But Banning Books IS Educational
The last week in September every year is the American Library Association’s Banned Books Week. This means that the obscene idea of banning books has had just enough time to metastasize into something comically foul — and sure enough, Jim Dobson’s Citizen’s Link comes through with a defense of book banning.
Parents Unite Against Offensive Books
from staff reportsIs Banned Books Week about censorship or parents’ rights?
Let’s help them out here, shall we? Banned Books Week is about censorship. If you don’t want your child to read a book, then you simply forbid them to check it out from the library. If they disobey you and read it anyway, then you have a parenting problem. Perhaps you failed to follow the good Dr. Dobson’s childrearing advice, and you didn’t shower with your son so he can look at your penis. I’m sorry you’re a bad parent, but that’s not really my problem.
But when you try to get a book removed from a library, you are then telling everyone’s children what they can and cannot read. Telling other people, people with whom you have no relationship whatsoever, what they can and cannot read is usually called “censorship” – if for no other reason than it saves on typing.
Candi Cushman, education analyst for Focus on the Family Action, said the complaints over books are well-founded.
“Most of these books don’t end up actually being removed,” she told Family News in Focus. “The few that do end up being removed are being removed mostly because they have sexual themes or are explicit.”
The book that topped the list this year was And Tango Makes Three, the story of “gay” penguins. It’s the second year in a row that a book with gay themes drew the most ire from parents.
“Parents have a right to object to their kids being exposed to material that they don’t feel like their child is psychologically prepared to handle,” Cushman said.
Of course parents have a right to object to such material. But that right only extends to their children. Why is this so hard to understand? Have these people ever been to a library? It’s not like the books leap off the shelf and attack you, chaining you to a chair and forcing you to read them. Sadistic librarians do not roam the stacks in vinyl stiletto boots, rounding up hapless patrons and giving interpretive readings of Venus in Furs. You have to choose books to read – the books do not choose you.
And, predictably, they’re kvetching about And Tango Makes Three, the story about the penguins at the Central Park Zoo who had a same-sex relationship and raised a baby penguin. And now I see why! Look at this! Look at the redacted portions of the pictures! The book obviously contains multiple scenes of penguin orgies! Who would expose a child to such things?
Guys…don’t let the CitizenLink crew know about this, but there’s an interesting feature about penguin genitalia. Really, it’s an interesting feature about all bird genitalia. Birds don’t have distinct excretory and reproductive openings: they have what is commonly called a “vent”, or a cloaca. This means that when birds have sex — even heterosexual sex — it is an instance of genito-excretory contact, which is just a fancy way of saying “sodomy”. I actually do worry that if this fact ever dawns on these dimwits, they’ll try to get biology classes cancelled on the grounds that such classes are promoting sodomy.
Over the years, 71 percent of the challenges have been to material in schools. Sixty percent of the challenges were brought by parents, 15 percent by patrons, and 9 percent by administrators.
David Miller of Ohio’s Citizens for Community Values called Banned Books Week a farce.
“They have made up a Banned Books Week,” he said, “where they try to focus attention on the fact that parents are getting involved in their kids’ education.”
“Getting involved in their kids’ education”….by banning books. Which is highly educational. If you are trying to raise fascists, that is. I can’t recall ever running across the “teach children by denying them access to reading materials” educational theory in any of the classes I’ve taken on this topic. But then again, I don’t think that fathers showering with their sons so their sons can look at Dad’s penis helps to make boys straight, either, so what do I know?
“Sadistic librarians do not roam the stacks in vinyl stiletto boots, rounding up hapless patrons and giving interpretive readings of Venus in Furs.”
We have that as a scheduled event, actually. One Sunday a month. It’s very popular.
“Sadistic librarians do not roam the stacks in vinyl stiletto boots, rounding up hapless patrons and giving interpretive readings of Venus in Furs.”
Dang. This was why I want my wife to get her MLS.
