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Dave W.
Info Junkie
USA
26022 Posts |
 Posted - 09/29/2004 : 10:11:57
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I wish I'd known about this before it started, but Banned Books Week 2004 began last Saturday, September 25th.
The American Library Association has published their list of the 100 most-challenged books between 1990 and 2000, along with the top ten list for 2003.
Perhaps it should come as no surprise that Huck Finn is still #5 on the top 100. People who forget history are, indeed, doomed to repeat it.
Interestingly, the ALA also has a page on Book Burning in the 21st Century, with a whole lot of articles about church groups burning Harry Potter books (or, in the case of one group who couldn't get a permit, a "book cutting"). They've also got info on book burning in other time periods.
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- Dave W. (Private Msg, EMail)
Evidently, I rock!
Why not question something for a change?
Visit Dave's Psoriasis Info, too. |
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Ricky
SFN Die Hard
USA
4907 Posts |
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BigPapaSmurf
SFN Die Hard
3192 Posts |
 Posted - 09/29/2004 : 10:53:10 [Permalink]
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1) Waldo, personifies the Devil!
2) Only God may be searched for in a crowd.
3) Waldo, False Idol!!!!
4) Horizontal stripes are a sin.
5) Folks who ban books are insane.
Take your pick. |
"...things I have neither seen nor experienced nor heard tell of from anybody else; things, what is more, that do not in fact exist and could not ever exist at all. So my readers must not believe a word I say." -Lucian on his book True History
"...They accept such things on faith alone, without any evidence. So if a fraudulent and cunning person who knows how to take advantage of a situation comes among them, he can make himself rich in a short time." -Lucian critical of early Christians c.166 AD From his book, De Morte Peregrini |
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filthy
SFN Die Hard
USA
14408 Posts |
Posted - 09/29/2004 : 11:04:27 [Permalink]
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Couldn't get the links to work, so I googled it.
http://www.ala.org/
I notice that To Kill a Mockingbird is still on it as is Slaughterhouse Five.
Yet I wonder, why have they not included Twain's Letters from the Earth? I'd think that one would be a natural. Or was it there but I missed it?
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"What luck for rulers that men do not think." -- Adolf Hitler (1889 - 1945)
"If only we could impeach on the basis of criminal stupidity, 90% of the Rethuglicans and half of the Democrats would be thrown out of office." ~~ P.Z. Myres
"The default position of human nature is to punch the other guy in the face and take his stuff." ~~ Dude
Brother Boot Knife of Warm Humanitarianism,
and Crypto-Communist! 
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Dave W.
Info Junkie
USA
26022 Posts |
Posted - 09/29/2004 : 13:16:29 [Permalink]
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Yeah, filthy, the site was down for a little while earlier. The links work again, now. I like to think it was overwhelmed by the traffic from the SFN...  |
- Dave W. (Private Msg, EMail)
Evidently, I rock!
Why not question something for a change?
Visit Dave's Psoriasis Info, too. |
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Ricky
SFN Die Hard
USA
4907 Posts |
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Siberia
SFN Addict
Brazil
2322 Posts |
Posted - 09/29/2004 : 14:54:44 [Permalink]
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Mmm, what about those books? I mean, I don't really get the signify. Are they the most-controversial-thus-most-commonly-banned books... or am I missing something? Though, I've just downloaded To Kill a Mockingbird and I considered Brave New World one of the best books I've read... now I'm just compelled to read all of those (except, perhaps, What's up with my body, because that's just silly).
I'm not surprised (if my thought's on the right line) to see Anne Rice and Stephen King there. Both very controversial authors (that I love dearly) - though I don't know why. Ah, Carrie. I thought Carrie to be a fabulous book; given it's fiction, I absolutely adore how honest and blunt Stephen King can be. |
"Why are you afraid of something you're not even sure exists?"
- The Kovenant, Via Negativa
"People who don't like their beliefs being laughed at shouldn't have such funny beliefs."
-- unknown
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Dude
SFN Die Hard
USA
6891 Posts |
Posted - 09/29/2004 : 17:25:42 [Permalink]
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I recall a list of books and documents that some group was trying to get banned from public schools in the 80's (when I was in HS).
The list included The US Constitution, all E.A. Poe, Huck Finn, ect...
Forget who was behind that attempt, but it did get some publicity. |
Ignorance is preferable to error; and he is less remote from the truth who believes nothing, than he who believes what is wrong.
-- Thomas Jefferson
"god :: the last refuge of a man with no answers and no argument." - G. Carlin
Hope, n.
The handmaiden of desperation; the opiate of despair; the illegible signpost on the road to perdition. ~~ da filth |
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Ricky
SFN Die Hard
USA
4907 Posts |
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Dave W.
Info Junkie
USA
26022 Posts |
Posted - 09/29/2004 : 19:07:21 [Permalink]
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Siberia, the list is of the most-frequently banned and challenged books - "challenged books" being those that people attempt to get banned - within U.S. school libraries and public libraries, usually in attempts to "protect" the children and/or the community from ideas that the people making the challenges find distasteful.
And the point of publishing the list is, indeed, to get more people to read those same books, because they're not so horrible. |
- Dave W. (Private Msg, EMail)
Evidently, I rock!
Why not question something for a change?
Visit Dave's Psoriasis Info, too. |
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Dude
SFN Die Hard
USA
6891 Posts |
Posted - 09/29/2004 : 19:59:46 [Permalink]
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quote:
What? Was that a typo? They tried to ban the US Constitution? I would really like to find the name of this group. Good grief.
