Banned Books Week Begins

[doubleshuffle]

Originally Posted by Tarana

My banned book for this year is the "Adventures of Tom Sawyer" which is currently free to anybody with an Echo.

Tom Sawyer is always free to Mobileread users:

https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sh...d.php?t=135679

[astrangerhere]

I grew up in a very strict parochial school as well. I had friends in public school whose parents were demanding alternative readings for things like William Faulkner and JD Salinger. I carefully noted each title and made it a point to read everything that they had been assigned in school and wouldn't read. I would get the books from the public library and read them in study halls and the like at school. I had a few teachers who asked if I had blacked out the profanity in the books. I always had the easy response of "I can't; it's a library book."

I was never sent home or in trouble, mostly because many of the teachers were so sheltered that they didn't know what most of the books were about. They always had a vague sense of unease, but they didn't know how to deal with it. It helped that my father was an attorney who would have raised hell if they had tried to send me home for reading. (I was only sent to the parochial school because of the poor quality of public schools in the area).

[maddz]

I remember the fuss when a narrow-minded great aunt caught me with a copy of Lady Chatterley's Lover when I was in my teens... She told my mother she ought to throw it on the kitchen fire - which I thought stupid because we cooked on gas. (We'd replaced our solid fuel boiler some years previously and had never cooked on a range to my knowledge...)

These days it's considered tame, and, dare I say, almost respectable.

[Jack Tingle]

I just went to the ALA's "Most Challenged" lists. I must say, I'm disappointed in the looney fringe's lack of creativity and breadth of challenged books.
What happened to the days when Salinger, Faulkner and Plath were challenged? These are mostly children's books challenged because the they contain LGBTQ stuff. What a sad commentary on the moral fiber of the lunatic fringe, nowadays. Why, back in the old days*... Sorry, never mind.

*The 1960-70s.

[Alpha o]

Originally Posted by Cinisajoy

Barryem,
You forgot Speedy Gonzalez as to being banned.

Peyton Place, Harper Valley PTA, any country song from that era.

For those of you too young to remember the 50's through the 80's:
Pretty much the Kardashians do the Jenners on the Peyton Place.
Or in the immortal words of Charlie McClain " who's car is parked next door".

You forgot Heckle and Jeckle, some of the old cartoons.

[barryem]

Heckle and Jeckle were banned?

Barry

[Apache]

Maybe they are perceived as communists or gay by some morons.
Apache

[Catlady]

Originally Posted by Apache

Maybe they are perceived as communists or gay by some morons.
Apache

They were considered racist.

[Apache]

I forgot about that.
Apache

[Ricky D'Angelo]

The kindle version of "Truth is a Lonely Warrior" was "banned" for a time by amazon allegedly because the book had a typo and a few broken hyperlinks. The author claims amazon temporarily "banned" his book because of it's controversial nature in his blog linked below.

https://jamesperloff.com/2017/10/27/...onely-warrior/

[ZodWallop]

Originally Posted by Ricky D'Angelo

The kindle version of "Truth is a Lonely Warrior" was "banned" for a time by amazon allegedly because the book had a typo and a few broken hyperlinks. The author claims amazon temporarily "banned" his book because of it's controversial nature in his blog linked below.

https://jamesperloff.com/2017/10/27/...onely-warrior/

I read about half of that blog. I won't comment on his conspiracy theories. Everyone is entitled to their beliefs. But he didn't seem to understand the difference between Amazon selling his book vs. third party sellers. Also, the fact that his book is available in Kindle edition tells me that his book wasn't banned.

Seeing the amount of research he put into the price his book is selling at, I can believe that the eBook had uncorrected errors.

[Bertolt]

I'm old enough to remember that Lady Chatterly's Lover was banned in the UK largely because of a 4-letter word beginning with f. D H Lawrence used it in its real meaning and not as it is more commonly used now except in porn of course. It was not one of his better novels but it became probably his best know work. E M Forster's Maurice is another British novel that was banned because of its gay content.

[BenG]

Originally Posted by Bertolt

E M Forster's Maurice is another British novel that was banned because of its gay content.

I don't recall Maurice being banned. Forster didn't try to publish it during his lifetime. It was only published after his death in 1971.

[Richwood]

The Catholic church had a whole list of banned books until quite recent times. This included writings by both scientists and writers from other religions. Not sure but I believe any version of the Bible without a official Imprimatur by a Catholic bishop was banned for Catholics.

The "Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems" by Galileo Galilei was banned for centuries. One of the first books published in Italian it argued the Copernican theory and made the followers of Aristotle look like fools. The official church position backed Aristotle based on some bible lines. Still an interesting read.

[Pulpmeister]

I'm still flummoxed by Heckle and Jeckle being banned as "racist". Who on earth by? They are two yellow-billed magpies; black-and-white birds; one with a pukka English accent, the other with a Brooklyn accent. Unless of course the English accent counts as racism. Or maybe the Brooklyn accent is racist, given the bird species is exclusive to California?