WF
“The few that do end up being removed are being removed mostly because they have sexual themes or are explicit.”
It’s especially urgent that very young children be shielded from any visual depiction of breasts or nipples, most especially those who are still nursing. Baby Jesus sobs at teh horror.
Bodies are dirty and icky and wrong.
Why do Republicans hate books?
See, you’re assuming that everyone has these “rights”.
Sadistic librarians do not roam the stacks in vinyl stiletto boots, rounding up hapless patrons…
Sadly, yes?
Dr. Dobson also recommends corporal punishment for naughty tykes. Maybe he should hook up with that stiletto-heeled librarian. They may have more in commen than he might think.
He’s a little tough on the family dog as well if I remember it correctly. Something about beating the crap out of the dog because it dared to show some spine. I think this is their operative theory about just about any human or animal interaction .
You know those little pocket New Testaments that the Gideons hand out? I wonder how hard/expensive it would be to produce a little pocket version of Naked Lunch.
“They have made up a Banned Books Week,” he said, “where they try to focus attention on the fact that parents are getting involved in their kids’ education.”
Well, at least we didn’t make up some phoney-baloney God. Praise Jeebus.
I’m just glad none of these fruitcakes realize the best way to get your kid to read a book is to tell them they can’t.
Well, at least for those Dobson types who think they have to lie to their kids to save them from a modern existence.
Wait’ll they discover that, if given pencils, pens, crayons and paper kids can draw pictures of naked people and write swear words. We’re gonna have to take those away from them right away.
So I guess the wingnut’s ideal of primary education, outside of homeschooling, of course, would be for the kids to sit at desks with no books or pencils or paper, with blinders or even blindfolds on, while an approved “teacher” drones on about magic fairies and talking snakes and giant floods and dead people coming back to life.
That’s a good, solid education right there…
mikey
Video of Tuna, Texas Baptist Church Snatch Squad (dedicated to ridding the dictionary of offensive words) Meeting:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=BpZz-q1dQWU&mode=related&search=Greater%20Tuna%20Funeral%20Judge
you get to the offensive words after about three minutes
Thank goodness “Catcher in the Rye” was freely available to me as a 14-year-old in my high school library. That way, I could get it out of the way early, and not be subjected to it at a later date when it no doubt would have disappointed me.
If no one alerted you yet, Mr. Serious Foreign Policy Analyst and Most Prominent Pundit President of The Benito Mussolini Tough Guy Fan Club, Michael Ledeen, wrote an column in the WSJ about the super ultra amazing unheralded laughed at by the left upcoming victory over Al Qa’ida in Iraq, otherwise known by the deranged fringe dirty f***ing hippies as ‘those foreign dudes everyone predicted would soon be offed by native Iraqis’.
But note the bayt-und-svitch: the WSJ headline is not “Victory Over Tiny Al Qa’ida In Mesopotamia Group Within Reach” but “OMIGOD Victry is Finally A’Comin’ in Eye-Rack All You Un-Bee-leeeeverz!!!”
I think it is totally awesome that we can blowup, invade, and hire pirates to help us occupy countries and then call them smoking remains “Relative Tranquility”.
Plus, it is even awesomer to keep re-defining the goals and re-defining them down, such as totaling up the square meters of stuff-not-blowing-up as Victry.
Forcing your kid to see your penis is too harsh a punishment. Instead you should force them to read a long, boring book that has the word “tits” on page 896. No skipping to the dirty parts for you!
Somewhat offtopic, but speaking of fundie assholes, someone at SN simply has to address this story:
http://www.americablog.com/2007/10/oral-roberts-university-facing-huge.html
Nothing gay–so far–but the Oral Roberts scandal could end up being the best one yet.
Um, I’m just wondering here. Whaddaya do if you take your six year old into the shower with you and he starts to giggle and points and asks “THAT’S what you use”?
