# Banned Books **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [September 4, 2002, 7:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/banned-books/127017 "2002-09-04T19:37:36Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 19\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![robertliguori](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/46a35a/32.png) [@robertliguori](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robertliguori)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2002, 2:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/banned-books/127017/21 "2002-09-08T14:01:59Z")
Heh. Sounds like the censors are playing Doom on their off-days. ---
**Author:** ![middleman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e9a140/32.png) [@middleman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/middleman)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2002, 2:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/banned-books/127017/22 "2002-09-08T14:52:14Z")
> [@](#): > > Book faces ban in Montgomery County > ‘It’s Perfectly Normal’ condones homosexuality, its critics charge > By TERRY KLIEWER and BETH KUHLES > Copyright 2002 Houston Chronicle > [Amazon.com](http://Amazon.com) > A sex-education book has drawn the wrath of some Cut-and-Shoot residents who want it removed from the Montgomery County library system. > > CONROE – A children’s sex-education book that has sold more than 650,000 copies in 17 languages around the world during the past eight years got a possible kiss-of-death review Monday from critics on Commissioners Court. > > Commissioners agreed to ban It’s Perfectly Normal, a widely distributed, juvenile-oriented work about human sexuality, from the Montgomery County library system because, in part, it condones homosexuality. ---
**Author:** ![Eutychus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a3d4f5/32.png) [@Eutychus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eutychus)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2002, 3:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/banned-books/127017/23 "2002-09-08T15:20:45Z")
**Moderator Fedora On** **Watsonwill** : I have deleted most of the article that you just posted. Take a look at the top of the article … oh, about 4 lines down. See where it says “copyright?” That means you can’t copy it verbatim without permission from the Houston Chronicle. You can quote a small snippet and then provide a link, but that’s it. You can look up the URL again if you like, but I ain’t gonna do it for you. We’ve been over this so many times, you think this would have been general knowledge by now. Don’t do this again. Yes, I’m grumpy this morning, why? **Moderator Fedora Off** ---
**Author:** ![elfkin477](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a9a28c/32.png) [@elfkin477](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elfkin477)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2002, 6:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/banned-books/127017/24 "2002-09-08T18:08:30Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by SpazCat \* > \*\* > > Yes you can. I saw it on video once. Granted, this was around 1987-1989, so the censors may have yanked it out of the stores and eaten it since then, but I have seen it. In NC, no less. \*\* Better still, I saw it in school. It was on a projector, though, since vcrs weren’t overly common then. (sometime between 83-85’) ---
**Author:** ![crazy4chaucer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/b5e925/32.png) [@crazy4chaucer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/crazy4chaucer)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2002, 1:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/banned-books/127017/25 "2002-09-09T13:01:47Z")
I reread _Fahrenheit 451_ Saturday for the first time in a few years. It was really creepy to see how many things Bradbury wrote about are coming to pass. I think I stand by the idea to show that film during the evening, although I do like the _Song of the South_ idea. ---
**Author:** ![Eva\_Luna](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/e495f1/32.png) [@Eva\_Luna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eva_Luna)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2002, 5:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/banned-books/127017/26 "2002-09-09T17:22:38Z")
Here’s what the American Library Association is doing: > **[Banned & Challenged Books](https://www.ala.org/advocacy/bbooks/)** > > \-Banned Books Week is an annual event celebrating the freedom to read. Typically held during the last week of September, it spotlights current and historical attempts to censor books in libraries and schools. Banned Books Week brings together the... I suppose that any kind of flaming food (Cherries Jubilee, anyone?) would be appropriate. ---
**Author:** ![crazy4chaucer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/b5e925/32.png) [@crazy4chaucer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/crazy4chaucer)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2002, 7:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/banned-books/127017/27 "2002-09-09T19:01:40Z")
I’m taking a course this semester in Children’s Literature, and found this in my textbook: “Suppressing reading material is censorship, a remedy that creates more problems than it solves. Choosing reading material that does not offend our taste, however, is selection—not censorship. Censorship is the attempt to deny others the right to read something the censor think sis offensive. Selection is the process of choosing appropriate material for readers according to literary and educational judgments. “The National Council of Teachers of English differentiates between selection and censorship in five dimensions: (1) Censorship excludes specific materials; selection includes specific material to give breadth to collections. (2) Censorship is negative; selection is affirmative. (3) Censorship intends to control the reading of others; selection intends to advise the reading of others. (4) Censorship seeks to indoctrinate and limit access to ideas and information, whereas selection seeks to educate and increase access to ideas and information. (5) Censorship looks at specific aspects and parts of a work in isolation, whereas selection examines the relationship of parts to each other and to a work as a whole.” _Literature and the Child_, Cullinan and Galda, 5th ed., p. 25. ---
