Banned Book Week

[Snowflake]

How many have you read?

I've missed Captain Underpants, American Pyscho and The Chocolate War.

I cannot believe some of the titles on this list (http://www.ala.org/ala/oif/bannedbooksweek/bbwlinks/100mostfrequently.htm).

Source (http://buzz.yahoo.com/buzzlog/37480/a-long-shelf-life)

"Harry Potter" (Series) (J.K. Rowling)
"To Kill a Mockingbird" (Harper Lee)
"The Color Purple" (Alice Walker)
"The Outsiders" (S.E. Hinton)
"Lord of the Flies" (William Golding)
"Of Mice and Men" (John Steinbeck)
"Goosebumps" (Series) (R.L. Stine)
"How to Eat Fried Worms" (Thomas Rockwell)
"The Catcher in the Rye" (J.D. Salinger)
"The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn" (Mark Twain)
"The Giver" (Lois Lowry)
"Brave New World" (Aldous Huxley)
"The Adventures of Tom Sawyer" (Mark Twain)
"Captain Underpants" (Dav Pilkey)
"The Anarchist Cookbook" (William Powell)
"Carrie" (Stephen King)
"Flowers for Algernon" (Daniel Keyes)
"The Dead Zone" (Stephen King)
"I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings" (Maya Angelou)
"Go Ask Alice" (anonymous)
"American Psycho" (Bret Easton Ellis)
"The Chocolate War" (Robert Cormier)
"James and the Giant Peach" (Roald Dahl)
"The Pigman" (Paul Zindel)
"A Wrinkle in Time" (Madeleine L'Engle)

[katiesue]

How many have you read?

"Harry Potter" (Series) (J.K. Rowling)
"To Kill a Mockingbird" (Harper Lee)
"The Color Purple" (Alice Walker)
"The Outsiders" (S.E. Hinton)
"Lord of the Flies" (William Golding)
"Of Mice and Men" (John Steinbeck)
"How to Eat Fried Worms" (Thomas Rockwell)
"The Catcher in the Rye" (J.D. Salinger) -Favorite book ever
"The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn" (Mark Twain)
"The Adventures of Tom Sawyer" (Mark Twain)
"Captain Underpants" (Dav Pilkey)
"Flowers for Algernon" (Daniel Keyes)
"James and the Giant Peach" (Roald Dahl)
"The Pigman" (Paul Zindel)
"A Wrinkle in Time" (Madeleine L'Engle)

What's wrong with James & the Giant Peach?

[innerSpaceman]

Who's banning these books?

[SzczerbiakManiac]

Fundies

[Prudence]

Who's banning these books?

It doesn't name names, but the ALA site does show some general statistics.

Challenges by initiator 2000-2005. (http://www.ala.org/ala/oif/bannedbooksweek/bbwlinks/challengesbyinitiator20002005.pdf)


The Challenges by type (http://www.ala.org/ala/oif/bannedbooksweek/bbwlinks/challengesbytype20002005.pdf) might also be instructive.

[Prudence]

Fundies

What I've heard anecdotally (and the stats presented may support this) is that it's mostly the "monitoring my own child is too difficult and therefore the world must conform to my standards" set. Parents. The ones whose televisions apparently lack a power button. It's for the chiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiildren! Many might also be fundies, but my impression is that they focus more on the "witchcraft" or "occult" angle and the biggest complaint is language.

[€uroMeinke]

From the linked stats I think fear of "the Other" plays a huge role as well

[Alex]

Banned Book Week is a giant misnomer and I got in hot water at library school for calling it a giant scam.

Very few of the books on the list have been banned. Mostly they are books where someone has attempted to have them banned. In most cases they've failed. Everytime a wacko parent goes to the school board demanding some book be removed from the library, regardless of what actually happens then it is a candidate for the list.

And it isn't just fundies. It isn't fundies that demand that Huckleberry Finn be removed. And if I went to the school board to say that the school libraries shouldn't have intelligent design textbooks in their science collection then that would go on the list.

Plus, the vast majority of the list are elementary school library challenges which is where "censorship" is most appropriate.

But saying that while interest groups out there would like various books taken out of public view very few actually succeed wouldn't be a huge fundraiser for the ALA.

[€uroMeinke]

I'm sort of bummed that over time this list has evoled to be more and more childrens books and lost are the classics that tested the censorship waters early on where is James Joyce, Henry Miller, or D.H. Lawrence? Where's all the classic Olympia Press erotica? It's as if the list itself has been sanitized and censored. I think I'll go out and buy a Hustler Magazine to truely celebrate the spirit of the occasion.

[Strangler Lewis]

The works of the authors you mention were all at the heart of criminal prosecutions/importation restrictions, etc., which is truly the test of a banned book. The above list, as Alex mentions, seems to be about selectivity for school children, where we all more readily agree a line should be drawn but disagree about where.