Ok, that was a bad plan….
mikey
“Sadistic librarians do not roam the stacks in vinyl stiletto boots, rounding up hapless patrons and giving interpretive readings of Venus in Furs.”
For that you have to be invited to the after-closing-hours party every Friday night. Good times, good times.
And Milk Bone too!
Jillian: “Sadistic librarians do not roam the stacks in vinyl stiletto boots, rounding up hapless patrons and giving interpretive readings of Venus in Furs.”
Oh sure, mock me. How do know that never happens? Just because it never happened to *you* doesn’t mean it *can’t* happen.
That’s my favorite fantasy, and I *really* resent being told that “librarians do not” do that.
Which reminds me of the friend who told me once that she wanted to be a dominatrix psychiatrist: “You think *your* childhood was bad, cur?”
Goddamnit, I just signed up for the local library’s Books & Boots winter reading program, and you’re telling me it’s something *different*? I was prepared to do a *ton* of reading, you know. Even my partner was planning on reading enough to get an entire card stamped.
Somewhat offtopic, but speaking of fundie assholes, someone at SN simply has to address this story
Brad did a great post on this, but Gavin and his Minister of Information, Marita, Ph.D., suppressed it.
Poor, poor Richard Roberts. His daddy spent decades bilking morons and now poor Dick gets in trouble for spending his own legacy? Have LIBS no shame?
Brad did a great post on this, but Gavin and his Minister of Information, Marita, Ph.D., suppressed it.
It might not be good to release the funniest thing ever. Where would you go?
Did you know that Adobe’s got a Brad-specific error message in Photoshop? It’s meant to warn Brad that a certain threshold of awesomeness may overheat the processor and then it pings Adobe who send him another trophy.
Wow. That’s a lot of ground to cover.
First, I think the Robert’s family saga marks a watershed moment in fundie intro to karma 101. Mrs Roberts shows that the girls got those sinny urges too. I predict a Swaggart-like plea for forgiveness when the cellphone pics of her gobbling some 17 year old creation science major turn up. She can be the Elizabeth Cady Stanton of Christian women perverts. You go girl.
I look forward to the deviations of Kay Grogan and especially Marie Jon’.
Disturbing images of my junior high librarian in vinyl stiletto boots, and tightly clenched cloacas. Dr Dobson asking the 8 year old snowflake baby if he likes movies about gladiators. Penguins.
I actually do worry that if this fact ever dawns on these dimwits, they’ll try to get biology classes cancelled on the grounds that such classes are promoting sodomy.
which makes me think about the latest idiot school overreaction.
If their school policy is “zero tolerance” to the dumbass point that kids get punished for armed stick figures, how the hell do these guys teach history? After all, how are they going to talk about the World Wars, the Civil War or even the Revolution without referring to the.. YOU know… things… the *ahem* g–ns…
Oh, and by the way – Hillary Clinton is a bad kitty mommy and is therefore unfit to be President or something.
So, is this just fantasy fiction like science textbooks?
http://www.theskinofmyteeth.com
David B.
the Oral Roberts scandal could end up being the best one yet.
Good morning congregation. It’s great to see so many of you could make it. Today’s reading is from the Book of Deuteronomy, Chapter 25, verse 4. “Thou shalt not muzzle the ox when he treadeth out the corn”.
Let us also reflect, congregation, on the words of the Apostle, in his first letter to the Corinthians, Chapter 9: “Who planteth a vineyard and eateth not of the fruit thereof? Who feedeth the flock and eateth not of the milk of the flock?”
My children, let me rephrase this in words more appropriate for the modern era…
Ceiling Cat sez Korrupshun is OK!
I forbid you to read my blog!
Censorship always reduces interest in the thing censored, right?
Can I forbid parents from showering with their children? It sounds very icky to me.
Somewhat offtopic, but speaking of fundie assholes, someone at SN simply has to address this story:
http://www.americablog.com/2007/10/oral-roberts-university-facing-huge.html
Nothing gay–so far–but the Oral Roberts scandal could end up being the best one yet.
