Banned Books discussion

I read an interesting book on reading groups(called 'the reading group handbook' by Rachel W. Jacobsohn), and this is a list of books that are frequently attacked considered dangerous and or banned in some communities. I found this shocking.

The adventures of tom sawyer
sleeping beauty
tarzan of the apes
I know why the caged bird sings
just so stories
the mayo of casterbrudge
my house
catch-22
flowers for algeron
a raisin in the sun
the bible
doctor zhivago
of time and the river
all the king;s men
catcher in the rye
the colour purple
of mice and men
one hundred years of solitude
the handmaids tale
grendel
lord of the flies
death of a salesmen
a farewell to arms
fear of flying
where the sidewalk ends
sophie's choice
working
gone with the wind

Is anyone else upset with what a narrow minded world we live in???

Absolutely. And I am proud to say that I have almost all of these books in my classroom library.

Check out this site: Delete Censorship

It has documented censorship/banned books cases, polls to vote for your favorite banned books, links to the American Library Association lists, information about Banned Book Week, and a lot more. A good reference site overall. :-)

Sleeping Beauty? Really? I have to say, that rather surprises me. Or are we not talking of the Disney version?

I hate to say I've only read two or three of the books on the list, but there are many on that list that float around in the back of my head as books to look for sometime when I'm in the library or a bookstore.

And I am very upset with our narrow-minded world.

What do all these books have in common? They make you think. And that's the point, isn't it? People who believe in banning books don't want us to think for ourselves. They want us to get in line, follow, say yes, and otherwise give up our innate desire to question the world around us. That's why this list doesn't surprise me in the least.

Sleeping Beauty ------> Date rape
(she's clearly passed out, the apple was roofied, he paid the witch)

Good theory....EXCEPT...there is no apple in Sleeping Beauty. That would be Snow White. However, there is a witch/fairy/magic person (whatever) in the story which could be the reason for the ban...all the sorcery??

I wasn't aware until yesterday that a Texas jail refused to allow a prisoner to obtain a copy of Roberto Bolaño's brilliant The Savage Detectives, recently translated into English and very positively reviewed by all the voice boxes of the bourgeoisie. The excuse was that it would inhibit the man's ability to correct himself in their fine correctional facility. They were probably right!

Wow, egg all over myface...but there is still the unrequested smooching of an unconscious lady, right? I mean, so it was a spinning needle instead of an apple...the prince poisoned the needle, even more direct link...lala, but I imagine your (more relevant) theory is probably close...

Definitely two unconscious ladies. :-) But, knowing how some people think (by taking giant leaps), your theories might contain some truths.

Maybe the ban comes from the feminist vote? Submissive, helpless women relying on a man to 'save them'....meanwhile all the 'women of power' (i.e. the witch, stepmother, fairy/sorcerer) are portrayed as evil. Hmmmm.

Actually, I was thinking the same thing (though I hate to acknowledge that kind of...intellectual prudery (?)...In a movement that I've grown to so respect)...anyway, I can see how a well meaning feminist would want to shield later generations from the coding in that type of story...but why not snow white then? Why not cinderella? (where a woman becomes 'successful' by being obedient and nonassertive and hoping, one day, for a man to save her. All essentially the same story i think, if you do the power balance sheets along male/female lines.

Where the Sidewalk Ends? Could someone explain THAT one to me?

Scary list by the way...

Nikki-

Where the Sidewalk Ends by Shel Silverstein was challenged at the West Allis-West Milwaukee, Wisconsin school libraries (1986) because the book "suggests drug use, the occult, suicide, death, violence, disrespect for the truth, disrespect for legitimate authority, rebellion against parents." It was challenged at the Central Columbia District in Bloomsburg, Pennsylvania (1993) because a poem entitled "Dreadful" talks about how "someone ate a baby." (Source: deletecensorship.org)

Nated-

I have no idea. Maybe they weren't successful with the others? Poor Snow White...staying home to clean up after all those men while they are at work. For shame. :-) Don't forget about the spindle in Sleeping Beauty. Maybe it is a further symbol of female oppression?

There are so many crazy ways to read into these stories/books that the rational mind just hates to go there...

According to deletecensorship.org: Sleeping Beauty was challenged by a Tennessee school district on the grounds that it promotes magic and witchcraft.

Gotta love 'The Bible Belt.'

I still think the feminist theory is funnier. :-)

Sweet. I knew it! :-)

I've never heard of a feminist group wanting to ban a book, certainly they might condemn the message but I am almost certain it was a religious issue with Sleeping Beauty-- something about magic... it's so often a religious issue... for some reason many many people who are fundamentalist in their faith (and i mean all faiths.. not just Christian) seem to feel that everybody else should have to live without anything that might be a temptation to them.

Personally having been raised by devout Christians and retaining the faith myself.. I've never felt so insecure in my faith as to need to censor myself much.. not mention needing to censor everyone else.
If I was inclined to say my kid can not read something I would simply tell them "no" it's amazing how it works.. you say "no" and the kid has a fit or doesn't and life goes on.

