# Banned Books Week 2006 **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [September 26, 2006, 6:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/banned-books-week-2006/374181 "2006-09-26T06:41:57Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2006, 6:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/banned-books-week-2006/374181/1 "2006-09-26T06:41:57Z")
I’m surprised there isn’t already a thread on this… The last week in September each year is the American Library Association’s [Banned Books Week](http://www.ala.org/ala/oif/bannedbooksweek/bannedbooksweek.htm). It’s a week for reading banned and challenged books, to protest against censorship. Myself, I went over to the local public library today, and headed straight for the display of frequently-banned books. Some of the books on display were no surprise. The entire Harry Potter series, of course, is disliked by fundamentalists. The Bible isn’t often banned in this country, but it often is elsewhere. And I haven’t read it (yet; I picked up a copy), but I can see how _1984_ might ruffle some feathers. But there were surprises, too… Who on Earth has challenged _Little House on the Prairie_? The librarian on duty wasn’t sure about that one, either. What banned books are you folks reading this week? ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Rosewater](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/898d66/32.png) [@Mr.Rosewater](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Rosewater)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2006, 7:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/banned-books-week-2006/374181/2 "2006-09-26T07:09:06Z")
I didn’t see it on the American Library Association’s Banned Books Week [site](http://www.ala.org/ala/oif/bannedbooksweek/bannedbooksweek.htm), but I read somewhere that Little House on the Prairie was banned for being offensive to Native Americans. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Chao\_Goes\_Mu](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_chao_goes_mu/32/3191_2.png) [@The\_Chao\_Goes\_Mu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Chao_Goes_Mu)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2006, 1:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/banned-books-week-2006/374181/3 "2006-09-26T13:40:11Z")
Ugh. If I had more time I’d start the obligitory Pit thread about the banning of books. I almost vomited when I saw that even “Bridge To Teribithia” pissed someone off to ban it. :rolleyes: A slight hijack, when I was in 10th grade (public school) we had an English teacher that bucked the system a bit and had us read books that were banned in other places and that raised a brow in our own community. He encouraged us to write about whatever the hell we wanted to write about because he didn’t believe in silencing creativity, even if that creativity was considered risque and macabre for a 10th grader. He passed out a handout one day containing a list of hundreds of books that had been banned or challenged throughout the U.S. and told us that before we die we should have read every book on that list and to never let anyone tell us what we can and cannot read. R.I.P. Keith Malcolm; the best teacher a student could have. ☹ Sorry for the highjack, now back to the OP. I just finished A Handmaid’s Tale and will be picking up “Cunt” by Inga Muscio. No doubt that book will be turning up in any high schools or colleges. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Chao\_Goes\_Mu](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_chao_goes_mu/32/3191_2.png) [@The\_Chao\_Goes\_Mu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Chao_Goes_Mu)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2006, 1:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/banned-books-week-2006/374181/4 "2006-09-26T13:41:24Z")
> [@](#): > > No doubt that book will be turning up in any high schools or colleges. **WON’T** be turning up, rather. ---
**Author:** ![wonky](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wonky/32/393_2.png) [@wonky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wonky)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2006, 1:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/banned-books-week-2006/374181/5 "2006-09-26T13:58:33Z")
[QUOTE=Chronos] What banned books are you folks reading this week? [/QUOTE] I picked up another of the “Alice” books by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor. The first one I tried was so innocuous I couldn’t believe it was banned/challenged, but her books have been in the top 10 in challenged books for a while now. ---