Holy crap, that’s a freaking novel! How many scandals are in that report, 200?
Great post, Jillian. This: “Of course parents have a right to object to such material. But that right only extends to their children. Why is this so hard to understand?” smacks it out of the park. My answer to the question is, because they are really really really fucking stupid. But that’s not scientific or anything.
Wow, that Mrs. Robinson, er, Roberts sounds like one wild chick!
Thank goodness “Catcher in the Rye” was freely available to me as a 14-year-old in my high school library. That way, I could get it out of the way early, and not be subjected to it at a later date when it no doubt would have disappointed me.
Shit. Is that what it’s called? I always thought it was “Catch Her in the Rye,” which makes a lot more sense for a banned book.
Yeah, sure, this is sooooo gonna work, because we all know that children learn everything about, you know, the “pippies” and the “bottoms”, and the “boobies” , from library books and not from their older friends, brothers and sisters, nor from friends who have older brothers/sisters, nor from the boyfriends/girlfriends of their older brothers/sisters…
Of course, Jillian, what you describe only looks non-sensical if you assume that it has anything to do with children, and not with fear that “ungodly” material is being legitimized…
Willy said,
October 21, 2007 at 18:32
Sadistic librarians do not roam the stacks in vinyl stiletto boots, rounding up hapless patrons…
Sadly, yes?
http://youtube.com/watch?v=Ne_WXP7lUWM
Great video, Hanx!
This means that when birds have sex — even heterosexual sex — it is an instance of genito-excretory contact, which is just a fancy way of saying “sodomy”. I actually do worry that if this fact ever dawns on these dimwits, they’ll try to get biology classes cancelled on the grounds.
When have wingnuts ever let facts interfere with outrage over any form of entertainment? Kids have been taught for years in public school biology classes that sponges are hermaphroditic, and that they can reproduce sexually–with themselves!–or asexually, by budding. Yet the fundies STILL engaged in a mass whingefest because Spongebob was “gay.” That speaks volumes about the quality of the average home school education.
Sadistic librarians do not roam the stacks in vinyl stiletto boots, rounding up hapless patrons…
Too bad. I’d pay one to visit my favorite coffee shop just to scare off the moms with the obnoxious rugrats.
The fact is, the collection policy of most libraries leans heavily to the left, which of course is biased. They do not allow books with a moral or biblical point of view, because it would undermine their socialist totalitarian POV of society and their plants to force it down our throats. Libraries supported with tax dollars MUSt select materials that support community standards and values, or be defunded. We taxpayers in the heartland will have our say yet.
“Holy crap, that’s a freaking novel! How many scandals are in that report, 200?”
The pdf of the original report is 17 pages long, and it never lets up.
You going to say anything worth saying when you get your say, Gary?
Our say is simple: no tax dollars to support anti-USA, immoral or pro-socialism materials in our libraries. That’s not censorship, that is reflecting community values.
Libraries supported with tax dollars MUSt select materials that support community standards and values, or be defunded. We taxpayers in the heartland will have our say yet.
Gary, you are a twit! If you or any one of the other “whining whitebreads” whose panties are in a twist over YOUR community’s values ever volunteered for your local library board, you’d most likely discover that the “immoral socialists” in charge of approving book selections are a bunch of conservative retirees, whose politics are probably to the right of yours. The big difference between THEM and YOU, is that THEY realize that the whole purpose of a novel is to expose the reader to “something novel”–e.g. something that doesn’t necessarily reflect the values of THEIR– or YOUR community.
They don’t trust ’em. Full of facts. No heart. America should do a little more book-hating, in my opinion. Did you know more Americans like hot dogs than like to read? Look it up. (Don’t look it up).
Apparently, how the wingnuts believe the public library system works:
http://www.adultswim.com/video/?episodeID=8a25c39215b258260115b3cc515900a7
“Gary Ruppert said,
Our say is simple: no tax dollars to support anti-USA, immoral or pro-socialism materials in our libraries. That’s not censorship, that is reflecting community values.”