For real. I remember doing some kind of report/presentation on censorship at the time, and this group had made some headlines with their stupidity... it was some kind of religious organization if I recall.... can't remember the name though. Mostly I was pissed at Tipper (the facist wife of Al) for her stupid censorship movement. |
Ignorance is preferable to error; and he is less remote from the truth who believes nothing, than he who believes what is wrong.
-- Thomas Jefferson
"god :: the last refuge of a man with no answers and no argument." - G. Carlin
Hope, n.
The handmaiden of desperation; the opiate of despair; the illegible signpost on the road to perdition. ~~ da filth |
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beskeptigal
SFN Die Hard
USA
3834 Posts |
Posted - 09/30/2004 : 01:51:56 [Permalink]
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I notice most of those are children's books. Uppity parents no doubt.
And, only a couple are over concern about violence. It's mostly language and sex that offends, with of course, those evil Harry Potter books  .
Mind boggling what people find offensive. |
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filthy
SFN Die Hard
USA
14408 Posts |
Posted - 09/30/2004 : 03:18:05 [Permalink]
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I suspect that some few days after Mr. Gutenburg got his printing press up and running, someone started bitching about it. Book-banning and burning has since become almost a tradition.
It raises the question of; why ban a book? Pornography, profanity, violence, racial slurs, the occult, all and more are given as excellent reasons -- which, of course, makes one wonder why the Bible is not listed.
But no matter. The print industry has come a long way since the Gutenburg press, and books are cheap and readily available. Ban 'em, burn 'em, we'll still get 'em.
Back around 1957, I was given a book titled The Adventures and Follies of a Good Natured Libertine. This, while pretty well written, was a skin book. It began damp and finally ended downright soggy with everything from clusterfuck to incest to the attempted murder of a monk by veneral disease, to, well, nevermind. I read it, was duly impressed and a little nauseated, then passed it along to a shipmate. While that copy might still be doing the rounds like an ancient street hooker, if asked, I'd have said that when it was worn out or lost, there'd never be another. Even though it was better done than most of that sort of thing, trash rarely survives.
So imagine my utter astonishment when, some 15 years or so ago, I stumbled across it while looking for Christmas gifts, brand new in paperback, at a bookstore in Durham. I was actually tempted to buy it for nostalga's sake, but having two teen daughters at home, possesing all of the curiosity of that species, I passed.
So, does this mean that the long-lived Libertine is some sort of classic? Perhaps it is, although I haven't seen it since. And if it is indeed a classic, should it be in high school libraries? Certainly not.
These list makers are idiots. Libertine is an example of a work that should be on a warning list. Virtually all of those shown at the ALA site are not. Indeed, it is more a list of reccommendations than anything else.
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"What luck for rulers that men do not think." -- Adolf Hitler (1889 - 1945)
"If only we could impeach on the basis of criminal stupidity, 90% of the Rethuglicans and half of the Democrats would be thrown out of office." ~~ P.Z. Myres
"The default position of human nature is to punch the other guy in the face and take his stuff." ~~ Dude
Brother Boot Knife of Warm Humanitarianism,
and Crypto-Communist!
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| Edited by - filthy on 09/30/2004 03:22:57 |
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Valiant Dancer
Forum Goalie
USA
4826 Posts |
Posted - 09/30/2004 : 06:33:52 [Permalink]
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quote:
Originally posted by Dave W.
I wish I'd known about this before it started, but Banned Books Week 2004 began last Saturday, September 25th.
The American Library Association has published their list of the 100 most-challenged books between 1990 and 2000, along with the top ten list for 2003.
Perhaps it should come as no surprise that Huck Finn is still #5 on the top 100. People who forget history are, indeed, doomed to repeat it.
Interestingly, the ALA also has a page on Book Burning in the 21st Century, with a whole lot of articles about church groups burning Harry Potter books (or, in the case of one group who couldn't get a permit, a "book cutting"). They've also got info on book burning in other time periods.
There are some historical banned books from surprizing sources.
The Holy Bible -- Yup. Right here in my home state of Illinois by a Christian church because it wasn't the right version. (I believe the version being banned was Doubay-Rheims.) Other versions in other states have been attempted to be banned for similar reasons by church groups. Silly thing is, none of the groups have been atheist.
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Cthulhu/Asmodeus when you're tired of voting for the lesser of two evils
Brother Cutlass of Reasoned Discussion |
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Kil
Evil Skeptic
USA
13477 Posts |
Posted - 09/30/2004 : 06:46:31 [Permalink]
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| Still, I would like to add "Congo" by Michael Crichton to the list just because I have contempt for myself for reading the whole thing.... |
Uncertainty may make you uncomfortable. Certainty makes you ridiculous.
Why not question something for a change?
Genetic Literacy Project |
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Siberia
SFN Addict
Brazil
2322 Posts |
Posted - 09/30/2004 : 06:54:01 [Permalink]
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quote:
Originally posted by Dave W.
Siberia, the list is of the most-frequently banned and challenged books - "challenged books" being those that people attempt to get banned - within U.S. school libraries and public libraries, usually in attempts to "protect" the children and/or the community from ideas that the people making the challenges find distasteful.
And the point of publishing the list is, indeed, to get more people to read those same books, because they're not so horrible.
I see. Thanks Dave!
Oh yes. Harry Potter is indeed very, very evil. [>:)] |
"Why are you afraid of something you're not even sure exists?"
- The Kovenant, Via Negativa
"People who don't like their beliefs being laughed at shouldn't have such funny beliefs."
-- unknown
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