ShortForBob
Super Anarchist
Gess wot, I no.
Banned Books
- Thread starter badlatitude
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GabrielButler
New member
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I've read only a few books from the list, but honestly, I have no idea why they are banned. Is it because of religious interpretations, or what? Isn't it better just to "mark" than as it's done with music or films?
badlatitude
Soros-backed
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There are two Americas, one that believes in science, freedom of thought, and democracy. The other is authoritarian and believes whatever it reads on the internet, so long as it is consistent with its beliefs.
My parents were avid readers and always had many books on hand. That included racy, harshly criticized novels like Lady Chatterly's lover or Lolita. My parents never hid those books and preferred we read more serious things, but they never stopped us.
I wish the dollars we send to red states had some controls to stop this nonsense, but it won't happen. The best way to handle this is to provide iPads to every school that bans books. Then, let the kids figure it out.
SloopJonB
Super Anarchist
A banned books department in a book store - genius.
I bet they have become best sellers.
I bet they have become best sellers.
pusslicker
Super Anarchist
Book stores down south have been doing this since I've been alive. Local libraries do it as well. It works as great on kids as the Parental Guidance stickers did on hip hop record sales. The titles and reasons the right wingers want to ban them change, but the fact they want to burn all but a few books doesn't.
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We should also use Proust to introduce kids to sentence diagramming. 😄
Both Moby Dick and Ulysses are, in my view, novels to which people who are already interested in literature will come, but they would be overly dense and off putting introductions.
For everyone saying I read x in y grade, that’s great. However, while I read several of my siblings’s high school books when I was in fourth grade—and made some truly excellent dioramas—I had a much better understanding of their symbolism and context when I reread them in high school.
A Fish Called Wanda seems appropriate here:
“OTTO. Apes don't read philosophy.
WANDA. Yes they do, Otto. They just don't understand it.”
There is, I feel, a lot of value in using simpler texts to introduce older kids to reading and analysis of literature.
In any case, I’m not really in favor of changing books or movies (Han shot first), but understand why publishers do so. I prefer my Olsen’s Standard Book of British Birds to include the gannet regardless of current cultural trends on gannets. I trust kids to be able to understand that even gannets have their time and place. But my view comes from a place of relative privilege as very little of the language/acts being changed would have been directed against me.
Yup. Both my local library and local independent bookstore have banned book sections.
I go to a lot of indie bookstores when I travel and most have a banned book shelf or at least intentionally try to keep banned books in stock.
Mrleft8
Super Anarchist
One problem that arises is..... People don't read unless they are required to by some course, or teacher.
A "Banned book" section in a local book store would go un noticed. First of all, there are no local book stores, and if there were, people who don't read wouldn't go in there.
If a child were to wander in, and come home with a book like..... Oh let's say "The Paper Palace" by Miranda Cowley Heller, And a parent were to find this book...... First they'd actually have to open it and read a few pages. Then the book store would be fire bombed in the middle of the night while the sheriff's deputies were eating Chinese food at the local Taco Bell.
We're not talking about an enlightened public here folks.
ShortForBob
Super Anarchist
Yes, I forgot the purple font.
I assumed the sarc would be obvious.
Funny how those that claim to be "readers" fail so badly in interpreting in context.
ShortForBob
Super Anarchist
Libraries change lives.
Maybe in your area, but there are lots of local bookstores. I was just having cocktails and listening to live music at one last night, this in a mostly conservative town.
Here is a list of local bookstores in the US. These are just the ones that partner with bookshop.org.
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bookshop.org
Independent bookstores that offer experiences (author talks, book tours, book clubs, book readings for kids, coffee, cocktails, live music, etc.) and are pretty popular. They bring in non-readers by having talks on more diverse subjects (fishing, etc.), music, drinks, items by local artisans to sell, and creative events.
Also, while younger kids may need parental buy in to buy books, tweens and teenagers do buy banned books that their parents might not allow them to have.
No one is saying that local bookstores (and libraries) having banned books is the solution to schools banning books, but it does make the books available to those who might not otherwise have access, which is better than nothing.
The response most of these people have is to try to hide the books somewhere else in the store, which is a reshelving pain, or a bad Google review in which, in some cases, the reviewer manages to display their own idiocy in spectacular fashion.
Local bookstores will always be a bit of a passion project, but there are enough people who like browsing and purchasing physical books to keep the stores open.
Fah Kiew Tu
Curmudgeon, First Rank
Precisely why a number of posters here (Hi Meli, you're peeking again) refuse to do so.
FKT
I thought Lady Chatterly's lover a bit twee, and Lolita gets me into trouble when I point out that most people have the definition of pedaphilia significantly wrong.
I am a little trepiditious about one of my kids picking up 120 days of Sodom from the bookshelf. The boy child flicked through Justine one day, but put it back, he discovered Ivine Welsh's sequel to trainspotting when he was about 10, but luckily found it a bit too hard going and gave up.
One day, I may have to answer to my children for their corruption.
Like others, many books I could brag about having read as a child, became much richer when I reread them as an adult. And then there are some (Looking at you CS Lewis) that were much reduced once I understood the symbolism.
But I would support a ban on that JK Rowling chick. At least until people have read the source work she plagerised themes from.
ShortForBob
Super Anarchist
My daughter's teacher in England, gave them The Diary Of Ann Frank. They were 8 years old.
I read it when I was about 12 and found it dead boring. I should probably re read it though I suspect it is dead boring.
My teacher read us Animal Farm when we were about 8.
Nice story about animals taking over the farm. We all cried when Boxer got sent to the knackers.
She'd probably get fired today in the USA. I wonder if teachers will get fired for reading TDOAF in the USA today?
I read it when I was about 12 and found it dead boring. I should probably re read it though I suspect it is dead boring.
My teacher read us Animal Farm when we were about 8.
Nice story about animals taking over the farm. We all cried when Boxer got sent to the knackers.
She'd probably get fired today in the USA. I wonder if teachers will get fired for reading TDOAF in the USA today?
These days they’d try to get a teacher fired for reading the US Constitution. Some parts sound too much like whatever they imagine critical race theory to be.
Voyageur
Super Anarchist
Ezekiel 23:20 - Bible Gateway
Bible Gateway passage: Genesis 19 - New International Version
Sodom and Gomorrah Destroyed - The two angels arrived at Sodom in the evening, and Lot was sitting in the gateway of the city. When he saw them, he got up to meet them and bowed down with his face to the ground. “My lords,” he said, “please turn aside to your servant’s house. You can wash your...
Expat Canuck
Anarchist
Seems like solid justification for not having incest exemptions for anti-abortion laws.Ezekiel 23:20 - Bible Gateway
www.biblegateway.com
View attachment 582404Bible Gateway passage: Genesis 19 - New International Version
Sodom and Gomorrah Destroyed - The two angels arrived at Sodom in the evening, and Lot was sitting in the gateway of the city. When he saw them, he got up to meet them and bowed down with his face to the ground. “My lords,” he said, “please turn aside to your servant’s house. You can wash your...