Repressing information, knowledge, and opposing views IS anti-American.
This is the part where you start stuttering, and your eyes flash erratically as smoke pours from your ears and you can only repeat, “Does not compute. Does not compute.” until your head explodes from the Mobius feed-back loop. Natch.
sick twisted content at Consumptionjunction.com
Also,
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DybaKFx1i_8
Look! They’re defending themselves from anti-German, immoral, Pro-Communist writings!
Also, that song is freakishly damn catchy. I keep humming it from time to time.
…How, exactly, does one wind down a party like that, anyways? I mean, does the Fuhur just leave, and hope everyone mingles on home? Punch and cookies? Gads, that’s just really socially awkward.
Right on, Gary! No tax dollars for anything that is anti-American!!!
Such as…
torture
illegal imprisonment,
paying mercenaries to kill innocent civilians
“Sadistic librarians do not roam the stacks in vinyl stiletto boots, rounding up hapless patrons and giving interpretive readings of Venus in Furs.”
For that you have to be invited to the after-closing-hours party every Friday night. Good times, good times.
But dangerous – people have been known to be trampled to death getting in between librarians and after-hours booze.
And Jillian’s fantasy is clearly insane. Librarians wear comfortable shoes with good arch support while roaming the stacks.
You know I just love the fact that, when I followed that link to ‘And Tango Makes Three’, down in the related books section of the page Curious George was listed.
I knew it.
The Rainbow Conspiracy has been in full march for years.
#
Krassen said,
October 22, 2007 at 9:00
Right on, Gary! No tax dollars for anything that is anti-American!!!
Such as…
torture
(we need information)
illegal imprisonment,
(they are trying to kill us)
paying mercenaries to kill innocent civilians
(no-one who shoots first in these ROE is innocent)
I am proud to support America’s spread of freedom.
Wow. Wake up and smell the Santorum, folks.
(sorry, I would have put that in italics if I knew how on here)
“America’s Spread of Freedom”
That sounds like a variation on the wide stance to me.
They do not allow books with a moral or biblical point of view
Ah. Well.
I guess the entire 200 section must always be empty then.
Huh. Always look full to me. I guess the EIGHT COPIES of Babs Olson’s last book our library bought must have been an illusion as well.
(And “no-one who shoots first in these ROE”? I see Monkey Boy’s been reading his Tom Clancy again, the ones with the sticky pages.)
The Graduate updated:
Ben Braddock: Mrs. Roberts, you’re trying to seduce me. … Aren’t you?
Mrs. Roberts: Why yes, yes I am.
Pere Ubu, you seem to make a good point, but remember that 290-99 is actually devoted to the heathen religions and how they differ from the One True Faith.
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Well, you know – here on the north pole, there used to be (and often still is) a conscious choice taken by the teachers on a school to “streamline” the message when it comes to reproduction, so the children wouldn’t be upset and confused about things. So it’d be perfectly all right to learn about fish sperming down entire rivers to cover all the eggs lying about. Or about eel swimming south to… have an insane orgy once every year or so with complete strangers.
But sex- changing shrimp, or asexual reproduction, or birds doing strange unnatural things just wouldn’t be mentioned. Because that might be offensive. I mean, how long we’ve come since the 1960’s educational TV program about Frank the Frog, jumping from lily leaf to lily leaf ..
So, I mean, you’re actually lucky if the fundies try to get classes stopped. That way, there’s at least a chance someone will notice the absurdity of dealing with education that touches on.. *cough* s-e-x *cough* filtered through that sort of “sensible” narrative smithing..
No skipping to the dirty parts for you! – Hysterical Woman
Bart: Pop quiz, hotshot. I’m s’posed to be doing my homework, but you find me upstairs readin’ a Playdude. What do you do? What do you do?
