Utah has actually banned 13 books. Not just on a reading list, not just in one school- but totally and completely for all school- and maybe more-
The Utah State Board of Education has ordered schools to remove 13 books, including works by Judy Blume, Rupi Kaur, Sarah J. Maas, Margaret Atwood and other authors, for content they deem to be pornographic or indecent under a new state law.
Free speech advocates say this the first statewide book ban as, traditionally, schools and libraries have decided which books are appropriate for children giving due consideration to their literary or artistic value, ABC News reported.
We had a thread not too long ago debating whether or not removing a book from a reading list, for example- was a real book ban. But this really is a book ban.
Also I found that the books can not be sold or given away- so book burnings are next.
SIX of the thirteen books are fantasy novels by Sarah J. Maas (who I had never heard of before now)…I have to assume this is because they’re extremely popular with (I’m assuming) teenage girls. They seem pretty tame. This is silly.
If students can’t get them at the library, they’re just going to go buy them, so I guess Utah wants Sarah J. Maas to make more money.
I actually just finished the first of her books on that list, and there are a couple scenes that are fairly racy - but no worse than any bodice-ripper novel you find at the drugstore, plus several scenes with a fair bit of violence (but violence is okay, right?).
Whenever I hear of crap like such bans, I’m tempted to buy huge stacks of the books and leave them out where teenagers congregate, with a sign saying “Free - take one!”.
[Frothing at Mouth Fundied-out Fuckwit]These books in this pile are the Devil’s work! We are going to burn them to show how eeeevvvviiillll they are.[/FAMFOF]
[Someone with Actual Brain]Excuse me. And just where did you get all those new books in that pile?[/SWAB]
[FAMFOF]I bought them at the bookstore we’re going to boycott for selling them![/FAMFOF]
I don’t now what you mean by this. The story you link to says that the books can be banned throughout the Utah school system, but not that they are banned from Utah book stores. You can still buy the books in the state.
When I lived in the Beehive State, I dated some LDS women. I had a discussion with one o them about the church-affiliated bookstore, Deseret Books. These were only supposed to sell “correlated” books – ones that had been examined and found to be free of material not sanctioned by the Church, or anything morally objectionable.
“I can go into Deseret Books and buy a stack of steamy, sexy novels,” she told me. Evidently their correlating procedure isn’t 100% foolproof. Not only can you buy those banned books in Utah bookstores, you might be able to get them at Deseret Books.
In somewhat better news, a federal judge ordered the school district in the Matanuska Valley in Alaska to return all challenged books to the library shelves. Article (may be paywalled).
What is meant is that the banned books that are taken from the schools can not be sold or given away. Yes, I see no reason why- other than a crowd with pitchforks, ropes and torches - why a bookstore cant sell those banned books.
My educated guess (I am a semi-pro book reviewer) is that the series is aimed at young females - and I am neither. Not that the book was bad mind you- just not my cup of tea.
Because that is the article I linked to. That is interesting, thank you, but note the two bans are rather different- Utah bans books by title- Iowa bans books by sexual content.
My friend (who is a young woman) recommended it to me (Who is not.) But then I really like Leigh Bardugo.
To make this tangent thread relevant, I have a hard time seeing why Sarah Maas riles up the book burning crowd so much. I can think of far more risqué books. Take Tamsyn Muir’s Locked Tomb series, for example. I guess one of them got upset about it and spread their ire to other idiots.
I am old, and trust me- getting free books to review and occasionally reviewing them is by no means an important job. You get free books- 90% are trash.
If I were a teacher in one of these states I’d put up in my classroom a poster-sized display with the list of banned books “in large, easily readable font” along with a four-paragraph “context statement” describing the history of book banning, religious indoctrination, and why only a secular society has true religious freedom.
- why a bookstore cant sell those banned books.
Not that the book was bad mind you- just not my cup of tea.