Breaking news! N.L. Belardes books burned! - By N.L. Belardes

Lords: Part One has just got more controversial than ever before. I just received word that two Bakersfield High School students had their copies of Lords: Part One burned by angry parents. One reliable source reports one student was demanded to hand over a copy of the book and was then told, “This book is evil. It isn’t what God created.” That book and a friend's copy was then confiscated and burned.


The book in question...

I haven’t heard literary news of this sort since researching controversies regarding books by John Steinbeck and Toni Morrison in Kern County.

John Steinbeck's book, The Grapes of Wrath was literally banned from Bakersfield bookshelves in the late 1930s. Elise Palos wrote in 1994:

Kern County supervisor Stanley Abel defended the board by saying on August 28, 1939, "The book was banned because of the filth that is in it.”

True, there were "dirty words" throughout the book, as most people would call them today but the characters in this novel were not exactly the most refined and educated. Besides, didn't the board's resolution banning the book state that it misrepresented conditions in the county? Which one was the true, motivating reason? Read more…

More recently, Toni Morrison’s book The Bluest Eye was nearly banned at East Bakersfield High in both 2004 and 2005. Her novel was challenged, yet retained at the Kern High School District in Bakersfield despite complaints of her novel’s sexually explicit content:

“If the kids are not allowed to use profanity,” said parent Pam Helms, “Then why is it ok for them to read it?”

More fuel is being tossed into the fire, over a reading assignment for an English class at East Bakersfield High School.

Parents are demanding a controversial book be banned from the classroom, and some members of the community agree with them.

At Monday night's meeting of the Kern High School District, many parents spoke out against the book entitled “The Bluest Eye,” with reaction crossing racial lines.

Read more… (check out a list of banned books)


The BHS students whose books were burned obtained their copies from a LAN party giveaway through kerngamers.com held last Saturday. Lords: Part One had already been mentioned in the radio and in newspapers, including the Bakersfield High Newspaper, The Blue & White. Giving away the novel was not thought to be an issue.

Apparently the book burning parents don’t understand the news stories and the urban myths of the Lords of Bakersfield. Why didn’t they research the story instead of burning the kids' copies as Devil books? I recently wrote in defense of Lords: Part One to a colleague,

Lords: Part One is about creepy old politicians, a newspaper publisher and lawmen who lived hidden gay lives and illegally preyed on and possibly murdered kids. On one level, the story is meant to raise awareness that parents should be careful about where there kids go. Lords is not a ‘gay’ novel or porn although it does graphically depict the despicable nature of the villains of the story. Lords is not unlike most PG-13 and R rated films, which are graphic in nature.

A few weeks ago I was surprised that the Bakersfield High School paper could allow graphic verbage regarding Lords: Part One without getting some heat from disgruntled parents. I haven’t heard any negative news. I admit, my eyebrows raised when I read in the Blue & White:

Minstrel chooses, however, to act upon greed and uses his aesthetic appeal in homosexual prostitution, by violating the most fundamental, sacred social tenets when he surrenders his soul to lusty, middle-aged men. (the online version was edited by the BHS reporter)

Such controversy! N.L. Belardes books cooked up in a Devil-hating storm of Christian-minded conservatism turned fiery. Will this lead to a rash of local book burnings? Stay tuned...

This entry was posted by N.L. Belardes, on Thursday, December 22, 2005. You can leave your response.