DIY Librarian

At least two separate news stories have described the controversial fotonovelas at the Denver Public Library as containing stories about men with weapons chasing women, and stories by Jack London and Edgar Allan Poe. I don’t get it. Is this supposed to illustrate how terrible these fotonovelas are? Am I missing something about Jack London? Or is this the reporters’ sly way of pointing out how ludicrous the Colorado Alliance for Immigration Reform’s complaints are?

Some of the books depicted women chased by weapon-toting men; they also had illustrated stories by Jack London and Edgar Allan Poe. (Denver Library Nixes 4 Spanish Book Series, Washington Post (AP), 8/24/05)

Some of those books contain depictions of women chased by weapon-toting men, tell stories about Ernest Hemingway, and have illustrated stories written by Jack London and Edgar Allan Poe. (Denver libraries put in a bind, Denver Post, 8/12/05)

Perhaps the reporters are being sly, because it seems pretty clear that CAIR’s complaint has everything to do with “Spanish-language” and not much to do with “raunchy comic books” (see, for example, Cindy Rodríguez’s Vulgar way to protest vulgarity, Denver Post, 8/10/05; and Jim Spencer’s Book uproar really about the readers, Denver Post, 8/14/05).