Banned Books Week 2016

[la_samtyr]

I love reading banned books. Some of my favorite books are banned books. :)

Obviously, there are a few exceptions to this but you probably already know them. (I mean seriously? If you tell me how great a certain book series is, I will no doubt ask you if you have maggots in your brain or something equally kind and charitable. [vbeg])

Here is plenty of food for thought. The list is under the cut and excerpted from the following article:
http:// time.com /4505713/ banned-books-week-reasons-change/

Here’s a look at how things have changed in the past 15 years:

Most-challenged books of 2001:

1. Harry Potter, by J.K. Rowling
Reasons: anti-family, occult/Satanism, religious viewpoint, violence
2. Of Mice and Men, by John Steinbeck
Reasons: offensive language, racism, unsuited to age group, violence
3. The Chocolate War, by Robert Cormier
Reasons: offensive language, sexually explicit, unsuited to age group, violence
4. I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, by Maya Angelou
Reasons: offensive language, sexually explicit
5. Summer of My German Soldier, by Bette Greene
Reasons: offensive language, racism, sexually explicit
6. The Catcher in the Rye, by J.D. Salinger
Reasons: offensive language, unsuited to age group
7. Alice (series), by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor
Reasons: sexually explicit, unsuited to age group
8. Go Ask Alice, by Anonymous
Reasons: drugs, offensive language, sexually explicit
9. Fallen Angels, by Walter Dean Myers
Reason: offensive language
10. Blood and Chocolate, by Annette Curtis Klause
Reasons: sexually explicit, unsuited to age group

Most-challenged books of 2015:

1. Looking for Alaska, by John Green
Reasons: Offensive language, sexually explicit, and unsuited for age group.
2. Fifty Shades of Grey, by E. L. James
Reasons: Sexually explicit, unsuited to age group, and other (“poorly written,” “concerns that a group of teenagers will want to try it”).
3. I Am Jazz, by Jessica Herthel and Jazz Jennings
Reasons: Inaccurate, homosexuality, sex education, religious viewpoint, and unsuited for age group.
4. Beyond Magenta: Transgender Teens Speak Out, by Susan Kuklin
Reasons: Anti-family, offensive language, homosexuality, sex education, political viewpoint, religious viewpoint, unsuited for age group, and other (“wants to remove from collection to ward off complaints”).
5. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, by Mark Haddon
Reasons: Offensive language, religious viewpoint, unsuited for age group, and other (“profanity and atheism”).
6. The Holy Bible
Reasons: Religious viewpoint.
7. Fun Home, by Alison Bechdel
Reasons: Violence and other (“graphic images”).
8. Habibi, by Craig Thompson
Reasons: Nudity, sexually explicit, and unsuited for age group.
9. Nasreen’s Secret School: A True Story from Afghanistan, by Jeanette Winter
Reasons: Religious viewpoint, unsuited to age group, and violence.
10. Two Boys Kissing, by David Levithan
Reasons: Homosexuality and other (“condones public displays of affection”).

But the recent backlash challenges have not been limited to conservatives: the Bible is on the top 10 list for 2015, in part because of concerns about why a book that argues for the murder of homosexuals (as in Leviticus) would be in a public library. Opposition like this comes from “people that are just questioning in a larger sense what is the appropriate role of religion in our society,” LaRue says.

Over time, some books lose their opponents—the Harry Potter series, for instance, were the most-challenged books from 2000 to 2009, but have since fallen off the top 10 list. “There was a period there where Harry Potter was [considered] a Satanist and a cult, and people were doing book cuttings and book burnings,” LaRue says. “And now if you read people that are kind of on the right side of the religious spectrum, their kids love the Harry Potter books, so sometimes the things that we’re convinced are signs that the end is nigh are completely normalized in five years.”

Comments

[engarian.livejournal.com]

How interesting the way the book lists have changed in only 15 years. I'm not sure I like the direction banning seems to be going, but then again, it's also showing that more books are becoming main-stream enough to make the list where before, books on homosexuality, transgender growth, and "non-conformist" relationships wouldn't have been widely enough distributed to even make a blip on the radar.

There is growth I'm seeing here, co-existing with head-in-the-sand hiding.

- Erulisse (one L)

[chaotic-binky.livejournal.com]

Trying to ban books on religious viewpoint grounds is stupid and unachievable - as are the other reasons for banning books, simply because society and culture is dynamic and moves ever onwards. Taken to a logical standpoint why don't they ban cookery books with meat recipes because it might offend vegans lol

I feel it's all down to a lack of tolerance for any viewpoint but the beholder. Happily, free speech prevails, for now at least. Not sure if the US will have such a thing if you know who gets in!