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Grex > Books > #76: Have You Read Any Banned Books Lately? | |
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bruin
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Have You Read Any Banned Books Lately?
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Sep 30 23:46 UTC 1998 |
I have entered this item to continue the discussion on banned books in Fall
1998 Agora's Announcement item. Hope we can pick up the dialogue on this
subject.
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| 25 responses total. |
mcnally
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response 1 of 25:
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Oct 1 05:40 UTC 1998 |
I recently started "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn." The choice
was coincidental, it had nothing to do with the banned books item in
Agora, it's just one of those great works of American literature that
I've always meant to read (which is not to say that there aren't a
great many "great works of American literature" that I have no intention
of *ever* reading, banned or unbanned.) I like Twain, have read much
of his other work, but somehow never read Tom Sawyer or Huck Finn.
The mania for banning books is one to which America has always been
susceptible. Still, Anthony Comstock would be proud to know that his
spirit is alive and well at the end of the 20th century..
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punky
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response 2 of 25:
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Oct 7 19:50 UTC 1998 |
I feel it is foolishness to ban books.
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omni
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response 3 of 25:
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Oct 8 17:44 UTC 1998 |
Yeah, but try telling that to the PC crowd who wants to save everyone from
themselves. No one enjoys total freedom of the press in this country, and it's
a real shame.
Every banned book is a chink in the armor of our freedom. Take away Huck
Finn one month, next thing you know The Bible is on the banned list, then
we begin burning things, and limiting what can and cannot be posted to the
Internet and places like Grex. Defy the book banners. This is how Hitler got
started.
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kentn
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response 4 of 25:
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Oct 9 03:27 UTC 1998 |
Don't you just want to go out and see what the banning is all about?
In America, at least, banning a book is probably the worst thing you can
do to keep people from reading it, thank goodness. "Congress shall make
no law..." well...city councils, public libraries, and public schools,
aren't Congress, unfortunately. Not that the Constitution stops Congress
from trying to abridge freedom of speech and of the press. They will
not get the point until they themselves can no longer speek freely.
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jazz
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response 5 of 25:
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Oct 9 15:39 UTC 1998 |
No, losing the Great War is what allowed Hitler to get started. :P
The best way to prevent something from being seen in this economy
is to create a slicker, more advertised, but noticeably different version
of it.
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mcnally
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response 6 of 25:
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Oct 10 06:04 UTC 1998 |
re #3: As far as I can tell the Bible is the last thing most of the
pro-banning folks would like to restrict. There are two main camps of
would-be censors, one which is very conservative and religious and its
opposite which is interested in restricting books which are not politically
correct. As far as I can tell the former camp still substantially
outnumbers the latter, not that I find either one acceptable..
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orinoco
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response 7 of 25:
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Oct 11 16:54 UTC 1998 |
I think the most recent banned book or ex-banned book or whatever that I read
was "I know why the caged bird sings". Which was quite a while ago. Then
again, I'm not really up on what's been banned and what hasn't.
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lilmo
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response 8 of 25:
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Jun 4 00:15 UTC 1999 |
Re resp:4 - Ah, but the 14th Amendment applies the Bill-of-Rights
restrictions to the states, too. If a community wants to express its standards
by not stocking a particular book in its public or school libraries, I think
that that is within their rights. If a group of private citizens wishes to try
to convince their fellow citizens to do so, then that is within their rights,
too. Now, if they want to tell private booksellers that they may not stock a
particular book, that's a different story.
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bookworm
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response 9 of 25:
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Jun 4 17:08 UTC 1999 |
If I had time, I would read all banned books.
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jazz
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response 10 of 25:
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Jun 4 21:36 UTC 1999 |
The restriction is on states and the Federal government, but isn't
against the spirit, if not the letter, of the law, for a community to refuse
to stock a book that others wish to read or wish to donate?
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bookworm
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response 11 of 25:
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Jun 11 22:40 UTC 1999 |
If they restrict the stocking of a book, the customer may still request the
book. If the seller wishes to keep the customer's business, it will offer to
order the book for the customer. Still, the customer must know exactly which
book to ask for.
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lilmo
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response 12 of 25:
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Jun 12 19:30 UTC 1999 |
Re resp:10 - I think that a stronger case could be made for that in
reference to public libraries than to school libraries. Again, they would not
be prohibiting the (presumably) protected speech, but expressing their local
community standards by not condoning it in the publicly controlled forum. If
they tried to prevent a speech by a disapproved person, or prohibit sale or
distribution of the writings thereof, again, that would clearly be a violation
of free-speech rights.
I think that a state would be too big to be considered a "local community"
in this sense, but a town or city would not be. Am I making any sense?
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bookworm
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response 13 of 25:
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Jun 14 02:38 UTC 1999 |
I!tel losttoy
if we
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mcnally
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response 14 of 25:
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Jun 15 22:13 UTC 1999 |
I keep reading "losttoy" as "tolstoy".. guess I'm in the right place,
anyway..
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bookworm
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response 15 of 25:
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Jun 19 02:11 UTC 1999 |
Sorry, I got interrupted and forgot I was shelled to respond.
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orinoco
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response 16 of 25:
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Jun 22 16:37 UTC 1999 |
Wait - lilmo, are you saying that public libraries should have more freedom
in refusing to stock books than school libraries should? That seems kind of
illogical. There are plenty of books that belong in any public library that
I wouldn't dream of putting in an elementary school library...or am I
mis-reading #12?
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