National Banned Books Week
Bebel Platz’s Berlin memorial to Nazi book burning; even the font used in the memorial used to piss off the Nazis
This week is The American Library Association’s Banned Books Week. Here’s a link to the 11 Most Ironically Banned Books of All Time. Go read something that might change your view of the world. Something you shouldn’t be allowed to read.
revenge of the puritans
Censorship hasn’t gone away. It’s become a way of life, post-Janet Jackson. (Even the video I’m linking to is hidden behind a warning – you’re kidding, right??) Today, I can’t watch a talk show without both the naughty word and the mouths blurred out. Wonder why seeing a mouth silently form a naughty word was ever acceptable??
censorship in berkeley?
Many years ago I had a comic strip in Berkeley’s Daily Californian. It was censored repeatedly by the editorial staff – I came to see their (my term for it) ‘neo liberal behavior’ as, ‘We will fight to our dying breath to support your right to free speech – but – what do you have there? No, we can’t have any of that. Pull it.’
Would routinely find – three weeks later when the subscription copy showed up – they kept running this same stock strip over and over (And at the time, SPY magazine – probably the strip’s main influence – was doing so much more).
thinking
Most of it were ideas. They were actually cool with profanity (hardly used any). But . . . ideas are dangerous. Ideas change culture, challenge established systems, frighten a lot of people who have their world already figured out. People will die to keep others from changing what they believe is unquestionably true.
Sorry, in my world – things aren’t so black and white. Absolutes . . . not so absolute. And I like surprises. They’re fun.
And I like to be able to read whatever I wish to.
I know – it’s really a lot to ask.
book banning today: the map
Here’s a link to a Google map showing book bans and challenges throughout the United States. It is estimated that around 75-80% of actual incidents are not reported.
Google map: Book Bans and Challenges, 2007-09
Berlin memorial photo by flickr user gabesk, found via the Sophisticated Dorkiness blog; book stack photo found via USAToday
Wow! So many books I had no idea were banned or people tried to ban! Even “Kaffir Boy” was banned and I had to read that back in tenth grade history class.