Don't like it? Don't understand it? Well then just ban it!

[wolf_moonshadow]

My apologies to everyone for not using an LJcut this time, but I refuse to let the stupidity of censorship hide behind a cut. I will try to limit my ranting to just a few paragraphs, though.

Comments

[atlantel]

At least, these books are still available on Amazon.com. It's not a really censorship. It's always make me smile when I read about censorship in the US. Your country has two sides. One nice and the other one that belongs to older centuries. (the puritan side, I dare to say).

What is worse (imo) is that your administration just banned Habeas Corpus for foreigner who might be terrorist or help terrorists. Great to see that finally terrorists won. I mean a democracy is acting as if there was no more democracy... I just hope your Supreme Court will break the new law.
I'm not saying there should not be a special procedure for these people (longer time in jail, extra right for policemen etc) but no right at all... I mean the habeas corpus is something.
Ok I don't need to rant on your LJ and I'm really off topic.

[wolf_moonshadow]

I don’t consider your comments OT at all, and you are absolutely correct in your observations. It is all really different sides of the same argument; that of the erosion of the basic principles, rights and freedoms that the United States was founded on. It is truly a sad commentary that in order to preserve our ‘freedom’ we are denying it to ourselves, and more importantly, to those who are unable to defend themselves, and upon whom we have the scantest-if any-evidence. Unfortunately the current climate of fear seems often to overshadow issues of rights, especially when the words ‘foreign terrorist’ are used. The greatest irony is we now demand that other countries use standards that we ourselves no longer feel constrained to follow. I can only imagine how hypocritical this must look to the rest of the world

[gypsy_morph]

I am disgusted to the point of being sick. I read through that list and was weeping before I was even halfway through. If this is what they are going to foster on the public school system, which I have no doubt they will, then I do not want to send my children to public school. I mean, how do they justify banning Very Hungry Caterpillar, Winne the Pooh, etc.? I have many of the books on this banned list, and I WILL read them to my children as soon as they are old enough.

They banned 1984. Everyone should read that book. What is on that list is the start of a real life 1984.

I am utterly disgusted and sickened. The people who composed this list should be locked away. No questions asked.

[gypsy_morph]

I just emailed OCLC. I doubt they'll like the fact that I view them as sick and twisted people. If they even bother reading it, that is. I doubt they actually want to be told they are out of line.

[wolf_moonshadow]

The OCLC is not really responsible for this list, it is a compilation from many different groups. They simply provide the list to ‘help’ libraries and others to make ‘informed’ decisions about book purchases that won’t potentially get them in political trouble. My complaint with the OCLC is that they don’t really significantly oppose or make an issue of the list. In attempting to be neutral on the subject, they actually appear to endorse it.

[wolf_moonshadow]

It is very disheartening, isn’t it? I’m infuriated every time that I encounter a list like this. Many of these books are banned for the most ridiculous of reasons on the surface, but essentially many are on the list because they challenge the status quo. The banning of 1984 is absolutely an example of that. With the amount of ‘double-speak’ being used, we are indeed at risk of creating our own 1984.

[keladry_lupin]

I have just taken To Kill a Mockingbird, #31 on OCLC's list, from a shelf in my law school library. I shall read it this weekend. (I've been working here for a year and a half, and had no idea that we had any fiction here at all! w00t!)

[wolf_moonshadow]

I hope you enjoy it! The first time I read To Kill a Mockingbird was for a Lit class in Jr. High. I found both the book and the discussion in class to be very stimulating. Unfortunately, the school has also bowed to pressure, and no longer allows the book on their curriculum, along with many others. I can’t imagine how unimaginative some of the classes must be now that nothing controversial is allowed.

[harmony_bites]

I did this meme once upon a time too, and it can be found here. I looked it over again and it was amazing and depressing--this could stand in for a list of the great books of all time. And so many are children's books, because of the kind of idiocy you detail above with parents wanting to "protect" their children from knowledge.

Though atlantel is right--these books aren't really "banned" - they're still available in the US. I'm more upset at other threats to civil liberties, and was tempted into a poltical rant of my own on LJ given a bill under consideration by congress right now--except from my old fandom I found mixing politics and fandom to be toxic, so I rarely indulge.

Maybe I'll finally go and read Solzhenitsyn's Gulag Archipelago which is on the list--considering the forms of "coerced interrogation" they want to make legal, it couldn't be more timely.

[wolf_moonshadow]

I agree that in the overall spectrum of current events, the listing of these books on various censorship lists isn’t the most significant, but like you I also tend to avoid too many political rants. I’ve no desire to stir up a hornet’s nest of political wank on top of everything else. ;-) I’ve just been disappointed that there hasn’t been more promotion of this being Banned Books Week. Since most everyone in this fandom lists ‘books’ and ‘reading’ on their interests, I do consider this a valid topic.

I’ve never read Gulag Archipelago, but you are right, it is very timely. I’m finding the news, and the lack of certain news, very depressing these days.

[hogwartshoney]

The Harry Potter books and Catch 22 were banned??? Uh, have they been allowing cousins to copulate again and putting their offspring into positions of power?

[wolf_moonshadow]

Well, as Atlantel points out, they’re not truly banned, as we can still purchase them. Many schools and libraries, though, won’t carry them because of pressure from the so-called ‘social decency’ groups.

And yes, I do believe most of these people do marry their cousins. *g*