Banned books

[yellowfeverlime]

What is the official definition of a banned book?

[yellowfeverlime]

Are you people going to answer me, or am gonna hjave to consult a dictionary???

[Wendigo_49]

Not that i don't like Stephen King, but i would not be surprised if some of his books became banned.

It, The Stand, Different Seasons have all been challenged or removed in certain libraries across the nation.

I think that they only ban books that young people are liable to read. If there is any unecessary information that people that age should not have, then they say that the book can not be read. But then again, that's no fair to the adults.

I don't know about that. Beloved and The Canterbury Tales have both been removed from college prep High School classes.

Question: Who reads then decides which books are banned????

I think removing of books is usually done by a school board or librarian probably after a parent brings it up in a meeting. That doesn't mean that whole countries don't ban books like Ethiopia banning Hamlet since 1978

[Annaliese]

You can read quite a lot about the origins of book challenges and the reasons they are made at the American Library Association's website.

http://www.ala.org/ala/oif/basics/Default2272.htm

[yellowfeverlime]

Thanks!
~STEVIOE~

[subterranean]

Government authorities. Well, at least in my country, there's this institution which screens out books and movies

And to answer your other Q: no, we are not allow to swear in this forum.

Question: Who reads then decides which books are banned????

[yellowfeverlime]

Thought so...

[yellowfeverlime]

In May, 1899, Stalin was expelled from the Tiflis Theological Seminary. Several reasons were given for this action including disrespect for those in authority and reading forbidden books. Stalin was later to claim that the real reason was that he had been trying to convert his fellow students to Marxism.

Funny, huh? Maybe banned books started the Russian Revolution...

[pickupyourbrain]

The problem with banning books, for whatever reason, is that it infringes on the market place of ideas and exempts individuals from forming their own judments of the book's quality. Ray Bradbury's Farenheit 451 is an interesting case study in censorship, and it makes the point that the more information and different viewpoints available, the better off society is. I think people often forget that we don't have the right not to be offended, and the gods be thanked for it. It is what opens up dialogue and necessitates an examination of the very things that make us human.

[yellowfeverlime]

I was wondering why books are banned, then why are they printed. Becasue people want to read them... and why do they ban them... to make them unpopular... and what happens... they become more popular.

[pickupyourbrain]

No kidding. In a society that is at the front and center of the information age, banning a book is in some ways the best thing that could happen to it. The ensuing attention it receives can give it a lot more prestige than it originally would have had, and people want to read it for themselves. Censorship is a serious problem when it is enforced as an absolute silencing mechanism, and in our society that is a fairly unrealistic, though no less disturbing, occurence.

[samercury]

They mustn't secretly want us to hold our own opinion. Why would people take the time, money, and effort, for their book to become banned. They want people to see their opinion, and anyone who wants to see their opinion can choose to or not too.

My opinion exactly.... I mean if you look at most of the banned books, they're mostly about an individual trying to be his/her own self. When they're banned- what is that supposed to teach you? Don't think differently from everyone else.
Besides, banning books just makes them more popular, so it's pointless

[subterranean]

Popular to certain people/groups not popular to most people

[yellowfeverlime]

Why was "Little Red Riding Hood" banned anyways?????

[subterranean]

Something to do with alcohol where there's one version shows that the girl taking food and wine to her grandmother...Maybe people in general think that it's unappropriate for a little gal to do that.