Banned Book Week starts Saturday

[kennyc]

Originally Posted by Sparrow

I don't.

I totally agree.

[FlorenceArt]

Originally Posted by Nate the great

I just found this. I'm going to show my support by finding a book that has been banned and read it.

http://www.bannedbooksweek.org/info.html

Thank you for that info. That site is rather scary.

Originally Posted by HarryT

So you think it's "horrible" that "Mein Kampf" is banned in Germany, Sweetpea? I think personally that there are situations (such as this one) where it is entirely justifyable.

You could also argue that Mein Kampf should be required reading in German schools. Well, I don't really think that would be very useful, but banning books is still wrong and, IMO, counterproductive. Do you really think that would-be nazis have any difficulty procuring this book? I think not. I think, on the contrary, that being banned gives it added meaning and value for them.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by Sweetpea

But, if I read that wikipage dreams posted, most banned books are banned because they apparently tell some truth a government doesn't want to hear (or want its populace to hear). A book that really tries to set up people against each other is different, naturally...

Yes, that's very much my view, too, which is why I think it's unwise to make a blanket statement that "banning books is always bad". I think myself that to prohibit the publication of books which openly advocate "hate crimes" is entirely justifyable.

[tompe]

Originally Posted by HarryT

So you think it's "horrible" that "Mein Kampf" is banned in Germany, Sweetpea? I think personally that there are situations (such as this one) where it is entirely justifyable.

I think they have gotten many unintended problems and consequences because of this banning. So on the whole I think it is a bad thing. I think that the issue of Skeptic that was about holocaust deniers discussed this issue.

[mazzeltjes]

I'll be re-reading Edna O'Brien's The Country Girls.

This was the first part of a trilogy of novels (later collected as The Country Girls Trilogy) which also included The Lonely Girl (1962) and Girls in Their Married Bliss (1964). Shortly after their publication, these books were banned in Ireland due to their frank portrayals of the sex lives of their characters.

I loved these when I came across them first while living in Ireland.
Ánd they were not only banned because of the above mentioned, but also because of their criticism of the Catholic Church.
Well worth a read

[Greg Anos]

They all missed my favorite banned book - James Branch Cabell's Jurgen.

It was banned in New York for obscenity and taken to trial (banned 1920, trial 1922, found not guilty, ban lifted)...

[FlorenceArt]

I think the idea is to draw attention on books that are threatened with banishment NOW in the U.S. Which is why it's scary. Not that this danger doesn't exist in other countries, but that's the focus of this website.

[Hadrien]

We also have such a list available on Feedbooks: http://www.feedbooks.com/list/6

[lilac_jive]

I think I'll read "Brave New World" by Aldous Huxley. I bought it a few weeks ago and I just saw it pop up on a wikipedia search. It was banned in Ireland.

[FlorenceArt]

I'll repeat myself because I do believe this is important: from what the website says, this event is NOT a celebration of how open-minded and liberal we are now by listing books that have been banned in the past. It's a warning that banning books is something that can happen now in our democratic countries. I think we all need that kind of reminder once in a while.

[sassanik]

Originally Posted by dreams

Here is another fun link about banned books.

http://classiclit.about.com/od/banne...Censorship.htm

I'm still trying to get over the fact that I have already read most of the books starting from a young age. I had no idea that my teachers and parents were corrupting my mind or that I had such questionable taste in books. (We even read Uncle Tom's Cabin... oh, my)



The below is from..http://classiclit.about.com/od/banne...edbooks.01.htm

A Light in the Attic was one of my favorite books as a child. Suggestive pictures eh? I should dig it out (yes I still have my old copy, the Silverstein came to our school and I got an autographed copy) and see what those suggestive pictures were.

Maybe I should come up with a list of books that I have read in the past that were the banned books list.


Amy

[NormHart]

"glorified Satan, suicide and cannibalism, and also encouraged children to be disobedient."

Hum, open to some (mis)interpretation IMO. Were the children being encouraged to be disobedient about the glorification of Satan, suicide, and cannibalism or what? Possibly the children were being encouraged to be disobedient about the glorification of God to the exclusion of critical thinking and common sense, the inordinate extension of life without the consideration of the quality of that life, and the failure to recognize the inevitable result of blind obedience to "be fruitful and multiply"?

Harry, the banning of books is a slippery slippery slope. I can not support the banning of any book for any reason, ever. Ideas are not dangerous, the actions that may arise from those ideas can be. It is no accident that the rise of the Third Reich was accompanied by the burning of books, nothing threatens insanity more than the free exchange of ideas. Banning Mien Kamph is self-defeating, an open and frank appraisal of the book and it's ideas in Germany would be far more useful IMO. Don't hide it, instead take it apart, show it's fallacies, and destroy it's power.

[lilac_jive]

Originally Posted by sassanik

A Light in the Attic was one of my favorite books as a child. Suggestive pictures eh? I should dig it out (yes I still have my old copy, the Silverstein came to our school and I got an autographed copy) and see what those suggestive pictures were.

Maybe I should come up with a list of books that I have read in the past that were the banned books list.


Amy

LOLWUT? Seriously, Light in the Attic?

Well I know Shel Silverstein wrote commentaries for Playboy.

[Jellby]

I can't avoid the feeling that the banning of Mein Kampf is only due to its author being who he was. Had the book been written by anyone else, it wouldn't have beeb banned anywhere. I haven't read it, though.

And of course, had he won the war, it wouldn't be banned either, but that's another matter.

This goes to say that I don't see it clear that it is good to ban it. A book should be judged (if anything) by what it says, not by who wrote it.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by NormHart

Harry, the banning of books is a slippery slippery slope. I can not support the banning of any book for any reason, ever.

OK, so you'd be happy to see books on sale which providing detailed instructions for making bombs, and committing acts of terrorism, or which openly encouraged hate crimes against certain segments of society?

I'm sorry, but I really cannot agree with you. Free speach has to have its limits.