# Explain these "challenged books" to me. **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [November 7, 2003, 6:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-these-challenged-books-to-me/211942 "2003-11-07T18:49:20Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Darkhold](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/90db22/32.png) [@Darkhold](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darkhold)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2003, 1:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-these-challenged-books-to-me/211942/21 "2003-11-08T01:39:38Z")
Sonyadora, In Lion Witch etc I never really noticed it until other people mentioned it. But the first time I read The Last Battle I knew it was the book of revelations…And I was 10 at the time. ---
**Author:** ![LifeOnWry](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/96bed5/32.png) [@LifeOnWry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LifeOnWry)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2003, 1:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-these-challenged-books-to-me/211942/22 "2003-11-08T01:59:13Z")
I remember hearing that one reason Charlie and the Chocolate Factory was challenged was that Willy Wonka said he rescued the Oompa Loompas from the jungles - then they came to work for him. Someone drew a parallel, and said that Dahl’s book was a thinly disguised rationale for slavery. (And I am losing my mind. I know there was a post here about To Kill a Mockingbird and Bob Ewell vs. Atticus Finch, but I’ve now re-read this three times and I can’t find it. ) ---
**Author:** ![Shana](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/3bc359/32.png) [@Shana](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shana)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2003, 2:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-these-challenged-books-to-me/211942/23 "2003-11-08T02:19:46Z")
Oh my gracious…After reading everything posted here the phrase, “Stop the world so I can get off.” comes to mind. These people must be smoking very good crack. Raisin in the Sun pornographic??? Gah!! I shouldn’t open threads like this. I get far too upset. ---
**Author:** ![Darkhold](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/90db22/32.png) [@Darkhold](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darkhold)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2003, 2:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-these-challenged-books-to-me/211942/24 "2003-11-08T02:20:36Z")
I see it all the time. I always assume they’re responding to some private buddy message… ---
**Author:** ![astorian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ad7895/32.png) [@astorian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astorian)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2003, 3:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-these-challenged-books-to-me/211942/25 "2003-11-08T03:07:31Z")
First, bear in mind that not every “challenge” to a book amounts to a ban. There’s a big difference between saying _Huckleberry Finn_ should be burned" and saying “I don’t think _Huckleberry Finn_ is an appropriate book for a 5th grade English class. Even though Mark Twain wasn’t using the N-word in a racist manner, it’s foolish to expect 5th graders to grasp that.” Now, I loved John Steinbeck’s books when I was young, I certainly wouldn’t want his books kept out of school libraries, and I’d argue vehemently with anyone who suggested that _Of Mice and Men_ was an immoral book. However, because of the types of people Steinbeck is writing about (ill-educated, lower-class drifters), there’s a fair amount of blue language in it, and the plot deals with murder and sexual assault. So, while it’s (rightly, in my opinion) regarded as a classic, I can understand why some parents would object if it were required reading at a grammar school. Some people who object to Twain and Steinbeck are simply politcally corrct worrywarts or prudish blue-noses. But others are simply saying, “Contrary to popular opinion, Twain and Steinbeck are NOT kiddie authors. Maybe their books are better suited for older kids.” _Huck Finn_ ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Blue\_Sky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d26b3c/32.png) [@Mr.Blue\_Sky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Blue_Sky)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2003, 3:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-these-challenged-books-to-me/211942/26 "2003-11-08T03:18:05Z")
[100 Most Frequently Challenged Books of 1990 - 2000](http://www.ala.org/Content/NavigationMenu/Our_Association/Offices/Intellectual_Freedom3/Banned_Books_Week/Related_Links7/100_Most_Frequently_Challenged_Books_of_1990-2000.htm) A fixed link for those of us without a Cinemascope monitor. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Baker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bb73d2/32.png) [@Baker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baker)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2003, 4:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-these-challenged-books-to-me/211942/27 "2003-11-08T04:24:46Z")
When I was in my junior year in high school, our Spanish class read the novel El Sombrero de Tres Picos. It was a cheaply produced edition for high schools, and a forward said three small segments had been excised to make it “more suitable for high school readers.” So I promptly went down to the city library to see what I was missing. Hmm, you don’t suppose it was actually a little “reverse psychology” do you? ---
