I saw an AARP Bulletin and it mentioned something about Harry Potter being banned on the cover so I looked at it & found a list of books that at one point were banned or had attempted to be by American schools & libraries. They include many classics like the Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorn for its adultuary theme, The Grapes of Wrath by John Stienbeck for it's language, Uncle Tom's Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe for being too political, I Know Why the Cage the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelo for too much sex. Remember these; The Adventures of Huckelberry Fin, Gone With the Wind, Of Mice and Men, The Catcher in the Rye, To Kill a Mocking Bird, One Flew Over the Cukoo's Nest, In Cold Blood, The Color Purple, Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl? Well they were all banned at some time for being socially offensive. The American Library Association annually sponsors (in part) a banned books week from Sept. 25- Oct. 2 that celebrates the first amendment draws attention to the harms of censorship. Imagine not being exposed some of these powerful works of literature. Life is not always kind & people should celebrate that they have the right to write and read about it.
Peace, Love, & Flowers
Nija
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If you want to read a banned book, read the last book banned in the USA, namely, Fanny Hill, last banned in 1963.
ReplyDeleteNo books have been banned in the USA for about a half a century. See "National Hogwash Week."
Thomas Sowell says Banned Books Week is “the kind of shameless propaganda that has become commonplace in false charges of ‘censorship’ or ‘book banning’ has apparently now been institutionalized with a week of its own.” He calls it “National Hogwash Week.”
Former ALA Councilor Jessamyn West said, "It also highlights the thing we know about Banned Books Week that we don't talk about much — the bulk of these books are challenged by parents for being age-inappropriate for children. While I think this is still a formidable thing for librarians to deal with, it's totally different from people trying to block a book from being sold at all." See "Banned Books Week is Next Week."
And then there's Judith Krug herself who created BBW:
"Marking 25 Years of Banned Books Week," by Judith Krug, Curriculum Review, 46:1, Sep. 2006. "On rare occasion, we have situations where a piece of material is not what it appears to be on the surface and the material is totally inappropriate for a school library. In that case, yes, it is appropriate to remove materials. If it doesn't fit your material selection policy, get it out of there."
Lastly, remember the ALA does not oppose book burning when doing so would interfere with its political interests. Go see what Judith Krug said about Cuban librarians: "American Library Association Shamed," by Nat Hentoff.