(no subject)

[naelany]

Can someone please explain to me the concept of banning books? I mean...Sherlock Holmes is on the banned book list? WTF? Little House on the Prairie? Clan of the Cavebear? Even books that were on my required list back when I was in High School, like Moll Flanders, The Color Purple.... I mean..come on!

Comments

[brightshadowsky.livejournal.com]

(Sorry for the deleted comment, stupid HTML...)

If you want to hear something really dumb:

One school system made this push to ban Fahrenheit 451, a book about a frightening future where books are burned and intelligence is squashed. Whoever it was was trying to keep it from being used in the cirriculum as well as taken out of the library. When they finally relented and allowed the book to be taught, the school blacked out and cencored all the swear words. 0_o

Another instance with the same book: (from Wikipedia)
One particularly ironic circumstance is that, unbeknownst to Bradbury, his publisher released a censored edition in 1967 that eliminated the words "damn" and "hell" for distribution to schools. Later editions with all words restored include a "Coda" from the author describing this event and further thoughts on censorship and "well-meaning" revisionism.

The world sure is a bizzare place.

[naelany.livejournal.com]

no kidding! I really don't understand it. Especially with certain books. Did we really "suffer" from reading books like Sherlock Holmes or even Moll Flanders?

[brightshadowsky.livejournal.com]

No, of course not. But it made other people uncomfortable, so of course it shouldn't be around. >_< Hell, the book Night by Elie Wiesel made me uncomfortable, too - descriptions of hangings will do that to a person. But no way would i ever try to keep my kid from reading it. It's something they should know about, so that something like the Holocaust won't happen again.

[naelany.livejournal.com]

No kidding. If you were to ban everything that made you uncomfortable, then there'd be nothing about the wars and Holocausts the world has known. Those things certainly make me uncomfortable, but I read/see them all the same