(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

[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.