What to Read When You Want to Read an “Uncomfortable” Book
Authors whose works have been challenged or banned give recommendations on other “uncomfortable” books that will make you a better person for having read them.
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Posts Tagged: banned books
The Past and Present of Banned Books
‘Banned books’ sounds like a thing of the past. But over at Lit Hub, Amy Brady details the ways that the fight against censorship continues in libraries and schools today: If school administrators are attempting to limit even elective reading, what does the future hold for students who want access to all books, classic and […]
...moreLiberal Censorship
In May, Portland’s school board voted to ban textbooks that questioned the severity and human causes of climate change, drawing criticism not only from the right, but from free-speech advocates as well: “Social studies texts accurately describing the political debate around fossil fuels and climate change, for instance, would presumably contain comments from individuals who […]
...moreAll About Banned Books
Americans love banning books, and the winners of this year’s most banned books have been announced by the American Library Association. John Green’s young adult novel Looking for Alaska takes the top spot, keeping Green in the top ten. He was joined this year by the Bible. Other big winners on the top ten list […]
...moreRussia’s Clandestine Censorship
In Soviet-era Russia, publishers had dedicated censors responsible for approving printed material. Many things were prohibited, and the rules were clear. In modern Russia, ostensibly censorship is banned, but complex laws and ambiguous threats have made contemporary publishers far more conservative. Over at The Intercept, Masha Gessen takes a look at how Putin has successfully censored […]
...moreBut Is It Dangerous?
Adolf Hitler’s Mein Kampf has recently become legal to publish and sell in Germany for the first time since World War II. What place does this volume hold in our collective world history? And should it be regarded as a dangerous book? The New Yorker explores.
...moreGOP Candidate Would Censor Free Speech at Universities
Tenured professors might soon be a thing of the past, and that could prove particularly frightening if one Republican presidential candidate gets a hold of the Department of Education. Tenure protections were created in order to foster original thinking on university campuses and protect academic researchers from censorship. But a Ben Carson presidency would see […]
...moreHappy Banned Books Week!
The point is not to rank inflammatory books like game highlights. It’s to remind readers that information hasn’t always been free, and that we have librarians to thank for its freedom. Huffington Post’s Maddie Crum explores why we celebrate Banned Books Week in America, and takes a look at freedom of information and the librarians […]
...moreBooks Win!
For Slate, Ruth Graham suggests that improved access to books and a decline in censorship has turned Banned Books Week into “crock”. So “instead of hand-wringing about a nonexistent wave of censorship,” Graham encourages readers to think about the week with some positivity and celebrate that “books won.”
...moreAgency President Defends New Zealand Book Ban
Last week, New Zealand banned the novel Into the River, the country’s first ban in over twenty years. The country’s Film and Literature Board of Review banned the sale and distribution of the award winning book. Now, Don Mathieson, president of the agency, has spoken out to defend the decision, claiming the ban was in the […]
...moreNew Zealand Just Banned a Book: A Rumpus Roundup
New Zealand, an otherwise seemingly modern nation, has just banned a book. Ted Dawe’s Into the River was banned this week in the island nation where it is now a crime to supply, display, or distribute the book with fines starting at $3,000. In 2013, the New Zealand Post named Into the River the Book of the […]
...moreNot All Books Are Right for All People
The Captain Underpants series has topped banned book lists around the world. Dav Pilkey, the author of the popular children’s books, explains what it feels like to have written a famous banned book: People often ask me how I’d want to respond to those critics who would rather see my books pulled from shelves than handed to […]
...moreScarlett Johannson Fails to Ban French Novel
A French novel by Grégoire Delacourt featuring a character who looks like Scarlett Johannson will be translated and published in the UK next month. In The First Thing You See, a French mechanic meets a woman who he thinks is Scarlett Johansson, but she merely looks like the famous actress. Gawker reports that the real Johannson […]
...moreWhat You Can Read at the Guantánamo Bay Detainee Library
Prisoners held at Guantánamo Bay have access to 18,000 books in 18 different languages, including Arabic translations of King Lear, Anna Karenina, and Stephen King thrillers. But books deemed critical of the US government, including Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin, Noam Chomsky’s Interventions, and various John Grisham novels, are banned. Over at The Kenyon […]
...moreThe Most Banned Books
Every year, the American Library Association releases a list of the top banned books in the country. But how do you determine which book is the most banned? The statisticians at FiveThirtyEight attempted to figure out exactly which book earned the crowning achievement of most banned book ever. The trouble, they found, is that even the most […]
...moreWe Shall Not Ban Comics in English Class!