Hustler, however, is a good reminder of our freedoms, particularly when one recalls Jerry Falwell's unsuccessful libel/emotional distress suit. You might want to enjoy a Campari as you celebrate.

[€uroMeinke]

You might want to enjoy a Campari as you celebrate.

Indeed, I think I shall
:cheers:

[DisneyFan25863]

I've read almost all of those books, and I think it is outrageous that some of them are on that list. My favorite example is Mark Twain's The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn . It is probably THE most controversial book in education. The stupid thing is that the book is only ever read during upper high school and college english courses, where the students should have the maturity to handle the content found in the book.

Even stranger, though, is the fact that the book is often cited as being racist, when, in fact, one of the book's central themes is that everyone - including slaves - are people too. The book is COMPLETLY anti-racist, shown by the fact that the ONLY characters in the book who actually have morals and show compassion are the slave and the white boy who helps him escape.

But, of course, since the book uses the "n" word, people must sue to get it taken out of classrooms :mad:

[Capt Jack]

I found this on Amazon.com (http://www.amazon.com/Anarchist-Cookbook-C-066-William-Powell/dp/0962303208) in relation to "The Anarchists Cookbook"

aparrently written by the original author, one notable paragraph states

the book continues to be in print and with the advent of the Internet several websites dealing with it have emerged. I want to state categorically that I am not in agreement with the contents of The Anarchist Cookbook and I would be very pleased (and relieved) to see its publication discontinued. I consider it to be a misguided and potentially dangerous publication which should be taken out of print.

William Powell



just found it an interesting side note

[Cadaverous Pallor]

We're policing kids a whole lot more these days. This is why the list has shifted.

I almost had Captain Underpants "banned" from the school I worked at because a student actually told another student to shut their pie hole. Heehee! CU kicks ass. :D I fought against it and the book stayed.

[Gemini Cricket]

Me read these. Books is good. :D

"Harry Potter" (Series) (J.K. Rowling)
"To Kill a Mockingbird" (Harper Lee)
"The Color Purple" (Alice Walker)
"The Outsiders" (S.E. Hinton)
"Lord of the Flies" (William Golding)
"Of Mice and Men" (John Steinbeck)
"How to Eat Fried Worms" (Thomas Rockwell)
"The Catcher in the Rye" (J.D. Salinger)
"The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn" (Mark Twain)
"The Adventures of Tom Sawyer" (Mark Twain)
"Captain Underpants" (Dav Pilkey)
"Carrie" (Stephen King)
"The Dead Zone" (Stephen King)
"I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings" (Maya Angelou)
"Go Ask Alice" (anonymous)
"The Chocolate War" (Robert Cormier)
"James and the Giant Peach" (Roald Dahl)

[Alex]

I don't think it is that we police kids more these days.

I think it is a) the line in the sand that used to be generally accepted as to what is child appropriate has been scuffed and a lot of parents don't like it so we are policing kids less which creates more vocal outcries; and b) serious attempts to limit what adults are allowed to read have mostly faded away in our modern porn-friendly society.


When I was a kid no librarian would have imagined putting Clan of the Cave Bear in an elementary school library and the U.S. Postmaster General might seriously have considered prosecuting people for mailing Hustler. These days I wouldn't be surprised to see the former happen and would be shocked if the latter did.

[€uroMeinke]

I figure most books that would be inappropriate for a child would also be boring for a child, I mean there are plenty of places to find obscenity and profanity far easier than in browsing a weighty tome. Does anyone have an example of a book a child would really want to read but shouldn't? I

[Alex]

In the sixth grade a bunch of us passed around a copy of Jean Auel's The Valley of the Horses with all of the sex scenes marked off for easy locating. I know I had read Clan of the Cave Bear well before that (from my mom's bookshelf, not the school's).

I imagine it varies vastly from kid to kid what they are interested in reading in comparison to what the adults in their life would consider appropriate reading. And that is why I am not surprised to see that as school librarians are less and less inclined to participate in that function (and per ALA policies are frequently encouraged not to do so) parents become more and more upset about it.

I'm not saying that the parents are always right in their complaints but that this isn't necesarrily a case of parents unwilling to be responsible for what their children read but by definition parents being unable to control what their children read in the school library. So, when they think it is inappropriate for children (rightly or wrongly) they have no recourse but to seek its removal.

But I also grew up with a public library system that strongly believed they would not act in loco parentis and therefore anything in the collection was available to anybody who asked. This included their subscription to Playboy. It was available to anybody who asked, regardless of age (and when I worked there later in life that was a question on the application: if you were asked to give Playboy to a 12 year old would you). All the kids knew this. We could see boobies just by walking up to the that desk and asking that librarian for it.

Not one of us ever did.