Banned Book Week, Day 3: Read this and irritate a censor

We're continuing to celebrate Banned Book Week here at p3, where our motto is "Judge a book by its enemies." If a book attracts the ire of the sort of person who thinks banning books is a good idea, then it's always got a friend here.

Stop by your local library and thank them for quietly serving on the front lines. And pick up an "I read banned books." button.

Today we're featuring One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, by Oregon's own Ken Kesey.

They're out there.

Black boys in white suits up before me to commit sex acts in the hall and get it mopped up before I can catch them.

They're mopping, when I come out the dorm, all three of them sulky and hating everything, the time of day, the place they're at here, the people they got to work around. When they hate like this, better if they don't see me. I creep along the wall quiet as dust in my canvas shoes, but they got special sensitive equipment detects my fear and they all look up, all three at once, eyes glittering out of the black faces like the hard glitter of radio tubes out of the back of an old radio.

"Here's the Chief. The soo-pah Chief, fellas. Ol' Chief Broom. Here you go, Chief Broom . . . ."

Stick a mop in my hand and motion to the spot they aim for me to clean up today, and I go. One swats the backs of my legs with a broom handle to hurry me past.

(Cross-posted at Loaded Orygun.)