OT: In Honor of Banned Books Week

The Bruce Bochy Guide to Player Development: 5 Years on the Pine

but Humble Pie’s 30 Days in the Hole applies as well.

The ’50’s must have been the most boring decade ever.

1. What banned books have you read?
I don’t know because I pay no attention to such things. Looking over the linked lists, not much: Flowers for Algernon, by Daniel Keyes (what in Heaven could be bannable there?); James and the Giant Peach, by Roald Dahl (same question); Brave New World, by Aldous Huxley; Slaughterhouse-Five, by Kurt Vonnegut; the Mark Twains, but only as a small child; "His Dark Materials: (series), by Philip Pullman; Fahrenheit 451, by Ray Bradbury. As you see, mostly speculative fiction.

2. What’s your favorite>
Most of them were pretty blah. The only one I’d recommend to anyone is Flowers for Algernon, though I suppose Mark Twain is de rigeur.

3. And what books should be banned?
“Banning” here seems to apply only to books for schoolchildren, since nothing else that doesn’t affront the now rather loose definitions of pornography can be “banned” for adult readers. I suppose that there are levels of evolving maturity in which certain books might be inappropriate as containing material that a child of that age could not properly interpret intellectually or emotionally, but I don’t think one can lay down general strictures: cases need to be judged individually.

I further suppose that in essence one doesn’t want to frighten children with unreal things that they might mistake for a depiction of reality, nor want to present them with highly biased viewpoints before they are likely to have the discernment to recognize the biases as what they are, nor present them with painful emotional entanglements beyond their experience or capability to comprehend.

Unless there’s an ultra-difficult version where everyone is nude, I can’t imagine why this would be on the list.

How does this list still exist anywhere outside of the Red State quadrant in 2011 ? Oh that’s right, we are currently in a theocratic war within the United States. A war that encourages the spiritually challenged to suppress information and ideas that would encourage intellectual discourse.

I just don’t understand how the belief that restricting access to ideas and thought has ever been a good thing for anyone but ruthless dictators or the plutocratic elite. How about we just provide information from different viewpoints that would encourage the critical thinking that is needed to promote active solutions to the moral and intellectual black hole that public and political discussions have become. I guess I should just watch Dancing with the Stars and shut up.

Did I miss the newsletter that made independent thought subversive ?

/ old man rant off

Apologies, I must have been channeling some jcb9 rage. I know it’s Friday and I should be relaxed and happy, but it’s been a tough week. To the list(s), I have read:
Harry Potter, Of Mice and Men, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn,The Color Purple, Go Ask Alice, Catcher in the Rye, To Kill A Mockingbird, Snow Falling on Cedars, Slaughterhouse-Five, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, The Kite Runner,A Time to Kill, Fahrenheit 451,The Lovely Bones,The Handmaid’s Tale, Cujo and the other listed Stephen King titles, Brave New World, The Anarchist Cookbook, Lord of the Flies, Pillars of the Earth, Jumper, That Was Then, This is Now.

I have seen film adaptations of some of the other titles listed.

I just glanced at that list quickly, but I was pretty shocked to see “To Kill a Mockingbird” on there. Honestly, who would possibly want to ban that? I really don’t even understand what could make someone think that’s ban-worthy.

Banned books I’ve read:
Harry Potter, Of Mice and Men, His Dark Materials, I Know why the Caged Bird Sings, Captain Underpants (I used to LOVE that series), Huck Finn, Catcher in the Rye, To Kill a Mockingbird, Bridge to Terabithia, Brave New World, Slaughterhouse Five, One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest, A Time to Kill, Fahrenheit 451 (the most ironic banned book ever), Goosebumps, Are You There God, It’s Me, Margaret, James and the Giant Peach, A Light in the Attic, Lord of the Flies, Where’s Waldo (lol), Tom Sawyer

Books I reccomend:
I’m a big fan of dystopian novels, so I love Brave New World, Slaughterhouse Five, and Fahrenheit 451. His Dark Materials is awesome as well. To Kill a Mockingbird is amazing, and I love One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest (and the movie adaptation is also great). If you even want a good cry, read Bridge to Terabithia.

I don’t think that any books short of books that explicitly encourage violence (e.g. Mein Kampf) should be banned, even for children. The First Amendment is there for a reason – if you start banning books, for whatever reason, people will start finding more excuses to ban more books. ‘Oh, this offends me, take it down’. What if Government had the same power over free speech? Political rallies of an opposing position to the government in power would be ‘banned’, and democracy would cease to exist. It startles me that we still have book bannings and consider ourselves a free country.

that school systems ban books because they might have a ‘bad" influence on some youngster’s development, but no one’s willing to ban ultra-violent video games that are the entertainment of choice for kids the same age.

Are there any books that have been banned for sucking too much?