**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 10, 2002, 12:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/banned-books/127017/28 "2002-09-10T00:46:41Z")
**DeepPurple** , I know that link was intended to clear things up, but now I’m even more confused. _Little House on the Prarie_??? About all I can think of there is that the censors are afraid that children might learn about family values. And seven books by Judy Bloom? It’s things like this that make me very worried about our world. ---
**Author:** ![happyheathen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/b5e925/32.png) [@happyheathen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/happyheathen)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2002, 6:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/banned-books/127017/29 "2002-09-10T06:56:18Z")
Song of the South is readily available: [http://search.ebay.com/search/search.dll?cgiurl=http%3A%2F%2Fcgi.ebay.com%2Fws%2F&MfcISAPICommand=GetResult&query=song+of+the+south&categoryid=&ht=1&category1=380&SortProperty=MetaEndSort&BasicSearch=](http://search.ebay.com/search/search.dll?cgiurl=http%3A%2F%2Fcgi.ebay.com%2Fws%2F&MfcISAPICommand=GetResult&query=song+of+the+south&categoryid=&ht=1&category1=380&SortProperty=MetaEndSort&BasicSearch=) figure $50 to get the PAL tape converted to NTSC. NOW, if you can find a pre-1968 print of Fantasia, I’ll be in awe ---
**Author:** ![Avalonian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ee7513/32.png) [@Avalonian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Avalonian)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2002, 7:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/banned-books/127017/30 "2002-09-10T07:14:03Z")
I already own _Song of the South_, thanks to a friend of mine with a laserdisc player and a friend in Japan. If you can overlook the Japanese subtitles, the whole movie is there. I really don’t see what the fuss is about. As for banned books, the owner of the bookstore I used to work for (Bookman’s in Flagstaff, AZ) had only one yearly event. He dubbed September of each and every year Banned Books Month, during which we looked up the LoC list of banned books and tracked down all the copies we had in the store of said books, and displayed them prominently on a table right at the front, each with a Xeroxed copy of their banning history placed as a bookmark inside. He printed t-shirts every year (I still have most of them), and took out major ads in all the newspapers to promote the event. It was a Big Deal in our store. I was proud to be a part of it. Though it doesn’t fit me as well as it used to, I still wear my favorite Banned Books t-shirt from Bookman’s. It’s a hot pink overall, with a black handprint printed on the front. Stenciled over the handprint are the words “ **Read to Be Free**.” Damn straight. ---
**Author:** ![mobo85](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b19c9b/32.png) [@mobo85](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mobo85)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2002, 8:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/banned-books/127017/31 "2002-09-10T20:06:47Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Chronos \* > **DeepPurple, I know that link was intended to clear things up, but now I’m even more confused. _Little House on the Prarie_??? About all I can think of there is that the censors are afraid that children might learn about family values.** I saw once on TV that one Native American child in a school was offended by such lines as “The only good Indian is a dead Indian.” ---
**Author:** ![Giselle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e495f1/32.png) [@Giselle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Giselle)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2002, 4:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/banned-books/127017/32 "2002-09-14T04:04:01Z")
I once read an article that condemned **The Perks of Being A Wallflower** [one of my favourites, actually] as being a “gay teen sex book.” This made me laugh, as there is _one_ gay character and _two_ mentions of sex in the entire book. It’s really worthwhile – you might like it. The Dhammapada – Buddhist religious text – is really very interesting. You might want to give it a try. **Catcher in the Rye**! My favourite book ever! It’s fabulousness and I love Holden Caulfield. ---
**Author:** ![Horatio\_Hellpop](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e5b9ba/32.png) [@Horatio\_Hellpop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horatio_Hellpop)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2002, 4:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/banned-books/127017/33 "2002-09-14T04:24:48Z")
My brother’s Catholic high school in the early 60s had an almost-complete set of the Harvard Great Books; the two that were missing were ON THE ORIGIN OF SPECIES by Darwin and THE COMMUNIST MANIFESTO by Marx and Engels. Jack, my brother, thought he’d take a radical stand and lobby the nuns to include the two banned volumes. The nuns called my father in. Dad told Jack he’d back him all the way, provided Jack read the two books and write a book report to Dad’s satisfaction. The matter died quietly right there. I guess you could needle your friends to read something that was banned but NOT cool, like DIANETICS or MEIN KAMPF. See how committed they are to the concept. ---
