It almost slipped by without me noticing it, but this is Banned Books Week (September 24?October 1).
My favorite book, Catch-22
Banned in Strongsville, Ohio (1972), but school board’s action was overturned in 1976 by a U.S. District Court in Minarcini v. Strongville City School District, 541 F 2d 577 (6th Cir. 1976). Challenged at the Dallas, Tex. Independent School District high school libraries (1974); in Snoqualmie Wash. (1979) because of several references to women as “whores.”
The most ironic act of censorship has to go to Venada Middle School in Irvine, California. In 1992…
Students received copies of [Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury] with scores of words – mostly “hells” and “damns” – blacked out. The novel is about book-burning and censorship. After receiving complaints from parents and being contacted by reporters, school officials said the censored copies would no longer be used.
Check out the list of the 100 Most Frequently Challenged Books of 1990?2001, and prepare to do some head-shaking.
No related posts.
Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.
{ 8 comments… read them below or add one }
A Light in the Attic by Shel Silverstein?! (this one stood out to me the most as a WTF?! listing).
Holy Crap! This list did have me shaking my head. Some of the best books of the 20th century were on the list.
What’s wrong with James and the Giant Peach or How to Eat Fried Worms? WTF?
I can’t believe I’ve read so many of those books! And all the kids books on there! What a crazy list!
Funny thing about Farenheit 451. Last year, Nikki (my 14 year old daughter) read it in 8th grade in Edmond. Many of the kids were in awe when their teacher not only had them read a book with cuss words, but actually read them aloud!! She told them about it beforehand and explained that the book had been banned in many schools because of the language. In her view, the language was essential to the story, so she did not edit—in the Bible belt of America.
Now that’s amazing. Good for her.
What I like about the Venada Middle School incident is that the parents complained about the censored copies. At least they understood the point of the story, even if the school didn’t.
It’s not just in the schools. People have the audacity to come into Borders in Norman and try to get us to stop selling books. We get it all the time. Sometimes people bring all the copies of a book to the Customer Service desk and TELL us we need to put these somewhere that no one can see the filth in them, and trust me, it ain’t filth. Sometimes they’re just anatomy books. Some of these people are NUTS.
They probably see going into Borders as like going into the devil’s den, or a Sodom & Gomorrah for bibliophiles.
Those people are nuts. That’s what happens to people when they don’t get laid enough…or at all.
I haven’t heard any real complaints about any books at my library. Only one I’ve heard is actually one of the workers who is very very conservative and felt that one book that was in the YA section was bad because it portrayed homosexuality in a positive way. (I read it. It was actually more about adultery, which apparently she had no problem with.) You realize I must now look up all these books at work tonight and see which ones we have and where they are.