Banned Book Week!

[Sea Thrift]

Anyone got a favorite book that's been banned, challenged, and/or censored at some point (or presently)? Let's celebrate the freedom to read whatever the hell we want! Hooray!  

[Taeryyn]

I didn't think any of my favourites have been banned, challenged, or censored. On the other hand, considering the trivial things that the pearl-clutching "think of the children!" types get hysterical about, I suspect they would have an apoplexy if they read some of my favourites. razz

Then I found this list of books that have been challenged here in Canada. It looks like race, religion, and homosexuality are the subjects that are particularly touchy, judging by the books on the list. (Not that that's surprising, of course.)

I've read a number of them over the years. A Clockwork Orange, Go Ask Alice, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Goosebumps (really??), Macleans magazine (really?!), The Golden Compass, The Handmaid's Tale, Harry Potter...
Even the Bible is on the list.

Kind of ironic that someone wants to censor the Handmaid's Tale, considering the plot of the book. Rather like censoring 1984, or Farenheit 451.  

[Sea Thrift]

Taeryyn

One surprising ban I found was Little Red Riding Hood. The Bros. Grimm version.

Don't get me wrong, though; I'm very aware of the sexual undertones of this story. However, in comparison to France's oral version, The Grandmother, Grimm's version is TAME. At least their version has a happy ending (in comparison to Perrault's, which doesn't), albeit a mysogynistic one that only infantilizes women. (But then again, it was written in the nineteenth century where single women were legally considered children within their household.) France's version doesn't hide its undertones: sex, lies, cannibalism, slut-shaming, and of course--some scatological humor. At least in that version, the young woman uses her wit to get away all by herself.  

[Taeryyn]

Sea Thrift

I've read the Grimm version, but now I'd like to get my hands on a transcription of the French version (in the original language, if possible). Sounds interesting!


I just don't understand the mentality associated with banning or censoring books. I've read books that I found distasteful, but it never occurred to me, "Hey, this is awful. No one else should read this." There's a YA book that a friend suggested I read (unfortunately, the title and author are escaping me at the moment) primarily because she found it so incredibly disturbing. I would not be surprised to hear it had been challenged or even banned.

It's told from the first-person perspective of a young girl who was abducted as a child by a sexual predator, and it was really difficult to get through. sweatdrop Still, I would never argue that it should be banned.  

[Sea Thrift]

Taeryyn

French oral tale, The Grandmother
There ya go. It's number five in the contents, but it's in English.

People like to dictate others according to their own morals. That's why some people like to ban and censor books, even if those people are strangers. It's not just unconstitutional, but wrong. Like what Oscar Wilde suggested, books are not obligated to be moral or immoral. Either a book is written badly or well. That's it. Sure, we can judge books by their contents and how they relate to us and the authors. And we can certainly say whether a book is good or bad because of how it's written. But to take it further by keeping others from reading a book partly or entirely is not only pretentious, but outright presumptuous.