Banned Books Week

[erastes]

I was going to post daily on Banned Books Week- because there's a lot of noise about it on the internet, but frankly, I can't see that there ARE any banned UK books are there? Please correct me if I'm wrong.

From the research I've done, it seems that some books have never seen the light of day, such as "how to be a terrorist" (made up title) and books like that, but that makes perfect sense in the same way the powers that be would crack down on "Burgling for Dummies" or "So You Want To Be A Serial Killer" (I'm talking How To books here, obviously, as all of the above could be very viable as FICTION.

I think that first and foremost, what a child gets its hands on or what it doesn't hangs (as many things do) in the hands of the parents. Obviously not all parents care what their kid is reading, in the same way that they wouldn't care if they are playing video games well above their age, or watching porn on the net etc, but it shouldn't really be the school's job to police this. I understand that many of the so called “banned books” are banned by libraries and schools—federal banning is (again, talking about UK and USA and correct me if I’m wrong) isn’t something that happens much. 

I am sure there was a measure of “banned books” in my school when i was a kid, and I wasn’t aware of it. Books that were unsuitable for under 18s for example – you certainly couldn’t get Henry Miller in the library. I read the Tropic books at a friend’s house, whose father owned them.  I’d probably find them less graphic today than many erotic novels available anywhere.

My mother DID ban some books. But—being a headmistress—she only did it from what she considered to be “good writing.”  She never bought any Enid Blyton for me, nor Doctor Suess nor Roald Dahl – there were many many books I never discovered that I didn’t know, but I never felt the lack of The Cat In The Hat and James and the Giant Peach. She said before her death that had JKRowling been around then, she wouldn’t have bought those for me, either.  This of course didn’t stop me mainlining Blyton at friends’ houses.

However she let me loose in the adult library, and I was allowed to borrow anything. I don’t remember her ever vetting anything I got—and I was free to guzzle all the classics that she had at home, I read Maupassant at probably a tender age…

So, yeah – I probably agree with schools vetting books. I think some of their choices have been laughable, and some books are probably better kept for children when they get older. The thing about books is that—unlike games and dvds—anyone can buy them. A fourteen year old might (possibly) get a raised eyebrow from a saleperson if they buy Tropic of Cancer from a bookshop, but more than likely the shop assistant will think it’s a travel book with Michael Palin.

Here’s a list of the “top” 16 banned books. There are a ton of lists on this subject and they all seem to be different. I’m proud to say I’ve read ‘em all—most of them before i was 20, too.

 

  - - -

Comments

[beckyblack]

The only one that I can recall the UK government ever trying to ban (without much success) was Spycatcher.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spycatcher

Otherwise, the whole banning books thing is just not very British, is it?

I suppose individual libraries and schools and even book shops (bricks and mortar and online) might decide not to have a particular book in their library/shop for whatever reason, but that's not the same as banning it in the sense they can stop people getting hold of it elsewhere.

ETA: In recent times I mean. I'm sure stuff went on in the past. But it's rare now. And with the Internet, barely possible!

[anderyn.livejournal.com]

Books, ah books. And banning. Sigh.

I can say this from hard experience -- kids will read what kids will read. I, myself, read a rather lurid history of Storyville (the brothel district in New Orleans) with pictureS and some distressing accounts of sexual/racial abuse and a whole bunch of "confession magazines" when I was under ten (the one was in my grandparents' basement and the other was my mother's stash) -- and some other really adult books because they were there. I happen to have a pretty photographic memory, so I went to the local university library and re-found the history book a few years ago, and yes -- I did recall the scenes correctly, but I hadn't really internalized them as so scary way back when.

I always allowed my children to read whatever they *could* read, as long as we discussed it either before or after. Since I read quickly, it was always easy for me to read the same book and discuss it. Some parents don't have that luxury, but I still find the idea of banning a book from the school library rather silly and stupid, even if it is a horrible book with horrible ideas. How else can you tell your kid "this is NOT the right thing to be thinking/doing" if you can't even let them read about it?

Augh! A stupid banned book reference

[anderyn.livejournal.com]

The following link is to a blog post by the author of "speak", a young adult book that deals with date rape, PTSD, and other issues, about a man in Springfield, MO, who is trying to get her book banned. You really should read his reasoning. Yeah. Stupidity incarnate. I'm just wondering if he's related to the folks who disowned their son because he played a gay man in a film.

http://madwomanintheforest.com/this-guy-thinks-speak-is-pornography/

[kcwarwick.livejournal.com]

My father wouldn't let us read Enid Blyton either, on the grounds that her literary style was so appalling! I can't say I've ever yearned to read her. I remember having a copy of 'The Diary of Anne Frank'confiscated when I was at school, simply because it wasn't from the school library. Mind you, the teacher concerned would probably have confiscated the Bible for the same reason.

[gaedhal.livejournal.com]

I'm a teacher and I'll say that 100% of banning is
because of "Parents Groups" -- many political in
nature, most connected to the Religious Right.
That's why "Harry Potter" gets the hit so badly,
but there's also a large group of African-American
"watchdog" groups who lead the charge against "Huck
Finn" and "Mockingbird." Ironic, that, since both
are anti-racist and portray racists as the villains.
Unfortunately, both use the N-word, which reflects
the time period in which they take place.

[lareinenoire.livejournal.com]

Oh, banned books. I've never understood that at all. My parents let me and my siblings read whatever we wanted, and we all turned out relatively normal. ;) I certainly think it's an issue for parents more than for superintendents -- parents are the ones who (presumably) know their kids well enough to know what they are and aren't mature enough to handle.

I've read a fair number of books on the banned list, though not all, I'm rather sad to say. But I'm really not up to scratch on canonical fiction written after 1900...