Shary Bobbins: I make you read every article in that magazine, including Norman Mailer’s latest claptrap about his waning libido.
Homer: Oh, she is tough.
*
Seriously, though — my parents let me read, watch on TV, etc., pretty much everything I wanted … and look how I turned out 😉 … what they did was just “put it into context” (it might be a Jewish thing … c.f. Sheila Brozlovsky on South Park doing that), which was damned effective, I guess: you know how long I remained a virgin? Much longer than these fundies’ kids I reckon …
which makes me think about the latest idiot school overreaction.
My son entered the local public school system in September and one of his friends was suspended from recess for a week for picking up a stick and pretending it was a gun. He’s in kindergarten and has to sit inside and watch the other kids play outside. For playing with a stick. Fucking idiotic.
The fact is, if liberals would stop trying to shove their twisted ideas down our throats and stop trying to make us gay and ahteist and USA haters, and let us put more positive and uplifting books in our libraries to inspire support for USA, troops, president and the free market, we would be in a much better place with fewerschool shootings and less public indifference to the plight of our brave soldiers and overreaction to so-called “torture” (hey, they ARE trying to KILL US, and we are AT WAR, and they care little for GENEVA CONVENTION, so forget that….. stop tying our hands) and the liberal media would stop braying defeat. Libraries are like a fifthcolumn, and we are trying to take over their boards here in the heartland and make them more relevant to Christians and patriots, which is the majority after all.
Are you saying that tying you up and forcing things down your throat is NOT uplifting your brave little soldier? Because that’s not what I heard.
Why does Gary Ruppert hate America?
You know, “censorship” rhymes with “censureship,” so, you know, there’s that.
“Really, it’s an interesting feature about all bird genitalia.”
Most birds have cloaca, but not all. Some species of waterfowl have penises that are of great interest to evolutionary scientists because of their, um, special properties.
Article here: http://scienceblogs.com/pharyngula/2007/05/twisty_maze_of_duck_oviducts.php
[…] Luckily, however, Rev. James Dobson is here to protect us from the terrifying menace of gay penguins: […]
Well, the solution to this one is pretty obvious: to cut down on fundie parental angst, “papa” should shower with all teh neighborhood children, so they can check-out his wiener.
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…what?
P.S. Good luck, g. Take care of yourselves, and don’t get trapped and roasted!
Ahh, shit! Wrong thread to wish g. well in! Does that jinx it or something?
Banning books does make them more attractive, but the thing that gets me most is how old fashioned the banned books section of libraries seems (and I say that as a Librarian) Lolita seems almost quaint compared to what living and breathing senators/preachers are doing on a regular basis. And yet, these bozos are worried about what their kids are reading? I’d be tickled that my kid was reading and more concerned about them watching the nightly news, because then I’d have to explain to them about cruising patterns in men’s rooms and why it’s important to always have a partner when you’re stuffing dildos up your ass and wearing double wet suits.
It’s probably because I’m a filthy liberal, but I love it when wingnuts complain about having things “shoved down their throat”.
Nobody is stopping you from putting good wholesome books in the library. It’s just you’re not allowed to take away our evil porn books from the library. Both should be available, and the children will decide what is better.
Focus on the Family =
one filthy cum sofa
actually at my local library it’s Catholic Schoolgirl outfits and patent leather shoes.
grrrrrrooowwwllllll
I guess the entire 200 section must always be empty then.
Goddamn Americans, imposing their goddamned American library classifications on the rest of the world. If it’s not the Dewey system, it’s the Library of Congress system. Cultural imperialism of the worst kind.
Sigh.
I am a librarian, and I am a far-left liberal, but I despise Banned Books Week for largely the same reason as the despicable Mr. Dobson. The problem is that Mr. Cushman, quoted by Dobson, is absolutely right: the ALA has way overstepped its remit and is loudly and proudly in opposition in opposing parents’ involvement in what their children are required to read.
