"Censorship in the U.S. is an old passtime and new hobby of the feebleminded"

medjay

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"Censorship in the U.S. is an old passtime and new hobby of the feebleminded"

After participating in that "Boondocks" thread I began wondering just how many books, films, recordings etc that have been attacked and banned over the years actually deserved it. Logically I'd say zero but of course I haven't seen everything. Are there really any works of art that a rational-minded person feels ought not to be seen? I can't think of a single one.

Also, just for kicks, here's a list of the most commonly banned books of the last decade or so. . .


A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess
A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle
Annie on My Mind by Nancy Garden
As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner
Blubber by Judy Blume
Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
Bridge to Terabithia by Katherine Paterson
Canterbury Tales by Chaucer
Carrie by Stephen King
Catch-22 by Joseph Heller
Christine by Stephen King
Confessions by Jean-Jacques Rousseau
Cujo by Stephen King
Curses, Hexes, and Spells by Daniel Cohen
Daddy's Roommate by Michael Willhoite
Day No Pigs Would Die by Robert Peck
Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller
Decameron by Boccaccio
East of Eden by John Steinbeck
Fallen Angels by Walter Myers
Fanny Hill (Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure) by John Cleland
Flowers For Algernon by Daniel Keyes
Forever by Judy Blume
Grendel by John Champlin Gardner
Halloween ABC by Eve Merriam
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone by J.K. Rowling
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets by J.K. Rowling
Harry Potter and the Prizoner of Azkaban by J.K. Rowling
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire by J.K. Rowling
Have to Go by Robert Munsch
Heather Has Two Mommies by Leslea Newman
How to Eat Fried Worms by Thomas Rockwell
Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou
Impressions edited by Jack Booth
In the Night Kitchen by Maurice Sendak
It's Okay if You Don't Love Me by Norma Klein
James and the Giant Peach by Roald Dahl
Lady Chatterley's Lover by D.H. Lawrence
Leaves of Grass by Walt Whitman
Little Red Riding Hood by Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm
Lord of the Flies by William Golding
Love is One of the Choices by Norma Klein
Lysistrata by Aristophanes
More Scary Stories in the Dark by Alvin Schwartz
My Brother Sam Is Dead by James Lincoln Collier and Christopher Collier
My House by Nikki Giovanni
My Friend Flicka by Mary O'Hara
Night Chills by Dean Koontz
Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck
On My Honor by Marion Dane Bauer
One Day in The Life of Ivan Denisovich by Alexander Solzhenitsyn
One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest by Ken Kesey
One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Ordinary People by Judith Guest
Our Bodies, Ourselves by Boston Women's Health Collective
Prince of Tides by Pat Conroy
Revolting Rhymes by Roald Dahl
Scary Stories 3: More Tales to Chill Your Bones by Alvin Schwartz
Scary Stories in the Dark by Alvin Schwartz
Separate Peace by John Knowles
Silas Marner by George Eliot
Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.
Tarzan of the Apes by Edgar Rice Burroughs
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain
The Bastard by John Jakes
The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger
The Chocolate War by Robert Cormier
The Color Purple by Alice Walker
The Devil's Alternative by Frederick Forsyth
The Figure in the Shadows by John Bellairs
The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck
The Great Gilly Hopkins by Katherine Paterson
The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood
The Headless Cupid by Zilpha Snyder
The Learning Tree by Gordon Parks
The Living Bible by William C. Bower
The Merchant of Venice by William Shakespeare
The New Teenage Body Book by Kathy McCoy and Charles Wibbelsman
The Pigman by Paul Zindel
The Seduction of Peter S. by Lawrence Sanders
The Shining by Stephen King
The Witches by Roald Dahl
The Witches of Worm by Zilpha Snyder
Then Again, Maybe I Won't by Judy Blume
To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee
Twelfth Night by William Shakespeare
Webster's Ninth New Collegiate Dictionary by the Merriam-Webster Editorial Staff
Witches, Pumpkins, and Grinning Ghosts: The Story of the Halloween Symbols by Edna Barth
 
I'd say that even if I personally felt something deserved to be banned, it still shouldn't actually be banned.
 
Angel said:
I'd say that even if I personally felt something deserved to be banned, it still shouldn't actually be banned.

But is there anything you personally feel needs to be banned?

I'm curious as to what sorts of things would actually get under people's skin to such a degree.
 
medjay said:
But is there anything you personally feel needs to be banned?

I'm curious as to what sorts of things would actually get under people's skin to such a degree.

No.

But most people think things they disagree with or personally find distasteful or offensive should be banned.

I don't.

I don't care if the KKK starts selling children's racist fairy tails, or Bob the Child Molester writes a book on how he diddled the boy next door.

Nobody is making me buy it.
 
Disney still won't release "Song of the South" on DVD which they did on VHS (out of print now)

DVD is a better format for this movie, because they can add additional materials to inform people of the context in which it was released and people's impressions of it.
 
