Authors speak out against banning

[EruditioSalvatus]

Authors, artists and musicians are due to gather at a library in San Francisco to protest against the banning of books in schools and libraries in the US.

Even in the 21st century books are being banned.

The list of books includes:

• The Kite Runner
• The Great Gatsby
• Tango Makes Three

and several others

Full article

[Hemidakota]

Is there a complete list of books that are banned?

[FunkyTown]

And banned by who? Which schools? Are schools actively banning these books or are they not teaching them in class?

Because if a school decided to pull Kite Runner from the curriculum, but said they weren't going to teach it, I would consider it a world of 'Meh'. There are time constraints and far more important things going on.

[Jenamarie]

Our library does "banned books month" every September. They have copies of the banned books out on display, with placards explaining why they were banned from various school and public libraries (although not banned from our library of course )

Most of the books were banned from public school libraries, and removed from public school "Required Reading" lists because of content (references to sex, drug use, innapropriate language, etc)

They had Tango Makes Three in one of the displays, and it was banned from several school libraries because it's about a pair of male penguins (gay) who adopt an egg that was rejected by it's mother, hatch it, and raise it.

[NeuroTypical]

I read my kids Huck Finn and Tom Sawyer. I tried, but I just couldn't bring myself to use the 'n' word - so I used 'slave' instead. Not exactly my proudest confession here. But I think I'll be able to properly atone by having them read them as they get older.

LM

[john doe]

My daughter has to read 'of mice and men' over the long weekend. She's uncomfortable with all the crude language in it. I read it long ago, don't see why everyone thinks it was so great. My son has to read 'the outsiders'. Another "whatever" book as far as I'm concerned.

[pam]

My daughter has to read 'of mice and men' over the long weekend. She's uncomfortable with all the crude language in it. I read it long ago, don't see why everyone thinks it was so great. My son has to read 'the outsiders'. Another "whatever" book as far as I'm concerned.

Just tell him to watch the movie. Goes right with the book and much shorter.

[Generally_Me]

Yeah, I had a huge problem with "Of Mice and Men" when I was a teen, too.

[ADoyle90815]

The Twilight series of books have been banned in some school libraries.

Capi Unified briefly bans 'Twilight' from middle schools, | books, school, series, district, library - News - OCRegister.com

[Just_A_Guy]

While banning a book is infantile, celebrating a book merely because it has been banned doesn't seem all that sophisticated either.

[hordak]

While banning a book is infantile, celebrating a book merely because it has been banned doesn't seem all that sophisticated either.

Cause and effect. I personally would have never thought once about reading the da vinci code until the Catholics condemned it. Then i had to see what the hubbub was all about.

I bet these books will get more attention now then if they were to sit on the library shelf of a public school.

Who doesn't like forbidden fruit?

[prisonchaplain]

We "ban" books and media all the time, but just don't call it that. We don't let our girls see High School Musical, despite its G-rating, because it's full of high school themes, and my oldest is a mature 9-year old, who doesn't need any help formulating ideas. We don't read/show Harry Potter, Left Behind is only for the oldest daughter, and on I could go.

I'd expect an LDS library to eskew The God Makers, except perhaps in an apologetics class. Likewise, I'm guessing BYU's media center probably has very few offerings with R-ratings.

As for the "real politic" argument that banning produces interest--it's probably true. Nevertheless, I say opponents of a particular book/movie should state their case and let the chips fall where they may. We're to be salt and light--even if our truth-telling ends up luring more people to darkness.

[Moksha]

Other classic literature subjected to complaints include JD Salinger's The Catcher in the Rye, The Great Gatsby by F Scott Fitzgerald and To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee.

The Harry Potter series by JK Rowling also feature on the list.

Yikes! I think even most Mormon parents let their kids read the Harry Potter books.

Catcher in the Rye, was supposed to be on my High School reading list, but it got yanked from the list.

However, Classical Greek Dramas can be subject to banning as well, due to Dionysus' wine imbibing and Zeus' transformable sexual hijinks - even on a university level.

[mytha]

There does seem to be this odd assumption that if a book is banned it must be good, profound, high quality literature. Twilight should put that notion to rest once and for all.

[NeuroTypical]

So, self-censorship is not banning. Keeping your kids from reading something isn't banning (other than banning it in your own house). Banning involves keeping someone else's kid from viewing it. The term 'ban' involves exercising dominion over other people. I suppose sometimes that could be righteous dominion (as in no allowing anyone's kid into an NC-17 movie). Or it could be unrighteous dominion, as in trying to make it illegal for a certain book to be printed or sold because a certain faction or demographic doesn't like the message.

So the word 'ban' doesn't always belong. It's also easy to oversensationalize when it does belong, because people can associate the word with images of the Nazi's book burnings back in the '30's.