View Poll Results: What do you think about "Banning Books"?

Voters
165. You may not vote on this poll
  • I think people have the rights do read what they want, if they don't like it, don't read it.

    113 68.48%
  • I agree with it.

    2 1.21%
  • I think that people should, like they do now, choose which books they want banned.

    4 2.42%
  • I hate banned books.

    2 1.21%
  • It's appalling.

    32 19.39%
  • I like the idea.

    3 1.82%
  • It's against the "First Ammendment."

    5 3.03%
  • I could careless... i hate books.

    1 0.61%
  • No comment.

    3 1.82%
  • I never thought of that????????.....

    0 0%
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Thread: Banned books

  1. #1
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    Banned or challenged books.

    The discussion about the use of the N-word in Heart of Darkness made me think of this topic. There have been those who consider themselves in higher power who think they have the right to censor information available to the public. What are your views on this? Does anyone think that anyone has the right to tell you that you can't read something? What about the Anarchist Cookbook? And hate literature?

    Some stories I have read that have been challenged include:

    Harry Potter - I believe this is because it contains 'witchcraft'.
    I think these stories were wonderful fantasy stories. What about other fantasy literature, it's chock full of sorcery? Was it only challenged because our children are reading it? It is my understanding that the original story was intended for an adult audience.

    The Bluest Eye - I am uncertain what the issue is here, I suppose because it has to do with racism. I enjoyed this story and found it to be educational. I thought Toni Morrison really showed feeling in this story.

    Catcher in the Rye - I really don't know what the issue is on this one. I like this story. It makes a strong statement about growing and dealing with lifes issues.

    I look forward to your thoughts and learning from those who have more knowledge on this subject than I.

  2. #2
    Ever Benevolent and Wise
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    Unhappy

    The American Library Association has information on their website about

    Banned Book Week, Sept. 25 - Oct. 2, 2004 ...

    http://www.ala.org/ala/oif/bannedboo...dbooksweek.htm


    I can't stand that organisations, governments etc. try to tell me what I can and can't read. I don't need someone else to `protect' me from reading something.

    ( And on a side-note but also highly alarming to me is the (American) Supreme Court's revisiting the Clinton era 1998 Child Online Protection Act (COPA). It will effectively make it illegal for any website to post textual or graphic material that is `harmful to minors', with sexual innuendo in the fore, but imagine all the interpretations out there of who deems what `offensive' material. Myriad websites will be open to prosecution if they aren't `dumbed down' to the lowest level of `controversial' material. This is more Big Brother censorship in the works... )

    http://www.aclu.org/Privacy/Privacy.cfm?ID=15079&c=130



    To me it's another sign that people aren't willing to take responsibility for their own children or the choices they make. They want the government to `protect' them and their children, and give them the choice to prosecute someone else for their own lack of guidance and education of themselves and their kids. grrrr....

    If you don't want your child reading Catcher in the Rye, don't give it to them. If you don't want them cruising `adult' websites, don't let them. Deal with the consequences yourself.

  3. #3
    <posted the same message twice> excuse moi...
    Last edited by Demona; 03-10-2004 at 02:43 PM.

  4. #4
    Lara, here you can find some opinions on censorship in general. Perhaps it'll be interesting to you.


    To me it's another sign that people aren't willing to take responsibility for their own children or the choices they make. They want the government to `protect' them and their children, and give them the choice to prosecute someone else for their own lack of guidance and education of themselves and their kids. grrrr....
    To some extent I do agree with you, however, you can't expect everyone to have a pedagogical education (at least).

    If you don't want your child reading Catcher in the Rye, don't give it to them. If you don't want them cruising `adult' websites, don't let them. Deal with the consequences yourself.
    Again, one can give or not give this or that book to his/her kid or allow him/her to surf this or that site but naturally a person cannot even suppose how it will influence the child. However, parents are supposed (but that doesn't mean that they do) to know their children better and therefore decide themselves what to allow and what not to....rather than to leave it to someone else.
    On the other hand, let's not underestimate kids - if they need something they will get it. You don't have to come and GIVE it to them. So if the books, for example, are freely available....I'm not sure that the authority of the parent will be taken into consideration.

  5. #5
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    Thanks Den, but I was already familiar with this website. I didn't know however, about the censorship online. I agree that it is up to parents to monitor what their children do, and yes, I am a parent. I think it is the parents responsibility to educate their children and offer as much guidance and support as possible, before they are teens. When they are teens, they are going to make their own choices, and I think parents have to give children the opportunity to do so. This is the philosophy I am gearing towards anyway. Perhaps I'll let you know how it goes several years down the road. LOL And allowing children to be online, parents have to realise that stuff is out there. Apparently a virus got ahold of one of my childs contacts in the address book and sent an email from this contact to several other contacts. It was a picture of a man doing it to a turkey (dead bird BTW). It was disgusting. It went to several children. I called all the parents as soon as I found out. My point is, this stuff is out there and sometimes it finds its way to our kids anyway.

    Demona, I hadn't realised there was a similar thread lingering around. Thanks.

    Another comment on the online issue. There is so much sexuality in movies, just on TV, our kids are exposed to it there too. Maybe they should just ban everything.

  6. #6
    I just have to ask - how usual is it that schools ban books? In Sweden it is never done, and would be considered a very strange thing. Perhaps it is done in some very religious schools, but I don´t think I have heard of it.
    "Man was made for joy and woe;
    And when this we rightly know
    Through the world we safely go" Blake

  7. #7
    Daydream Believer Kiwi Shelf's Avatar
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    It is very common to ban books in schools, and it can happen at any time. I know that in high school "To Kill a Mockingbird" was one of out selected readings, and this past year it was banned because it uses inappropriate language. I believe it is the "n" word. The funny thing is, I can't remember the book that it was replaced withs name, but my old English teacher told me that it is around the same lines and equally as inappropriate.