**Author:** ![NajaNivea](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/22d042/32.png) [@NajaNivea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NajaNivea)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2003, 4:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-these-challenged-books-to-me/211942/28 "2003-11-08T04:32:09Z")
**Mr. Blue Sky** , I think that’s the same link in my OP 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2003, 4:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-these-challenged-books-to-me/211942/29 "2003-11-08T04:39:24Z")
Well, I think _Tom Sawyer_ is the one that the kids should be reading. _Huck Finn_ is for the older students. I loved that book, btw. I love Mark Twain. ---
**Author:** ![shrew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/7ab992/32.png) [@shrew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/shrew)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2003, 5:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-these-challenged-books-to-me/211942/30 "2003-11-08T05:04:20Z")
Well, I just finished teaching **To Kill a Mockingbird** to high school students, and showing the Gregory Peck film version afterward. When they finally saw Boo at the end, the first response from the girls was, “Ooh, Boo kinda cute.” I’d say any controversial matters went right over their heads." ---
**Author:** ![SanguineSpider](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e9a140/32.png) [@SanguineSpider](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SanguineSpider)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2003, 5:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-these-challenged-books-to-me/211942/31 "2003-11-08T05:18:13Z")
It’s people being… well, _people_. Don’t like it, don’t understand it, maybe fear it? Burn it… hide it… get RID of it! What a damn waste! ---
**Author:** ![MarsDragon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b2d939/32.png) [@MarsDragon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MarsDragon)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2003, 5:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-these-challenged-books-to-me/211942/32 "2003-11-08T05:52:13Z")
Okay, here’s somethng I’ve been wondering about for awhile. My school libary had a display of various challanged books awhile back, and little cards saying what they were challanged for. Violence, language, et etcera… Most of them I could see the reasoning somewhat, if not why that book should be taken away. But there was one that really threw me. Someone had apperently challanged _Dracula_ on the basis of ‘sex’. Huh? Could someone please point out to me where there was any hint of goings-on in that book? That one just didn’t make any sense whatsoever to me. Hm…looking at some of the other books mentioned in this thread, I wonder if the people challanging them have read the same versions we have… ---
**Author:** ![Doomtrain](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/0ea827/32.png) [@Doomtrain](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Doomtrain)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2003, 6:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-these-challenged-books-to-me/211942/33 "2003-11-08T06:36:37Z")
When John Harker is seduced by the 3 vampire “wives” of the Count? ---
**Author:** ![Dragonblink](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9bd4f/32.png) [@Dragonblink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dragonblink)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2003, 7:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-these-challenged-books-to-me/211942/34 "2003-11-08T07:00:33Z")
> [@](#): > > Fahrenheit 451. Ray Bradbury. Ballentine. Ironically, students at the Venado Middle School in Irvine, Calif. received copies of the book with scores of words–mostly “hells” and “damns”–blacked out. The novel is about book burning and censorship. Thankfully, after receiving complaints from parents and being contacted by reporters, school officials said the censored copies would no longer be used As a temporary resident of Irvine, allow me to say that I am not surprised by this in the least. – Dragonblink, escaping in June 2004 ---
**Author:** ![CrazyCatLady](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/dfb087/32.png) [@CrazyCatLady](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CrazyCatLady)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2003, 9:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-these-challenged-books-to-me/211942/35 "2003-11-08T09:25:49Z")
Well, let’s see. Off the top of my head, _Julie_ involves rape and IIRC wolf attacks on prey. _Mockingbird_ involves racism, rape, and murder (my seventh-grade teacher told me I might want to tell my parents the book involved a rape trial before I read the book, like they didn’t already know.) _Caged Bird_ deals with child molestation. And that’s just the stuff in the OP. My mother once had a parent object to her sixth-grader reading Norma Fox Mazer’s _After the Rain_, which is about a teenager getting to know her dying grandfather and dealing with his loss and her own insecurities. The big problem? A boy is making fun of his girlfriend and her culinary abilities, and the main character asks him why he doesn’t make his own damn sandwich. That’s it, one damn in the book, in a context that I had to go back and reread the book before I realized it was there. Mom had the woman read the book, so she’d understand what she was objecting to. The woman called her, weeping, and said that the book had been a huge help to her in dealing with her father’s recent death. Mom asked, “So your daughter can read the book, then?” and the woman replied, “Oh, no. It’s got cussing in it.” ---