If I wasn't able to manage to read Sleeping Beauty without suddenly feeling the need to try out magic I'd have to question my own character rather than try to get the book removed from the library shelves.

"James and the Giant Peach" and "A Light in the Attic," wonder why those are bands. Two of my all time faves are banned books (a clockwork orange and perks of being a wallflower."

James and the Giant Peach by Roald Dahl- was challenged at the Deep Creek Elementary School in Charlotte Harbor, Florida (1991) because it is "not appropriate reading material for young children." It was challenged at the Pederson Elementary School in Altoona, Wisconsin (1991) and at the Morton Elementary School Library in Brooksville, Florida (1992) because the book contains the word "ass" and "promotes" the use of drugs and whiskey. Dahl's book was also removed from classrooms in Stafford County, Virginia schools (1995) and placed in restricted access in the library because the story contained "crude language" and "encourages children to disobey their parents and other adults."

A Light in the Attic by Shel Silverstein- was challenged at the Cunningham Elementary School in Beloit, Wisconsin (1985) because the book "encourages children to break dishes so they won't have to dry them." Removed from Minot, North Dakota public school libraries when the superintendent found "suggestive illustrations." Challenged at the Big Bend Elementary School Library in Mukwonago, Wisconsin (1986) because some of Silverstein's poems "glorified Satan, suicide and cannibalism, and also encouraged children to be disobedient."

(Source: deletecensorship.org)

James and the Giant Peach: Huh. Turns out that escaping child abuse is disobedient? Marvelous.

A Light In The Attic: Breaking dishes? Scandalous. I can see how that ranks right up there on the serious danger scale.

A boycott and a ban are COMPLETELY different. With a boycott, you are chosing not to read a book in hopes of raising awareness and influencing others not to. With a ban, you are dictating what others have available to experience.

So, inclosing, NOW did NOT ban a book.

This list is insane. I have a feeling that the people who ban these books probably have not read the books. It's kind of like groups (mostly religious but not all) that want to ban books like the Harry Potter series and "The Golden Compass." Most of the time, they haven't even read the book but have merely gone off of what they've heard about the book. It's crazy.

If you got a pair of scales and on one side put all the books that feminists have banned and on the other all the books by feminists that have been banned... There's no need to finish that sentence, is there?

Feminism doesn't need to ban stories, it is much more effective when it reframes stories so we can see them anew or uses them as examples. Banning would be simply counter-productive.

One day Feminism will be as self-evident as the fact that all men are created equal - and not through any sort of ban.

This may be old news but...

Have you heard the controversy about The Higher Power of Lucky (2007 Winner of the Newbery Medal)? Apparently a lot of parents and school administrators are all worked up over the word scrotum on the first page. How ridiculous! That is the proper term for that area of the male genitalia. I cannot believe people are censoring and banning books that use proper medical terminology!! Just crazy.

I'd just like to know what term the parents are teaching their kids to use for that body part!

I did hear about the whole "scrotum" uproar and agree that it was completely ridiculous. However, working in a school district where we are not allowed to talk about anything related to sex-ed (even as our students are getting pregnant in record numbers), I can't say I'm all that surprised.

My guess on why Sleeping Beauty is banned: homosexual content and/or magic

In a recent class my professor made a far-out but interesting argument that sleeping beauty warns girls away from lesbian activities. A girl her age should not be alone with any non-family member so being alone with the old women spinning in the tower was seen as a sexual transgression with another woman. Also she gets "pricked" by the woman. Not to mention that the woman is of a different class than sleeping beauty. My professor went into far more detail but that's the gist of it. Honestly I think you really have to be reaching to read it this way but that seems to be the story on how a lot of books get banned.
My other guess is the fact that there is magic within the fairy tale. That seems to very often get books banned.

Where the sidewalk ends? God forbid a kid break a plate to get out of dishes. That one really cracks me up!

"James and the Giant Peach by Roald Dahl- was challenged at the Deep Creek Elementary School in Charlotte Harbor, Florida (1991) because it is "not appropriate reading material for young children." It was challenged at the Pederson Elementary School in Altoona, Wisconsin (1991) and at the Morton Elementary School Library in Brooksville, Florida (1992) because the book contains the word "ass" and "promotes" the use of drugs and whiskey. Dahl's book was also removed from classrooms in Stafford County, Virginia schools (1995) and placed in restricted access in the library because the story contained "crude language" and "encourages children to disobey their parents and other adults."

Crap. I'm from Stafford country Virginia! - Where all pornography is terribly illegal. The state is as red as can be and we have zero tolerance on all alcohol related matters.

In fourth grade I was suspended from my private Christian school on fredericksburg, VA for showing another student a line in a Judt Blume book where the girl says ". . . Class asshole." and was told it was the same as having sworn myself.

When speaking of Shel Silverstein let us not forget that he was the original cartoonist for Playboy Magazine.

JD-I did not know that! Fascinating...

