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Banned books class holds mock trial

By Beth Tedeschi
Exchange Writer

     The Banned Books class held a mock trial for the horror novel The Taste of a Man by Slavenka Drakulic asking the question of whether or not it should be protected by the first amendment and ultimately arriving at a 5-2 verdict that it should.

     The Taste of a Man is a horror novel about adultery, murder, cannibalism, and the perfect crime. The mock trial took place in front of a jury of students not in the Banned Books class in Fitzwater 101 at 6 p.m. last night. "I'm really pleased, we did this in a short period of time." Said Professor Donna Decker. "We took one book and applied everything they had learned in the course- I picked their jobs, and the students did research, then we pulled it all together and thought of the question we'd like to ask."

     The mock trial was approximately 75 minutes long. The prosecution and the defense both made opening statements. Charlotte Farber, member of the prosecution opened the trial and said, "In the wrong hands a book can be misused… want the book stricken from the classroom… emphasizes dangerous and unnatural obsession, the book has a manipulative and conniving nature." Paul McGoldrick of the defense then made his opening and said, "…the book is fiction, it does not instruct on how to kill and eat a person, does not present any clear and present danger." Clear and present danger is one kind of speech not protected by the first amendment.

     One of the people questioned was a serial killer expert, Mike Forrest. He said the book did not promote cannibalism, indeed it demoralizes it. David Austin, an expert on cannibalism focusing primarily on Sagawa, (a cannibal who shot and ate his girlfriend. He cooked her and went into feeding frenzies eating right off of her body. He was committed to a mental institution after police found him in his home boiling the woman's head. Afterwards he was deported to Japan where he became a best selling author.) The defense and prosecution compared the character's acts in The Taste of a Man with that of Sagawa. A Member of the defense asked how the book could not be allowed if Sagawa was acceptable.
     One of the prosecution's major points was that the brain develops in stages and that children at the high school level are impressionable and easily influenced. They referred to "copy-cat" killers, like the NBK, who were responsible for the shootings at Columbine. In court some of the "copy-cat" killers said they had watched that movie the night they went on a killing spree.

     In the defense's concluding argument Teddy Borg said that the book, "is fictional and that if a former member of the Klu Klux Klan can become a senator then the book shouldn't be removed from the shelves." Borg referred to a review of a book that said it was "the ultimate romance novel." Borg also asked the question of the jury whether there was a difference between emotional and physical hunger. In the prosecutions closing argument Caroline Choi said, "Literature had power to elect change…and social disruption… need to recognize the potential to do harm… needs to be a set age-appropriateness so that the right pool of people will read it."

     The jury then deliberated for 20 minutes and came to the decision 5-2 that the book should not be banned. Junior Casey Bolduc said, "I think this is not only an interesting idea for a class project, but an interesting topic as well. The idea of cannibalism is shocking to most, but not everyone feels that it should be removed from all aspects of media.

     Other books read in Professor Donna Decker's Banned Books class included Fahrenheit 451, Harry Potter, The Da Vinci Code and Brokeback Mountain, books that have been at one time or another banned.

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