Banned books

[indianroads]

Regardless of anyone's political or sociological position, I don't believe books should be banned. Reading should evoke critical thinking and spark conversations.

And no, your mama wears combat boots is not a proper rebuttal as to why Dr. Seuss shouldn't be banned, or the Muppets, or Fahrenheit 451, or 1984, or Little House on the Prairie (the entire series of books), or Tom Sawyer or Huckleberry Finn.

Silencing one voice, silences us all.

[Irwin]

I agree that the government shouldn't ban books, with the exception of perhaps how-to manuals for the commission of murder or something in that vein, but in the case of Dr. Seuss, it's Dr. Seuss Enterprises that will no longer publish the books due to what are now, and rightly so, considered racist images. That's their prerogative.

Some of the cartoons from the '40s, which would today be considered decidedly racist, were perfectly acceptable when they were made. Some that come to mind are Bugs Bunny cartoons depicting Black people with bones through their noses and others featuring stereotypes of Arabs, buck-toothed Japanese, Native Americans... I haven't watched any of them since my teenage years but can still remember them quite vividly. I was a big fan of those cartoons and a few others, and would watch them religiously with my friends, who, like me, were social outcasts.

[TheMightyAz]

I couldn't agree more. The same goes for films like Gone With The Wind and series like Little Britain. It's shameful what's happening to our history.

[epimetheus]

Who is banning what books?

[indianroads]

Who is banning what books?

Google it. There's a partial list on Wikipedia with the rationale behind it.
Brave New World
Of Mice and Men
To Kill a Mockingbird
Catcher in the Rye
The Harry Potter Series
...

[indianroads]

I agree that the government shouldn't ban books, with the exception of perhaps how-to manuals for the commission of murder or something in that vein, but in the case of Dr. Seuss, it's Dr. Seuss Enterprises that will no longer publish the books due to what are now, and rightly so, considered racist images. That's their prerogative.

Some of the cartoons from the '40s, which would today be considered decidedly racist, were perfectly acceptable when they were made. Some that come to mind are Bugs Bunny cartoons depicting Black people with bones through their noses and others featuring stereotypes of Arabs, buck-toothed Japanese, Native Americans... I haven't watched any of them since my teenage years but can still remember them quite vividly. I was a big fan of those cartoons and a few others, and would watch them religiously with my friends, who, like me, were social outcasts.

For my WIP I researched how to blow up a train.

[PiP]

Banned Books Week (September 27-October 3, 2020)

Banned Books Week (September 27 - October 3, 2020) is an annual event celebrating the freedom to read. Typically held during the last week of September, it spotlights current and historical attempts to censor books in libraries and schools. It brings together the entire book community — librarians, booksellers, publishers, journalists, teachers, and readers of all types — in shared support of the freedom to seek and to express ideas, even those some consider unorthodox or unpopular. The books featured during Banned Books Week have all been targeted for removal or restriction in libraries and schools. By focusing on efforts across the country to remove or restrict access to books, Banned Books Week draws national attention to the harms of censorship.

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Article continues > Here

[epimetheus]

Google it. There's a partial list on Wikipedia with the rationale behind it.

...

This list? I just looked at the UK section and currently there are no books banned here. I just bought a copy of Brave New World.

Cross-posted with Pip. I get it now, thanks.

[Phil Istine]

Around 2013/2014 i Did an English GCSE course as a mature student. One of the works we studied was "Of Mice and Men". Ostensibly, it was a short story about some events on a farm in the USA during the Great Depression years, but it was also a commentary about the social structure of the time. The black guy slept in an area with some of the animals and that n-word was used a number of times about him - even being capitalised once as if used as his name (his name was Crooks). Also, the only woman in the story wasn't even deemed worthy of a name - she was known as Curley's wife.

Under recent criteria, such a story could be banned or heavily modified, but to do so would wipe out a work of art that portrayed that era.

[epimetheus]

I need to get a book on that list - all that free coverage.