Me: Mexicans.
Me2:  ...Okay...  Moving on.  What about sex and romance, what's wrong with that?
Me: Everything is wrong with that!  Sex is immoral and romance is even worse.
Me2: How exactly is romance bad?
Me: It leads to sex.
Me2: Is there anything you're not opposed to?
Me: Good family values.
Me2: So...would And Tango Makes Three be okay?
Me: NO!!!  That's Gay!
Me2: Alright... so what does that leave?
Me: Good Christian literature.
Me2: Like the Bible?
Me: Obviously, yes.
Me2: The Bible has war, famine, wrath, vengeance, love, and homosexuality in it, not to mention slavery, rape, and prostitution.  And Jesus was the biggest subversive of his time.
Me: You can't ban the Bible.
Me2: But it has the same problems as all those other books.
Me: But it provides us with a way of finding comfort in our darkest times and gives us a guide on how to be good people.
Me2: Some people find that in other books, like The Giver, Catcher in the Rye, The Scarlet Letter, and Harry Potter.
Me: Harry Potter is banned?
Me2: Yes, fundamentalist Christians think that depicting magic in a positive light somehow detracts from God or encourages experimentation in witchcraft.
Me: But...he's the chosen one destined to save us all from evil.
Me2: I promise not to ban your book, if you won't ban mine.
Me: I still don't like you.
Me2: Ditto.

for calling women whores, curse words, racially insensitive content, and depictions of defying authority.