Check out the 2007 Banned and Challenged Shortlist if you don’t believe me. I haven’t counted it up, but a quick eyeballing suggests that the number of challenges related to required reading lists and classroom presentations equals or exceeds the number of books challenged in library collections.
Sadly, the issue here really is that the ALA is, intentionally or not, taking a stand against parental involvement in their children’s education. BBW goes way, way beyond whether a book is available to an interested reader, insisting that parents should have no voice in determining what their children should be forced to read. I am very disappointed in the organization.
Dammit. Why are typos never visible until after the submission?
That guy posting under the name “Gary Ruppert” is really good. You would almost think it was the real one.
I haven’t counted it up, but a quick eyeballing suggests that the number of challenges related to required reading lists and classroom presentations equals or exceeds the number of books challenged in library collections.
One might think parents should learn to deal with material they don’t like in books their children are requested to read not by forbidding ANYONE to read said book but by talking to the teachers and administrators to try to work out an acceptable alternative. You know, by being responsible adults and stuff.
I’m pretty sure you know better than that, Pere Ubu. Asking that a book be removed from a required reading list is in no way equivalent to “forbidding ANYONE to read said book.” The cases in question are not a matter of “that which is not mandatory is forbidden,” they’re typically more “that which is not mandatory is still available in the library for anyone who wants to read it.”
Please note that I’m not saying a book should be removed from the assignment sheet simply because a parent complains. What I am saying is that the ALA considers the registering of a complaint–whether successful or not–to be the moral equivalent of burning every available copy of the book in the school parking lot.
I think this is a mistake, as it opens the group up to very valid criticism from scum like the AFA. It is also intellectually dishonest, as it makes a mockery of one of the essential principles of librarianship, which is listening to your community in order to satisfy your particular community’s needs.
“Listening to your community” doesn’t mean you have to do what they say, but it does mean you can’t call them monsters when they say something you don’t like. The current conception of BBW is contemptuous toward anyone who disagrees with the decision of an authority figure, and I think that stinks.
That guy posting under the name “Gary Ruppert” is really good. You would almost think it was the real one.
except for the spelling errors, it could be him…
Degenerate Librarian,
It starts that way. But check out this list that started as a protest about certain books being on required reading lists. Then the group moved on to banning books from libraries, or making them generally off limits unless parents signed permission slips. It started off with a handful of books 8 years ago and now the list is in the 100s.
http://www.sibbap.org/booksag.htm
PS among the A-G list:
All the Pretty Horses – McCarthy, Cormac
Animal Dreams – Kingsolver, Barbara
Beloved – Morrison, Toni
Black Boy – Wright, Richard
Bless Me Ultima – Anaya, Rudolfo A.
Exodus – Uris, Leon (!!!)
And of course, Catcher in the Rye.
Can’t figure out why a tame mystery like Silver Pigs by Lindsay David is on the list.
It’s somewhat about controlling the minds of their children isn’t it? On some deep, probably dank and moldy, level they understand that their ‘reality’ can’t stand up to scrutiny. Allowing these books to exist in any accessible form threatens that, because they fear the day the child picks up the ‘wrong’ book and might realise that they’ve had the wool pulled over their eyes.
You could almost draw a parallel between the abstinence movement (anti-birth control) and book banning, they fear sex and information so much that just the potential of being exposed to either is simply too great.
…you know… that last analogy sounds stupider than it did in my head. Meh.
Bibliophobia is a fine, old American tradition. William Penn, it’s said, grew so incensed at the proliferation of time-wasting books that he wrote an angry book about it.
[…] community that I almost never thought about the argument myself, but this blog post entitled “But Banning Books IS Educational” on Sadly, No! brings up many interesting points regarding censorship. We talked a lot about […]
reading is a terrible thing for kids to be doing. they should get a better hobby like drugs or join a cult. cults are nice groups of people. who knows what jimmy could be reading in one of those evil paper demons?