**Author:** ![JohnT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnt/32/15048_2.png) [@JohnT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnT)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2006, 2:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/banned-books-week-2006/374181/6 "2006-09-26T14:56:16Z")
My post last year on the subject pretty much sums up my feelings about this. > [@](#): > > Here is a PDF of the American Library Associations list of banned or challenged books in 2005: [http://www.ila.org/pdf/2005banned.pdf](http://www.ila.org/pdf/2005banned.pdf) \* > > You can change the year in the URL to get previous entries, a trick that will take you to 2002 but not before. > > When you’re discussing the topic, bring up the hysteria surrounding banned books in the US and compare it to the actual number of books banned. Remember to use statistics that show in the US there are: > > 297,000,000 people > 105,000 schools > 5,000 school districts > 3,227 counties > 50 states > 58 challenges (for 2005) > > Even taking the ALA’s most outlier-ridden statistic (that between 1990 and 2000 there were 6,300 challenges and for every 1 challenge reported there might be 4 or 5 unreported - [Cite](http://www.ala.org/ala/oif/bannedbooksweek/bbwlinks/100mostfrequently.htm)) of 36,000 challenges, that comes out to one whiny parent for every 2.91 schools for every 10 years. > > You gotta admit, challenging the hysteria will make for a more lively debate than merely agreeing with all the other speakers that “banning books is bad, m’kay?” Here are some of the situations that met the condition of a book being considered “banned” for the marketing purposes of “Banned Books Week”: > [@](#): > > Angelou, Maya. I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings. Bantam. > > Removed as required reading in Annapolis, Md. freshman English curriculum (2006) because the book’s rape scenes and other mature content are too advanced for ninth-graders. The freshman English class syllabus is sent home to parents to read at the beginning of each year. It warns them of the book’s mature themes and allows parents to ask to have their children read another book instead. Source: May 2006, pp. 132–33. It wasn’t banned, it was removed from the “required” list to the “suggested reading” list, and alternatives were listed for those parents **if** they had a problem. The book is still available, still open as a class assignment… it’s just not “required” any more. Sorry, but that’s not banning. The kids still have the option of reading the book for their assignment, but due to subject matter and the age of the kids in question (13-14) an alternative was offered. Whoop-de-doo. > [@](#): > > Atwood, Margaret. The Handmaid’s Tale. Fawcett; Houghton; Simon; Hall. > > The Judson, Tex.school district board overruled (2006) Superintendent Ed Lyman’s ban of the novel from an advanced placement English curriculum. Lyman had banned the book after a parent complained it was sexually explicit and offensive to Christians. In doing so, he overruled the recommendation of a committee of teachers, students, and parents. The committee appealed the decision to the school board. Source: May 2006, pp. 154–55. [http://www.ala.org/ala/oif/bannedbooksweek/bbwlinks/100mostfrequently.htm](http://www.ala.org/ala/oif/bannedbooksweek/bbwlinks/100mostfrequently.htm) Some idiot takes a unilateral action, going against professional recommendations, and gets his ass handed to him. If the book was reinstated after the process _worked_, can you still count it as a “banned” book? Sorry, but this is much ado about nothing. \*You can do the same with the 2006 report. Or I could just link to it [here](http://www.ila.org/pdf/2006banned.pdf). ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2006, 3:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/banned-books-week-2006/374181/7 "2006-09-26T15:23:12Z")
[QUOTE=The Chao Goes Mu] He passed out a handout one day containing a list of hundreds of books that had been banned or challenged throughout the U.S. and told us that before we die we should have read every book on that list and to never let anyone tell us what we can and cannot read. . [/QUOTE] Does anyone else see the contradiction in this sentence? :dubious: ---
**Author:** ![Chez\_Guevara](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/aeb1de/32.png) [@Chez\_Guevara](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chez_Guevara)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2006, 3:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/banned-books-week-2006/374181/8 "2006-09-26T15:33:28Z")
No. Not in the given context anyway. ---
**Author:** ![Monstera\_deliciosa](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/monstera_deliciosa/32/109_2.png) [@Monstera\_deliciosa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Monstera_deliciosa)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2006, 3:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/banned-books-week-2006/374181/9 "2006-09-26T15:39:52Z")
[QUOTE=DrDeth] Does anyone else see the contradiction in this sentence? :dubious: [/QUOTE] No, there is a difference between recommending to someone what they should do, and telling somewhat what they are/are not allowed to do.