Banned Books Week

The Game · Post by **The Game** » Fri Sep 24, 2010 7:31 pm

Well this week, Sept. 25th to Oct. 2nd, is Banned Books Week!

Banned Books Week (BBW) is an annual event celebrating the freedom to read and the importance of the First Amendment. Held during the last week of September, Banned Books Week highlights the benefits of free and open access to information while drawing attention to the harms of censorship by spotlighting actual or attempted bannings of books across the United States.
Intellectual freedom—the freedom to access information and express ideas, even if the information and ideas might be considered unorthodox or unpopular—provides the foundation for Banned Books Week. BBW stresses the importance of ensuring the availability of unorthodox or unpopular viewpoints for all who wish to read and access them.

The books featured during Banned Books Week have been targets of attempted bannings. Fortunately, while some books were banned or restricted, in a majority of cases the books were not banned, all thanks to the efforts of librarians, teachers, booksellers, and members of the community to retain the books in the library collections. Imagine how many more books might be challenged—and possibly banned or restricted—if librarians, teachers, and booksellers across the country did not use Banned Books Week each year to teach the importance of our First Amendment rights and the power of literature, and to draw attention to the danger that exists when restraints are imposed on the availability of information in a free society.

-My Language Arts Teacher.

More info about BBW can be found at these websites:
http://www.publishers.org/main/PressCen ... ek2010.htm
http://www.bannedbooksweek.org/info.html

What do you guys think about banning/challenging books, and BBW?

Post by **Sleet** » Fri Sep 24, 2010 7:39 pm

Banning books is totally lame. You can't really be strong in your support of ideas you like if you shelter yourself from those you don't.

Wolf · Post by **Wolf** » Fri Sep 24, 2010 7:43 pm

God... I've always hated the subject of banning books. Ever since that stupid lady tried appealing to the student council at my school about how the Harry Potter books turned her children into undisciplined monsters. Turns out that she's a stupid parent who gives them anything they want. No wonder their horrible, their mom gave into their every demand.

yoyodude · Post by **yoyodude** » Fri Sep 24, 2010 8:46 pm

Farenheit 451, a book about the dangers of banning books, was banned in certain schools.

Senator_Sunburst · Post by **Senator_Sunburst** » Fri Sep 24, 2010 8:51 pm

I wish I could ban Nietzsche, Sartre, Kierkegaard, etc. from outside of academia. I hate going to the philosophy section of a bookstore or library and finding nothing but these idiots there. Existential "philosophers" have caused me more annoyances than an awful lot of things.

Oh wait, were we talking about how bad banning books is?

Post by **Sleet** » Fri Sep 24, 2010 8:52 pm

To be fair, it's perfectly possible that the people banning it just thought it'd be funny.

Divinaparadiso4 · Post by **Divinaparadiso4** » Fri Sep 24, 2010 9:06 pm

yoyodude wrote:Farenheit 451, a book about the dangers of banning books, was banned in certain schools.

Irony Win!!!

Beagle · Post by **Beagle** » Fri Sep 24, 2010 9:47 pm

yoyodude wrote:Farenheit 451, a book about the dangers of banning books, was banned in certain schools.

Oh God, I looooved that book.

That and Harry Potter. X3

I don't believe in banning books. As an author at heart, telling me I can't put my thoughts and opinions onto paper is like dictatorship of the mind.

And we all know I'm in love with Ayn Rand's philosophy in Anthem (another 'banned' book, I believe), so I believe that I can make my own choices in my life. People shouldn't be able to tell me what to do or think. My parents didn't even raise me like that. (As long as it's not something crazy like stealing or killing someone. D: ) I've been taught to stand up for what I believe in. Gotta stand for something or you'll fall for anything.

Dubiousity · Post by **Dubiousity** » Fri Sep 24, 2010 9:51 pm

Hmm, banning books, don't see the point.

Liam · Post by **Liam** » Sat Sep 25, 2010 7:11 am

"To Kill a Mockingbird", one of the best statements against racism, has been banned in quite a lot schools because it heavily features the N-word, despite the fact that the book is set in the South of the 30s where it was common (and legal) to use it to refer to black people.

*headdesk*

Anthroguy101 · Post by **Anthroguy101** » Sat Sep 25, 2010 8:56 am

Liam wrote:"To Kill a Mockingbird", one of the best statements against racism, has been banned in quite a lot schools because it heavily features the N-word, despite the fact that the book is set in the South of the 30s where it was common (and legal) to use it to refer to black people.