**Author:** ![Freudian\_Slit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/5daacb/32.png) [@Freudian\_Slit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freudian_Slit)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2002, 12:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/banned-books/127017/34 "2002-09-15T00:45:29Z")
There was nudity in the BFG? But according to IDMb, that’s an animated movie. Were there little phalluses on the cover created by an irate artist? 🙂 I know Judy Blume’s books have been banned due to religion (Are You There God, It’s Me…), and the sex, even though they mainly read like mediocre (ly?) written (very very very) soft core porn. As for “Little House on the Praire”/“Little House in the Big Woods” I never really found those offensive when I was reading them. Also it seemed like those opinions were coming from the people around Laura and her family, not necessarily the family themselves. And plus, they were living in pretty dangerous circumstances- they did have to guard against Indian attacks because they had no idea if people were going to be hostile or not. I remember watching something on the telly about people being disturbed by the Scary Story books and wanting to ban them…you know, the pictures being weird and all. That was why I liked them…Kids these days. Not nearly tough enough. Hehe. Maybe you could stick up pics from the book around your walls. It would really add some atmosphere. ---
**Author:** ![Ranchoth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ranchoth/32/1066_2.png) [@Ranchoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ranchoth)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2002, 5:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/banned-books/127017/35 "2002-09-15T05:08:08Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Zoggie \* > \*\*There was nudity in the BFG? But according to IDMb, that’s an animated movie. Were there little phalluses on the cover created by an irate artist? 🙂 \*\* Just a couple of scenes of kids getting in and out of bathtubs. I didn’t even REMEMBER those scenes until I re-rented the movie a few months ago, so you see how much impact they had on my fragile psyche when i first saw the movie. > [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Zoggie \* > \*\*As for “Little House on the Praire”/“Little House in the Big Woods” I never really found those offensive when I was reading them. Also it seemed like those opinions were coming from the people around Laura and her family, not necessarily the family themselves. And plus, they were living in pretty dangerous circumstances- they did have to guard against Indian attacks because they had no idea if people were going to be hostile or not. > \*\* Plus, weren’t those books set (Written?) in, like, the 1850s? I mean, what does one really expect to find? “Pa” saying to Laura: “Now, we must not be prejudiced against the Native People of this land, as we are all fellow travelers on our Mother Earth.”? Sheesh…some people, y’know? Ranchoth (BTW, am i the only person who thinks that “Pa” in “Little House” was, well, an \*\*\*hole?) ---
**Author:** ![Slacker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/6bbea6/32.png) [@Slacker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slacker)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2002, 5:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/banned-books/127017/36 "2002-09-15T05:31:48Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by elfkin477 \* > **\ > You know, I did a search for “banned books” threads, and the hamsters must be comatose, since not even this thread popped up. I wonder if we ought to do another thread to discuss which banned books we’ve read? In my case, I know it’s more than the 100 greatest novels lists! > \** Continuing hijack… make sure you select "yesterday **and older** under the **Search For Posts From…** section of the search page. By default it only searches posts made in the last 24 hours for some reason. ---
**Author:** ![HPL](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/3da27b/32.png) [@HPL](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HPL)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2002, 6:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/banned-books/127017/37 "2002-09-15T06:30:38Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by mobo85 \* > \*\* > > I saw once on TV that one Native American child in a school was offended by such lines as “The only good Indian is a dead Indian.” \*\* Too bad these people have never heard of the word “context”. ---
**Author:** ![HPL](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/3da27b/32.png) [@HPL](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HPL)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2002, 6:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/banned-books/127017/38 "2002-09-15T06:42:13Z")
_finds it extremely ironic that books like \1984, Brave New World, and F-451\ have been banned at one point time or another._ Ignorance is Strength Freedom is Slavery. ---
**Author:** ![tracer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tracer/32/20578_2.png) [@tracer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tracer)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2002, 4:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/banned-books/127017/39 "2002-09-15T16:33:26Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by crazy4chaucer \* > **(I’m Mormon, so there won’t be any alcoholic stuff) 🙂** … because alcohol is **BANNED** in your holy **BOOKS!** Aha! It all ties together now! 😉 [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/banned-books/127017.md?page=1)