**Author:** ![Shalmanese](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/45deac/32.png) [@Shalmanese](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shalmanese)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2003, 9:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-these-challenged-books-to-me/211942/36 "2003-11-08T09:27:53Z")
Hmm… I for one am dissapointed that The new joy of Gay sex(28) was challenged less than Sex(19). This clearly a sign of the gay infiltration into popular, straight culture! :o. ---
**Author:** ![hybrid\_dogfish](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/a587f6/32.png) [@hybrid\_dogfish](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hybrid_dogfish)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2003, 2:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-these-challenged-books-to-me/211942/37 "2003-11-08T14:05:18Z")
From forbidden library: > [@](#): > > 1984 . George Orwell. Harcourt. Challenged in the Jackson County, Fla. (1981) because the novel is “pro-communist and contained explicit sexual matter.” Big Brother doesn’t want people reading such things. Did they actually read the book? How could it be seen as anything other than **anti-communist** , ah well, i don’t suppose you can expect rational thought from the book burners. ---
**Author:** ![Bren\_Cameron\_1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7bcc69/32.png) [@Bren\_Cameron\_1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bren_Cameron_1)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2003, 2:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-these-challenged-books-to-me/211942/38 "2003-11-08T14:15:46Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by MarsDragon \* > \*\* Most of them I could see the reasoning somewhat, if not why that book should be taken away. But there was one that really threw me. Someone had apperently challanged _Dracula_ on the basis of ‘sex’. Huh? Could someone please point out to me where there was any hint of goings-on in that book? That one just didn’t make any sense whatsoever to me. > \*\* I’ve been googling to find an essay or something and have only found passing mentions, but I’ve heard and read fairly frequently that Dracula is largely about fear of sex and female sexuality. There’s a whole vampires=sex thing going on, not just with the three vampires at the beginning, but all the way through the book. Here’s the most extensive comment I could find. Although it’s actually part of an essay on Coppola’s film, it discusses the book: [http://216.239.39.104/search?q=cache:jGk-0-wh9PUJ:www3.niu.edu/comm/chown/Dracula.html+dracula+stoker+sexuality+victorian+mores&hl=en&ie=UTF-8](http://216.239.39.104/search?q=cache:jGk-0-wh9PUJ:www3.niu.edu/comm/chown/Dracula.html+dracula+stoker+sexuality+victorian+mores&hl=en&ie=UTF-8) > [@](#): > > In the adaptation of Dracula by James Hart and Coppola, much is restored from Stoker that had lost focus and utility in previous adaptations. For example, the delineation of the flirtatious Lucy Westerna and her three suitors as foil to the more chaste Mina Harker is far closer to Stoker’s original conception than any subsequent adaptation. Initially, it might seem that the filmic Lucy’s jokes about male penis size and her sexually aggressive manner with her suitors is anachronistic to the 1897 time frame. And yet literary scholar Kathleen L. Spencer, oblivious to the film, writes: "Lucy’s character is ‘flawed’ in a way that makes her fatally vulnerable to the vampire. She is a woman whose sexuality is under very imperfect control."4 Spencer then discusses the fact that Lucy would very much like to marry all three of her suitors and feels rather constrained by social mores. She concludes: “In sacrificing Lucy, the four men purge not only their fear of female sexuality generally, of which she is the monstrous expression, but also–and more importantly–their fear of their own sexuality and their capacity for sexually-prompted violence against each other.” > > To my knowledge, the only Dracula adaptation that preserves the Lucy dialectic of sexuality and male homoerotic violence is Coppola’s. Further, I would argue that had Coppola stuck closer to the novel and left out the improvised sexual innuendoes, not changed the novel’s flaxen blond to the film’s fiery redhead, and relied faithfully on Stoker’s Victorian era descriptions of Lucy, the point would have been lost on modern audiences. ---
**Author:** ![BrotherCadfael](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@BrotherCadfael](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrotherCadfael)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2003, 2:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-these-challenged-books-to-me/211942/39 "2003-11-08T14:55:04Z")
Stephen King has a fairly long discussion of sexuality in _Dracula_ specifically and in the vampire mythology in general in his study of horror literature _Danse Macabre_. A quite decent book, by the way. ---
**Author:** ![NajaNivea](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/22d042/32.png) [@NajaNivea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NajaNivea)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2003, 11:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-these-challenged-books-to-me/211942/40 "2003-11-08T23:07:20Z")
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