Recently, Tara Shultz, a college student at Crafton Hills College, expressed her shock and disgust at the “pornographic and violent” content in the selection of graphic novels (Sandman by Neil Gaiman, Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi) used in her English class and called upon the university to excise the texts from the curriculum. Thankfully, it seems like […]
...moreAlways Part-Time
Over at KUOW, Sherman Alexie chats about why The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian just can’t stop getting banned.
...moreDon’t Read That Book
The history of banning books is almost as old as book themselves. Now Electric Literature has featured an infographic from Printerinks.com exploring that history, beginning with the Bible in 1440 and leading up to The Da Vinci Code in 2003.
...moreThis Filthy Stuff
The New Republic has re-published a 1930 interview with a government censor, and it provides an interesting look into the mindset of the man charged with keeping “pollution” out of the hands of “innocent” New Englanders: Why, sometimes it’s the contact of innocence with this filthy stuff that sinks a boy into foul habits for […]
...moreSecret Locker Library Distributes Banned Books
A student at a Catholic high school has been running a secret library out of her locker distributing banned books to fellow students. The student, identified by online handle Nekochan, was incensed when The Catcher in the Rye appeared on a list of prohibited books.
...moreBanned Books Week to Highlight Graphic Novels
This year’s annual Banned Books Week—a celebration of books that have been banned—will target graphic novels, those picture-filled narratives better known as comic books. And that’s exactly why Banned Books Week is taking a special interest in comics this year, as Comic Book Legal Defense Fund executive director Charles Brownstein explained to Library Journal: For […]
...morePolice Called on Teens Giving Away Banned Book
After Sherman Alexie’s novel The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian was banned by an Idaho school district, a crowdsourced funding effort bought a book for every kid in the local junior high school. Nearly all of the books were given away to students, reports Death and Taxes, but not before overly concerned parents […]
...moreDo Not Discuss List Draws Attention to Banned Books
Reddit’s Do Not Discuss List was revealed as an April Fools’ Day prank by the forum moderators. They planned the fake ban partly to draw attention to actually-banned books.
...moreReddit’s Do Not Discuss List
The books subgroup on Reddit, the famously libertarian-leaning message board, has planned a ban on discussion of several popular books. Many of the titles have been banned previously in the real world. Claiming “good discussion is stifled by repetition,” the ban is set to go into place on April Fools Day, leaving community members to […]
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The Rumpus Interview with Matt de la Peña
Novelist Matt de la Peña chats about his love for multicultural literature, the revision process, and how his 2010 book, Mexican WhiteBoy, came to be banned from schools.
...moreInvisible Man Gets A Little More Invisible
The Raw Story’s Arturo Garcia reports that Ralph Ellison’s novel Invisible Man has been banned from school libraries and reading lists in Randolph County, North Carolina. After a parent decried the book as “not so innocent,” the school board voted 5–2 to ban it, declaring it “a hard read” without “any literary value.” How wonderful that […]
...moreWhen Banning a Book Is Good
Novelist Dennis Miller was participating in a panel discussion about censorship at Mansfield University’s campus library, when he joked that his book should be banned: “It has sex, violence, and adult language.” Library director Scott DiMarco’s response? Done and done. Find out why a librarian committed to free speech would ban a book in DiMarco’s […]
...moreBook Smuggling
Writers and activists are setting up an underground library in Tucson, Arizona. The librotraficante movement is an effort to expose Tucson students to the collection of books banned when the school district suspended its Mexican-American studies program. “The word librotraficante shouldn’t exist in America…You shouldn’t have to smuggle books.” (Via Book Bench)
...moreArizona Bans Books
Arizona has found the Tuscon Unifed School District’s Mexican American studies program in violation of a ruling that prohibits courses and classes that ‘promote the overthrow of the United States government, promote resentment toward a race or class of people, are designed primarily for pupils of a particular ethnic group or advocate ethnic solidarity instead […]
...moreAmerica’s Most Challenged Books
The American Library Association’s 2010 List of Most Challenged Books has been officially released. This year’s scandalous subject matter includes penguin adoption, vampire love and topics in Aldous Huxley’s classic novel, Brave New World.
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