I can and do censor what my kids read to a degree, but as much as I'd want it to be for good, it'd come back and bite me in the ass.
 
Angel said:
But most people think things they disagree with or personally find distasteful or offensive should be banned.

And that's what doesn't make any sense. Because the minute you express your disagreement with such material you immediately draw attention to it, thus defeating your own purpose. I could never understand how people fail to realize this.
 
It seems redundant when people want to ban documentaries about Nazi Germany, who were one of the largest proponents of censorship in history.
 
Countess DeWinter said:
I can and do censor what my kids read to a degree, but as much as I'd want it to be for good, it'd come back and bite me in the ass.

Thats different. Soon as your kids turn 18 you can't censor them anymore.
 
I think stupidity should be banned.
But I'm fighting a losing battle.
 
MCunnilinguist said:
It seems redundant when people want to ban documentaries about Nazi Germany, who were one of the largest proponents of censorship in history.
Don't you mean hypocritical?
 
None should be banned.

But I think that what you're looking at is "local" options.

If you turn to some other area's you'll find a whole different category of books/films banned or boycoted.

Bring up the list of banned books/films for China or Iran or a few other countries and we look positively libertine.

Even old Europe has their lists of banned books and films.

It's not an American invention or export.

Funny the way that works too. It's like prohibition. You can ban it, but you can't do a damn thing about availability. You just increase curiosity and inflate the price. Drugs are another good example. <shrug>

Ishmael
 
Countess DeWinter said:
I can and do censor what my kids read to a degree, but as much as I'd want it to be for good, it'd come back and bite me in the ass.

What sort of things would you like to have censored "for good"? And why? What sort of reading material exists that could possibly be that detrimental?
 
plasmaball said:
Thats different. Soon as your kids turn 18 you can't censor them anymore.

Quite true...and only a very little time left to that! But by that time, they're better able to handle difficult concepts and subjects.

I don't want to censor, per se, just hold some things back until they're more ready for them.
 
medjay said:
What sort of things would you like to have censored "for good"? And why? What sort of reading material exists that could possibly be that detrimental?

Not every kid is ready for every subject at young ages. Just like we don't let kids under 18 here...as they get older and mature, they're ready for more and more stuff.
 
Countess DeWinter said:
Not every kid is ready for every subject at young ages. Just like we don't let kids under 18 here...as they get older and mature, they're ready for more and more stuff.

But that's just parenting, not real censorship.
 
Countess DeWinter said:
Quite true...and only a very little time left to that! But by that time, they're better able to handle difficult concepts and subjects.

I don't want to censor, per se, just hold some things back until they're more ready for them.

As most parents would like to have happen. BUT not letting thm do/or read something. you are more likely for them to do it without your knowledge.
 
Countess DeWinter said:
Not every kid is ready for every subject at young ages. Just like we don't let kids under 18 here...as they get older and mature, they're ready for more and more stuff.

That's still vague. I'm looking for some actual titles here.
 
Countess DeWinter said:
Not every kid is ready for every subject at young ages. Just like we don't let kids under 18 here...as they get older and mature, they're ready for more and more stuff.


I dunno. My dad let us(I my bro and sister) swear all the time as kids. BUT We could oly do it in the house.

He also in the car said:

Ok before we get here(forget where we were going) you can scream all the swears you want. We were in the car and nobody could hear us.
So there we are 3 kids swearing off left and right.
After that we really didn't swear that much anymore,but we also knew not to do it in certain places.

you can't be a dictator to your kids.
 
plasmaball said:
As most parents would like to have happen. BUT not letting thm do/or read something. you are more likely for them to do it without your knowledge.

Not only that . . . Unless it's a collection of Penthouse Letters or something there's no logical reason why a kid should not be able to read as much stuff as he can get his hands on. If they're old enough to understand the written language as presented in a book without pictures then they should be ready to tackle any concept included within.
 
plasmaball said:
you can't be a dictator to your kids.

Don't try. But I do parent them. Even when they're 16 as they are now, they still want things that aren't good for them. And even if I suspect or even know they're going to "do it anyways" it's still my responsibility to set limits and boundaries.

Titles...I would probably not let my 12 year old daughter read "Forever" by Judy Blume. That would be more appropriate when she was 15 or 16.

I would discourage my 14 year old from reading the Koran. I'd be more willing if she were older and less new in her own faith. And before you flame me for that, don't. It's a waste of typing.
 
If a title were to be censored, then how could I read a title that you objected to, in order to see if I felt the same way? Don't ban titles, but voice your objections and why so that others may make informed choices.
 
Countess DeWinter said:


I would discourage my 14 year old from reading the Koran. I'd be more willing if she were older and less new in her own faith. And before you flame me for that, don't. It's a waste of typing.

would you b the same way if she wanted to read the Bible?
 
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