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Feb. 27th, 2005 01:49 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
labellementeuseI 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!
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!
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Date: 2005-02-27 05:46 am (UTC)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.
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Date: 2005-02-27 10:03 am (UTC)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...