*headdesk*

I've read this one before. It has a very powerful lesson. Boo Radley is my hero.*cough*

Also, the Texas Board of Education comes to mind.

Post by **Sleet** » Sat Sep 25, 2010 9:58 am

Liam wrote:"To Kill a Mockingbird", one of the best statements against racism, has been banned in quite a lot schools because it heavily features the N-word, despite the fact that the book is set in the South of the 30s where it was common (and legal) to use it to refer to black people.

*headdesk*

Really? That's a shame. I take it The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn was banned too?

Post by **rickgriffin** » Sat Sep 25, 2010 10:51 am

I am perfectly for this, especially since I am writing books with the full expectation of them being banned. (I'm EDGY)

A book is only as influential as its argument is persuasive. People aren't going to be persuaded by an argument that doesn't fit their perceptions of reality, and their perceptions of reality are already fitted by the culture and context in which they live. Most arguments put forth by these books are trying to understand, explore, or solve what they see as problems in their current culture--what banning books tends to mean is "this subject is too sensitive to talk about!" and it's not. While keeping private institutions constrained to necessary topics I think is perfectly fine, banning something as a whole is ridiculous, as it tends to carry with it the message "shut up we don't have any problems la la la la la"

Psykeout · Post by **Psykeout** » Sat Sep 25, 2010 12:32 pm

Liam wrote:"To Kill a Mockingbird", one of the best statements against racism, has been banned in quite a lot schools because it heavily features the N-word, despite the fact that the book is set in the South of the 30s where it was common (and legal) to use it to refer to black people.

*headdesk*

we're readin that for english. <3'ing it!

ya know, i never thought id use "<3"

Buckdida · Post by **Buckdida** » Sat Sep 25, 2010 3:25 pm

Well, a lot of us here are writers or artists or rather opened minded, so a lot of us are gonna disagree with banning books. The funny thing is that you don't often hear about movies ever getting banned. This is because of the ratings system they have in place. The same goes for video games. Creators of such things are theoretically not required to submit their works for rating, but almost every movie theater/retailer has a policy where why do not play or stock (referring to games for stocking at retail) anything that isn't rated, or is over the rating of R/M.

Books do not have such a ratings system. As such, the only ideas of what is in the book come from the cover, title, and teaser summary on the back or in the book jacket. This puts them ripe for attack, because "they don't have a formal warnings system" like movies or games do. But then again, how do you warn about ideas?

Psykeout · Post by **Psykeout** » Sat Sep 25, 2010 3:32 pm

that makes sense.

zeekgenateer · Post by **zeekgenateer** » Sat Sep 25, 2010 3:44 pm

Buck that's part of it, but the major reason is that books do not have a huge production cost. It costs millions, tens of millions, to make a "blockbuster" movie, to make a book you only need a number that's probably in the thousands or tens of thousands depending on how many copies you want published. For movies or games to make that money back they have to be acceptable to a wide scope of society, where books can do what they want because they don't have to get as many sales. That's why you don't see much banning of movies, because they conform very rigidly to society, at least compared to books.

What I'm really saying is that movies ban ideas, notions in preproduction, they're already limited, where books are limitless.

Anthroguy101 · Post by **Anthroguy101** » Sat Sep 25, 2010 3:51 pm

I think Australia has a ratings system for books.

zeekgenateer · Post by **zeekgenateer** » Sat Sep 25, 2010 3:55 pm

Oh Australia, obsessed with "protecting the children". Your firewall and video game hate makes me laugh. How do those people get voted into office anyway?

Post by **Sleet** » Sat Sep 25, 2010 3:55 pm

I think the only concern with books is keeping the inappropriate ones away from children, not avoiding unpleasant ideas. I don't think that's a problem, however, since books with topics and language not appropriate for children usually are difficult to read, since they're not written to accommodate children. I say if a 8-year-old is advanced enough that (s)he can read books that aren't afraid to use 12-letter words, (s)he's probably able to handle 4-letter words as well. The same can't be said about movies and to a lesser extent video games. It doesn't take much effort to watch most rated R movies, so pretty much anyone can be exposed to them.

zeekgenateer wrote:How do those people get voted into office anyway?

People want their children protected, and might not value freedom of expression as much as you and I do?

Psykeout · Post by **Psykeout** » Sat Sep 25, 2010 3:59 pm

id just like to be blunt and say that noones being forced to watch/read/play anything, and parents who can't keep they're kids from exposure to such things should blame themselves.