One of my sixth graders asked me if that was true one time, and I told him that it was, so all of a sudden Shel Silverstein was cool again. I told them that he also wrote songs for Dr. Hook and the Medecine Show, but that was lost on them.

Just to clarify, because I'm neurotic sometimes, Silverstein wasn't THE original cartoonist for Playboy, he was ONE of several, some who came before him (most notably Jack Cole, also known for Plastic Man).

I think that it should be noted that Tom Sawyer wasn't banned (originally) because of it's language or racism; it was banned because of how Tom acted toward adults

I'm just so amazed at this list of banned/attacked books. I had no idea. My mother never banned anything from us, as long as we were reading and not in front of the TV she didn't care. She figured it we could get it at the local library it must be ok. I can't imagine ever banning a book from my daughter, and this list IS shocking. Some of those were mandatory reading in my highschool.

I also wanted to add, regarding the banning of sleeping beauty, I do believe it could be a religious issue. A friend of mine refuses to let her daughter watch anything with fairies, witches, or magic. She thinks it will lead to witchcraft and evil.

LMAO...I just look through the list of banned books and their reasons. I have no words. I'm in tears laughing that they banned Where's Waldo. It's ok to have topless women on commercials, magazines, and every beach in europe, but a tiny little imagine in Where's Waldo. Who the hell found that anyway?

I want to read every book on that list for no reason other than someone tried to ban it.

i agree, it is a reflection of '1984' where what the proles are allowed to ingest only the things deemed 'appropriate' by the administration. i was appalled to see in the 'why censored' listing, that 2 teachers who received approval from the school superintendent were fired for distributing the books which had become banned, after the fact- in the 90's no less! also startling was that a lot of the books on the banned list either relate to homosexuality, contemplating sexuality before marriage, slavery, things depressing- such as the holocaust (!), futurism books about government control/censorship, books relating to religion in an 'improper light', books which encourage children to challenge themselves or others in a non-conventional way.

But, The Bible?

Why? Wha?

How can History/ Literature be taught with out it?

I am new here! I was excited to find this group.

I hate the people who ban books and have made it my goal to make sure my children read the banned books and try to teach them to be open minded.

The difficult bit about the Bible is how to teach it- as a piece of literature or as a holy text. Some religious people wig out if it's taught as "just another book" and some non-(or other)religious folk wig out if it's taught as "Truth". It's hard to stand on the fence when a person has strong opinions on the matter, and the Bible is one of those things people get touchy about. Sometimes it's safer just to avoid it. Then there's the issue of which version of the Bible is it? Whose translation? Which books? (which may or may not be in other versions)...

Kat Is that why the Bible is banned? When I took Humanities in College we had to read Job and of course had class discussions on it. But I don't get why it's banned.

A lot of the other books on ALA's list and other websites still blow my mind. The Pigman, The Outsiders.

I am from South America and we had a theology class as part of our High School Curriculum, we did study some of the books from the Bible, parts of the Torah and other Religious cornerstone books and that was so beneficial for us to understand each other and other cultures.

I recently purchased Shel Silverstein's Where the Sidewalk Ends for my son as it was one of my favorites as a child. I was surprised to find that the poem titled "the gypsies are coming" was changed to "the googies are coming." Were there that many offended gypsies out there complaining about the negative stereotype or what?

I find it interesting that people say a book promotes an activity just because someone in the book does the activity. One of the major ways to discuss ethical issues in a book is for someone to do the unethical and then watch the fallout.

At one point or another these books were banned for clashing with/ upsetting political or social norms of their time.

I think a book that has been banned indicates that there is definitely something that book can teach us as a society. I'm happy to say I have read quite a few of the books listed here. Narrow-minded people NEED books like this to broaden their horizons a bit.

Kelly wrote: "I find it interesting that people say a book promotes an activity just because someone in the book does the activity. One of the major ways to discuss ethical issues in a book is for someone to do ..."

And, honestly, many of the individuals who strive to ban certain books because they supposedly contain immoral activities etc. are from the Religious Right. However, if you follow their logic, then one of the main books that should be banned (not, but I'm playing Devil's Advocate here) is the Holy Bible (it contains a plethora of horrible actions and events, from sex with animals to wanton cruelty).

WHAT?! Half of those books shouldn't be on that list!

None of those books should be on that list. That list shouldn't exist.

Kelly wrote: "None of those books should be on that list. That list shouldn't exist."

Agreed!!

Sorry, I haven't read all of the posts yet, so I don't know if this question was answered or not yet, but I am willing to bet the version of Sleeping Beauty that was banned is Anne Rice's version, written under a pen name- A.N. Roquelaure. In these books, Sleeping Beauty is NOT woken up by 'just' a kiss. They are pretty explicit erotica that contain some bondage, S/m etc. (if my sources are correct, cuz I haven't read them myself). So, it's been banned for extreme sexual content. I imagine these are targeted when other erotica aren't as much because Anne Rice is a very well known author that many young people read and because Sleeping Beauty is a fairy tale that many people are familiar with, and that would attract a younger reading audience.