(no subject)

[labellementeuse]

I was just thinking about why the ALA Challenged Books List invariably makes me so purely unhappy, just browsing through it and thinking about book banning.

And I guess I came to the conclusion that I oppose book banning not because I'm 100% anti-censorship (I hope I am, but you never know. I mean, I don't actively oppose the banning of violent video games, so I can't really say that I'm 100% anti censorship- although I would never ban a violent book.) but because of the books on the list, so many of them are ones I've read and re-read and adored; reading the list of titles is kinda like running into a really old friend when you didn't expect to but are glad to see, you know? Someone you've been mising for a while. And to me, the idea of someone growing up without reading Bridge to Terabithia is terrible. It makes me physically unhappy, you know? There are books on there I hated, but think are important- The Chocolate War and Flowers for ALgernon would probably top the list- and of course I'm angry for them; there are books I've never read, or have only heard of, or didn't like all that much, or liked but didn't love, but that I know why they're being banned and oppose that reason- probably I'd put Phyllis Reynolds Naylor's "Alice" series, or Go Ask Alice, The Colour Purple, Sex by Madonna, or even HEather Has Two Mommies!- but the ones that really really move me to oppose literary censorship are my favourites, the ones that I cannot imagine growing up without.

In the Night Kitchen by Maurice Sendak
The Giver by Lois Lowry
The Great Gilly Hopkins by Katherine Paterson
A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle
The Witches by Roald Dahl
Anastasia Krupnik by Lois Lowry (at least they didn't hit Taking Care of Terrific, I suppose)
The Outsiders by SE Hinton..

I mean, I could go on for hours about what these books are about (and others) and why it's SO STUPID that they should be banned because they're NOT offensive (etc, etc, etc) but in the end... OMG I LOVE THESE BOOKS DON'T BAN THEM!

Comments

Hmmmm

[nic-the-hat.livejournal.com]

Agree with you one-hundred % there. I can't beleive anyone would ban The Colour Purple...there's bugger all offensive in there. It's a beautiful book, really.
And Heather has Two Mommies?
Americanreligousrightgettingsnottyagain *Cough*

Hmm. I've never read "the Bridge to Terebitha". What's it about?

Re: Hmmmm

[labellementeuse.livejournal.com]

Well, I tried to read the first three pages of it and hated it, so I'm not sure I'd agree with you there- but I know a lot of people who love it, so there you go.

*snicker*

OMG READ IT RIGHT NOW. it's about, well, it's kinda hard to explain. It's sort of about first love and imagination and and and it's by Kathrine Paterson RUN, DON'T WALK to your nearest library. School will have it. If it's not in the library, try the bookshelves in Room N, they might have a copy there. (Are those shelves still there? They were six years ago, anyway...)

Re: Hmmmm

[miriamus.livejournal.com]

Yeah, it must be around at school because I studied it in year 7. Can't remember much of it but I know I enjoyed it.

[miriamus.livejournal.com]

Depriving children of learning about violent/disturbing/"immoral" (by whichever side of the moral fence you're on) is going to doom them to growing up as less of a person. Seeing something unacceptable depicted in a book is not going to drive a child to do that thing.

[labellementeuse.livejournal.com]

*sigh* Also, it's repressive. We have to be free to make our own decisions; parents need to have some control, but not ultimate control, over the opinions their kids are exposed to. If they think an opinion in a book is wrong, the only thing they can do is tell the kid why- taking it away isn't going to help. Zif you don't want your kids to swear, tell them why you don't like swearing- you can try not exposing them to swearwords at all, and you'll succeed for a while, but eventually they will hear a swearword and they will not have the tools to deal with it, to make a choice.

[miriamus.livejournal.com]

Personal responsibility - ever heard of it? (that was directed at the book-banners, not you!!) It's not up to the government to legislate on morality beyond that which is universally accepted as human rights...

[sennical.livejournal.com]

I cry to see The Witches on there. I must have read that book eight times by the time I was that many years old.

Did you do that meme (http://www.livejournal.com/users/sennical/106181.html) going around a few months ago where you bolded the books you've read on the 100 most frequently challenged list? That meme made me angry while I was doing it.

And Bridge to Terabithia. I haven't read that book in so long.

[labellementeuse.livejournal.com]

I KNOW. :( What's to ban, anyway? The Twits is worse but that's not on there, is it?

Yeah, I did. I should probably do it again, to remind myself Iw as planning on reading them all, although I don't think my status on most of them has changed, so...

Mmm, me either, but...

[nic-the-hat.livejournal.com]

Actually, I wonder why A Clockwork Orange isn't on there. Probably because no one other than the very clever can understand it.

[labellementeuse.livejournal.com]

Because it's not YA targeted and it's not often studied in schools because it's very well-known as a violent book. Apart from sundries like The Joy of Gay Sex, mostly challenged books tend to be children or YA aimed- possibly why I think they're mostly innocuous; some people have very low standards of their children.

[mandor700.livejournal.com]

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain? Who would ban that? or want it banned?
I mean really?
really?

[labellementeuse.livejournal.com]

I KNOW. And what's worse is they ban it for racism. the whole book is this huge anti-racist manifesto! I mean, o.O!

Also I think for nudity. But mostly racism because Twain uses the word "nigger" a lot, but.. we have to look at this as a product of its time. Twain was accurately describing the way people talk. I read a book about parents trying to ban Hucklberry Finn from a school on racist grounds, and apparently there's this scene that goes like this: (paraphrased!)

"Sir, there was an accident on a steamboat: the engine expoded."
"Good god! Was anybody hurt?"
"Nosir; a nigger was killed, but no-one was hurt."
"Thank god for that."

I haven't quoted that accurately, but it's clear to me that Twain was criticising the speakers, not being racist.

I mean omgwtf.

[mandor700.livejournal.com]

Man! I ate it when ppl try to ban things for the "Common Good". You should be able to deside for yourself what to watch/read/hear. Especially when it gets silly.

[miriamus.livejournal.com]

Exactly what I meant about depicting does not mean condoning. Geez, some people *roll* You can't make something go away by pretending it doesn't exist. Which is the grounds for why I don't believe in abstinence-only sex education. Too much potential rant to go into here.