    I live in Canada, though, this may differ in other countries

  8. #8
    L'artiste est morte crisaor's Avatar
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    "No hay ninguna lectura peligrosa. El mal nunca puede entrar por la mente cuando el corazón está sano".
    - Jacinto Benavente
    Ningún hombre llega a ser lo que es por lo que escribe, sino por lo que lee.
    - Jorge Luis Borges

  9. #9
    in a blue moon amuse's Avatar
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    Pueden todos los gentes aqui leer espanol?
    [No se si es corecto (como escribi ese) ]
    Va a tranduzcar luego por ellos? (just a thought...)
    shh!!!
    the air and water have been here a long time, and they are telling stories.

  10. #10
    L'artiste est morte crisaor's Avatar
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    Escribiste bien.
    "There is no dangerous reading. Evil can never enter the mind if the heart is healthy."
    - Jacinto Benavente
    Ningún hombre llega a ser lo que es por lo que escribe, sino por lo que lee.
    - Jorge Luis Borges

  11. #11
    Originally posted by crisaor
    Escribiste bien.
    "There is no dangerous reading. Evil can never enter the mind if the heart is healthy."
    - Jacinto Benavente
    Well said crisaor. And parents who have faith their own healthy mind, will have faith in the minds and hearts of their children.

    What should in fact be banned is Channel One, reaching millions of highschool students (12 million a day-banned in NY). Channel One provides ten minutes of MTV type news and 2 minutes of junk ads in return for public school use of TV equipment. In effect, the public schools are delivering millions of students to this company. And that's just one example. The public school curriculum is sanitized so that it's not disruptive of corporate power.
    Last edited by hal9000; 03-11-2004 at 06:20 PM.

  12. #12
    I know that in high school "To Kill a Mockingbird" was one of out selected readings, and this past year it was banned because it uses inappropriate language. I believe it is the "n" word.
    To ban Harper Lee's deeply moving story - and her only book - is outrageously twisted and pure sophistry.

  13. #13
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    I also read To Kill a Mockingbird. Deeply moving is a great way to describe it Hal. What I don't understand is why the people who are banning such a book fail to comprehend the educational aspects of such a novel. It's like they're saying, this kind of stuff didn't really happen. It's a bad word and so we shouldn't allow awareness of it's previous existence. Again, one has to consider how the language in the story provides the strength and moving emotions that make the story. *sigh* I suppose there are just those people who don't appreciate literature the way we do.

  14. #14
    Ever Benevolent and Wise
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    From the website...


    Between 1990 and 2000, of the 6,364 challenges reported to or recorded by the Office for Intellectual Freedom (see The 100 Most Frequently Challenged Books):

    * 1,607 were challenges to “sexually explicit” material (up 161 since 1999);
    * 1,427 to material considered to use “offensive language”; (up 165 since 1999)
    * 1,256 to material considered “unsuited to age group”; (up 89 since 1999)
    * 842 to material with an “occult theme or promoting the occult or Satanism,”; (up 69 since 1999)
    * 737 to material considered to be “violent”; (up 107 since 1999)
    * 515 to material with a homosexual theme or “promoting homosexuality,” (up 18 since 1999) and
    * 419 to material “promoting a religious viewpoint.” (up 22 since 1999)

    Other reasons for challenges included “nudity” (317 challenges, up 20 since 1999), “racism” (267 challenges, up 22 since 1999), “sex education” (224 challenges, up 7 since 1999), and “anti-family” (202 challenges, up 9 since 1999).

    Please note that the number of challenges and the number of reasons for those challenges do not match, because works are often challenged on more than one ground.

    Seventy-one percent of the challenges were to material in schools or school libraries.2 Another twenty-four percent were to material in public libraries (down two percent since 1999). Sixty percent of the challenges were brought by parents, fifteen percent by patrons, and nine percent by administrators, both down one percent since 1999).

    1The Office for Intellectual Freedom does not claim comprehensiveness in recording challenges.

    2Sometimes works are challenged in a school and school library.

  15. #15
    Ever Benevolent and Wise
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    See, I don't see what the problem is `promoting homosexuality' for instance, but it's not too far of a stretch to imagine who is speaking out against any book that would do this.

    Also from same site:


    The following books were the most frequently challenged in 2003:

    1. Alice series, for sexual content, using offensive language, and being unsuited to age group.
    2. Harry Potter series, for its focus on wizardry and magic.
    3. "Of Mice and Men" by John Steinbeck, for using offensive language.
    4. "Arming America: The Origins of a National Gun Culture" by Michael A. Bellesiles, for inaccuracy.
    5. "Fallen Angels" by Walter Dean Myers, for racism, sexual content, offensive language, drugs and violence.
    6. "Go Ask Alice" by Anonymous, for drugs.
    7. "It's Perfectly Normal" by Robie Harris, for homosexuality, nudity, sexual content and sex education.
    8. "We All Fall Down" by Robert Cormier, for offensive language and sexual content.
    9. "King and King" by Linda de Haan, for homosexuality.
    10. "Bridge to Terabithia" by Katherine Paterson, for offensive language and occult/satanism.



    http://www.ala.org/ala/oif/bannedboo...ngedbanned.htm

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