Senator_Sunburst · Post by **Senator_Sunburst** » Sat Sep 25, 2010 4:37 pm

Sleet wrote:I think the only concern with books is keeping the inappropriate ones away from children, not avoiding unpleasant ideas. I don't think that's a problem, however, since books with topics and language not appropriate for children usually are difficult to read, since they're not written to accommodate children. I say if a 8-year-old is advanced enough that (s)he can read books that aren't afraid to use 12-letter words, (s)he's probably able to handle 4-letter words as well. The same can't be said about movies and to a lesser extent video games. It doesn't take much effort to watch most rated R movies, so pretty much anyone can be exposed to them.

When I was ten, I read both It, and The Stand, by Stephen King. Probably not "appropriate" for a ten year old by most people's standards. But my mother was always the sort to say I could watch or read anything, and if it scared me or I thought it was inappropriate, she trusted me not to watch/read it of my own accord. I don't think I ever got myself into trouble with this policy except once. I know I saw Event Horizon when it came out (my mother tells me I saw it in theatres, but it's been so long I don't remember this), and while I love that movie, it scared the crap out of me. It came out in 1997, so I was probably 9. Possibly 8.

Of course in my experience this is a really unique situation. I have some younger cousins who get to see anything, and they certainly aren't the types to self-censor. But they suck in general, so it might be other factors that make this so.

Post by **Sleet** » Sat Sep 25, 2010 4:47 pm

Senator_Sunburst wrote:When I was ten, I read both It, and The Stand, by Stephen King. Probably not "appropriate" for a ten year old by most people's standards. But my mother was always the sort to say I could watch or read anything, and if it scared me or I thought it was inappropriate, she trusted me not to watch/read it of my own accord. I don't think I ever got myself into trouble with this policy except once. I know I saw Event Horizon when it came out (my mother tells me I saw it in theatres, but it's been so long I don't remember this), and while I love that movie, it scared the crap out of me. It came out in 1997, so I was probably 9. Possibly 8.

Of course in my experience this is a really unique situation. I have some younger cousins who get to see anything, and they certainly aren't the types to self-censor. But they suck in general, so it might be other factors that make this so.

That's just an example of my point then. If a ten-year-old can read Stephen King, you don't really have to worry about them not being mature enough.

But yeah, I think you're a special case. I would never trust my kids to make their own judgments on everything completely without my permission until they're at least 17 (no offense to the people here who aren't 17 yet).

And my mom was kind of like you were with Event Horizon. She begged her parents to let her see The Exorcist when she was like 16. Finally they let her go, and she's pretty much scarred to this day.

The Game · Post by **The Game** » Sun Sep 26, 2010 11:34 am

I think banning books is terrible, because it's like censoring another person. It's one thing for a parent to tell their kids that they can't read a book, but it's entirely different to try to make sure no one can read a book because they think it's 'bad'.

I'm an author at heart (and in the future

) so that's probably a factor of why I hate banning books so much. I don't think people who try to ban even think about the author of the book, and how they might feel to know that people hate their books with such a passion that they don't want any other people reading it.

I don't know if any of have heard about Ellen Hopkins and how she was literally uninvited to a book festival because of Crank, but I think that's a good example of the authors feelings.

My language arts teacher told us about a book that got banned, and hundreds of people went to go buy it from stores. Not because they liked it, but because it was banned. They were so against the banning of books, they even bot numerous copies and passed them out to random people. I smiled and pretty much clapped when she told us that

Liam · Post by **Liam** » Sun Sep 26, 2010 2:57 pm

Sleet wrote:
zeekgenateer wrote:How do those people get voted into office anyway?
People want their children protected, and might not value freedom of expression as much as you and I do?

There are many ignorant, novelty-anxious people who are highly susceptible to archconservative, power-hungry demagogues who use every scapegoat available to further their influence over the populace?

Post by **Sleet** » Sun Sep 26, 2010 3:03 pm

And here I thought I was a cynic.

Liam · Post by **Liam** » Sun Sep 26, 2010 3:07 pm

Well, you are. I'm just one of these liberal devils. ;3

Post by **Sleet** » Sun Sep 26, 2010 3:20 pm

I like to assume "misguided" before I assume "malicious." I think it's more reasonable that these people just want to protect children even at the cost of individual rights than that their entire political alignment is based around manipulation and power seeking.

