September 22, 2006

Banned Book Week 2006, organised by the ALA marks the 25th anniversary of the event There are texts of some famous banned books online.

The ALA's concerns seem often to be about the exclusion of books from a particular library, not quite a ban in the same sense as the one imposed, for example, by the old Catholic Index - which seems to have included many of the highlights of Western civilization. Recent research has revealed that the Vatican authorities almost banned Uncle Tom's Cabin, but (possibly to their credit) never considered Indexing Darwin. The Index is no longer published, but banning is still threatened from other directions. Of course, a time-honoured way of gaining sympathy for your work is to claim that the Illuminati are banning it... See also...

posted by Plegmund 18 years ago
  • OOooo nifty post Plegmund...
  • Sad commentaries on humanity, those links. But a fine and most timely post!!!
  • If I had more piss and vinegar (and inclination), I'd open an "underground education" home school that taught kids all of the "unpopular" or "dangerous" knowledge. Imagine the future of the world with an army of covertly-intelligent kids at the helm!
  • The Comstock law also forbade distribution of birth control information. In 1915, Margaret Sanger's husband was jailed for distributing her Family Limitation, which described and advocated various methods of contraception. Sanger herself had fled the country to avoid prosecution, but would return in 1916 to start the American Birth Control League, which eventually merged with other groups to form Planned Parenthood. Reminds me of the chapter in Angela's Ashes where Frankie and the other newsboys make extra money by selling (on the side) the birth control ads their bosses made them rip out of the magazines before they delivered them.
  • From the texts link in the FPP, I can see why some wanted to ban the UN Declaration of Human Rights, but "Call of the Wild"? "Black Beauty"? "Little Red Riding Hood"?
  • OOOOOOO NOOOOOO! Dangerous ideas! Quit thinking, everybody, and go read your bibles. But not those nasty Psalms. Don't read those.
  • Rape, incest, murder, corruption...and the Bible is not on the list of banned books?
  • But it's not in that order. I think it's murder, corruption, rape, incest. THAT's why God got away with it. Cos there were no meddling kids.
  • I think translations of the Bible were banned for quite a while. So long as it was in a language no-one could understand, it was OK. Actually, I've seen old translations of the Decameron where the naughty bits are left in, but not translated. Presumably linguists are deemed less corruptible, or something.
  • I think it's murder, corruption, rape, incest. Ah. Order of operations. Of course. *whips out box of Scooby Snacks*
  • Put me down for the first three.
  • Back in the first grade at parochial school, we had expurgated copies of the Little House on the Prairie books. Serioulsy, black marker over selected portions of Pa Ingalls's homespun wisdom.
  • Me too, TUM. It was years before I learned what he had to say about the proper application of lard as a marital aid. If only I'd been allowed to read it sooner, who knows how different my life would have been?
  • Oh, we forgot the racism in the Bible, nunia. I think that's from day 1, where God created White. Or at least off-white. "I think translations of the Bible were banned for quite a while." Yes, mustn't translate from the Latin so the Plebs don't know what it actually says. Even when they *did* translate it, the morons to this day still don't know what it actually says, otherwise they wouldn't be able to stop laughing.
  • What is there to expurgate in Little House on the Prairie? I know that Wilder edited her own experiences pretty heavily, but I didn't know there was stuff left in that could be cut!
  • Maybe they blacked-out the name "Manly," so that girls didn't get the idea that men were actually masculine, and therefore desireable.
  • The N word.
  • The teachers at that school had a real issue with mild cusswords like "darn," "dang," and "jeepers." My impression is that those were the sorts of things they crossed out.
  • Presumably linguists are deemed less corruptible, or something. Ah yes! We all know a cunning linguist is less corruptable. Come on, people, how could you leave that straight line unanswered for so long! scheesh!
  • What is there to expurgate in Little House on the Prairie? All those "knowing-by-touching" moments in Mary's School for the Blind.
  • 'was waitin' for the funny man.
  • Fuckity shit bags!
  • Cos there were no meddling kids. *pulls off mask* "Phyllis Diller?!" *swoons*
  • What should really be banned: Men from Mars, Women from wherever Chicken soup for whatever, What the bleep does whoever know Any fantasy book with names that are spelled with two consonants not normally associated with each other separated by an apostrophe, e.g. "T'Drang", or "t-Pee", or "N'Dupe" etc.
  • Also I wouldn't ban Tony Robbins' books but I'd like to see them shaved down so that they're two inches across instead of the current five inches.
  • I'd heard stories about the stuff that Wilder cut from her books. For example, in one of the towns where they lived (can't remember which one), there was a family who ran a rooming house/small hotel. People in town noticed that the garden was always plowed up, but just figured that the people were lousy gardeners or whatever. Come to find out, the couple was killing boarders, taking their money, and burying them in the garden! Wilder didn't put the story in her books because she thought it would scare kids.
  • Z'StoryP'Bored perhaps ye need to read another genre?
  • The list gets longer and longer. Plus, nunia, great project idea.
  • I'll tell you, flic, that it won't be long before parents make damned sure kids learn evolutionary theory, even if they have to teach the kids themselves. Might as well teach them the rest of the good stuff while they're at it.
  • Monkeyfilter: Quit thinking, everybody