And Tango Makes Three----BANNED

[Catlady]

Originally Posted by RHWright

To a certain extent, I agree. As a citizen, your input should be considered in broad terms. You want to make sure those tax dollars are well spent.

But when it comes to raising challenges to specific books or types of books, that's where I have a problem. A library serves a community and all its varied viewpoints and needs.

It's not an area that should be politicized or bow to a small segment of viewpoints.

Did I wish my local library spent less on books by right-wing talk show hosts, religious fiction, and sub-literate vampire stories? Sure. But I'm sure there are plenty of patrons who wonder why they buy the stuff I like to read.

In the end, a well-stocked library has something to offer all its patrons.

(School libraries are a slightly different discussion, as they have more specific educational goals.)

This is all well and good in theory, but in reality, limited funds mean choices. The community has a right to be heard regarding those choices.

[Sydney's Mom]

Originally Posted by Hamlet53

Well a proper response would require that this thread be in the P&R forum, which should give you a very good hint.

The school district has already raised a ruckus with the mandated minute of silence at the start of each day. I thought school's were supposed to teach different political views - isn't that why my daughter came home and said she tested as a Democrat, and everyone else in her class tested as a Republican. I knew she was listening to me when I discussed . . . .

[Red Alert]

I've never understood banning a book. The attempt to bury society's collective heads in the sand by banning as an effort to shield someone from society's past indignities. Instead the book should be used as a teaching tool. Properly done, at the proper maturity level, the lessons will reveal how far society has progressed, or in some cases show how poorly we've failed to learn our lessons.

[crich70]

Originally Posted by carpetmojo

They need to watch out - this could come back and bite 'em on the bum.....
I don't know about the States, but in UK, banning things (barring most things injurious to yer health that is..) is usually the trigger for someone earning a lot of money

The banning of "Lady Chatterly's Lover", for example, led to a very large number of copies circulated in schools, corrupting young minds - sometimes with the tacit approval of liberal English teachers - pubs, and workplaces, doing the same for grown-ups, thereby thoroughly undermining the moral health of the Nation.
Enough to finally see orf the blue pencil , and give Penguin another load of sales when it was "legalised" !

Course, this book's slightly different, but the principle's the same

And there was prohibition here in the u.S. which made a lot of $ for men like Al Capone.

[crich70]

Originally Posted by ebusinesstutor

If they had banned Twilight quick enough, we wouldn't be hip deep in copycat young vampire love books!

Vampirism as a religious viewpoint? Intriguing. Personally I think if there were real vampires and they were susceptible to holy water and crucifixes this would actually provide support to proving that God is real and would be a big boon to Christianity. And think of how many people would come to church for their holy water.

Hmm. if a Muslim becomes a vampire, is it the Koran that has power over them or would crosses still work?

While growing up, we had a mother cat quite ill after the birth of her kittens and she used to go out and hunt and leave them for long periods. A tomcat we had was very interested in the box in the closet.

We were watching him very carefully as tomcats have been known to kill kittens. Instead, he would crawl in with the kittens and let them suck on his fur. While the kittens weren't getting nourishment from this, the warm, furry presence comforted them. Never saw any other tomcat do that before.

Sometimes animals will act differently than normal caring in ways we do not expect. Just like the orangutang and the hound.

Yeah but the ACLU would probably be filing rights violations on behalf of the poor vampires who were being discriminated against because everyone had crosses and holy water etc.

[crich70]

Originally Posted by DiapDealer

I'm fine with the ALA keeping track of the challenges. Remember, this isn't a case someone simply "not liking" a book. These are cases where someone took the official "first step" in trying to keep other people from liking a book by having it removed from a library system. Just because they weren't successful doesn't mean it's not noteworthy.

If I were packing up and relocating a young family, I would certainly want to know if I was moving to a community that had an abundance of jerk-wads who were making numerous efforts to bring their library more "into compliance" with their religious or political ideals. Waiting until someone successfully gets a book banned is a little late to bring it to everyone's attention, is it not?

True. A book being removed from circulation doesn't seem like much to worry about but I imagine the European Jews didn't see the 1st few 'laws' passed in the 1930's as much to worry about either. And we all know where that led to. I'm not saying that a single book being removed will lead to something like the Nazi's but from small acorns can grow big oaks.