Buckdida · Post by **Buckdida** » Sun Sep 26, 2010 3:29 pm

Carrrrrrreful not to get too political here (this was probably inevitable given the topic). Everyone's got their own views, even when nearly everyone here agrees with one side. XD There's no need to bash.

Liam · Post by **Liam** » Sun Sep 26, 2010 4:35 pm

Conservatives destroyed my home planet. >:[

Kidding aside, in functioning democracies it's more a mix between overprotectiveness and not-getting-the-point than true scapegoating by interest groups, although the latter is also present.

Post by **Sleet** » Sun Sep 26, 2010 4:39 pm

Liam wrote:Conservatives destroyed my home planet. >:[

Rule of the internet: there is nothing you can say as a joke that's so ridiculous that someone else couldn't say it in complete seriousness. So I would strongly suggest against saying things like that, even if you're kidding, as it can still incite unpleasant discussion.

Liam · Post by **Liam** » Sun Sep 26, 2010 6:06 pm

In the internet at large, maybe, but I think people here are cerebral enough to tell the difference.

Buckdida · Post by **Buckdida** » Sun Sep 26, 2010 6:11 pm

Liam wrote:In the internet at large, maybe, but I think people here are cerebral enough to tell the difference.

Most, but in the past, not all! Unfortunately.

Anywho, Yahoo news decided to add their own article about it, so I figured I'd link it here.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ynews/ynews_ts3727

zeekgenateer · Post by **zeekgenateer** » Sun Sep 26, 2010 10:41 pm

Banning a book because the author might have written a different book that had different political views. See the banning of "Brown Bear, Brown Bear What Do You See?"

I understand that people want to protect their children, that is something I can understand. What I don't understand is the capitulation to these people's unquestionably. To remove books from public institutions that everyone uses. In every library there is a children and young adult section. If your child is browsing the adult works you should feel proud for one thing, reading isn't as valued a pastime as it once was, and you should find out what they are checking out. You can go to the library and ask for this stuff. And if there is a book that's in the YA or children section that you think shouldn't be there complain, they'll probably reshelve it. But full out banning? Well, it just seems comedic.

And its not just one political party. Though they might be the most well known for it. Both ends of the spectrum make the mistake of going too far to "protect" people. It's a common problem in politics I'm starting to see.

Post by **Sleet** » Sun Sep 26, 2010 10:42 pm

My strategy:

"No, dear. You probably don't want to read that book right now. Maybe when you'll older."

Post by **rickgriffin** » Sun Oct 03, 2010 12:17 pm

So here's exactly why I'm against censorship.

http://fortheloveofya.blogspot.com/2010 ... g-end.html

Lets pretend to know what's best before finding out what actually is, hmm?

Lets hide all those rough edges, won't somebody think of the children etc.

If ANYONE who complained about the facts actually read the books in question I would be surprised. I wouldn't have a beef with anyone who has a legitimate complaint, but from my experience, few people do.

Blue Braixen · Post by **Blue Braixen** » Sun Oct 03, 2010 1:00 pm

Reminds me, I haven't read a book in a while. When Mom comes back home, I'm gonna see if I can borrow her car and go to the library.
Maybe even a graphic novel or two.
The problem is, the English Departments of all of the schools in McKinney, TX, have a "PERK" books requirement which requires you to read a book and hand in a review for it by the end of the semester. I don't like being forced to read, that just turns me off from it.
/rantonhowschoolssuck
Edit: I know that my post wasn't necessarily about banned books week, but it does have something to do with books, so it's not COMPLETELY off-topic.

Post by **Sleet** » Sun Oct 03, 2010 1:05 pm

That's lame. It was assignments like that that turned me off of reading. I still haven't fully recovered.

Blue Braixen · Post by **Blue Braixen** » Sun Oct 03, 2010 4:06 pm

I just checked out The Maze Runner by James Dashner and Revolver by Marcus Sedgwick. I hope they're good.

Ebly · Post by **Ebly** » Sat Oct 09, 2010 12:09 am

zeekgenateer wrote:Oh Australia, obsessed with "protecting the children". Your firewall and video game hate makes me laugh. How do those people get voted into office anyway?

Hi yeah, I love massive generalisations about my country based entirely on our politicians. I'm sure you'd like the same treatment, huh?

I know you've already gotten off the subject but come on, are you serious?

We don't have a rating system for books, but then, I don't think any books are explicitly banned here. Could be wrong.