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Banned book reading

SFG75

SFG75

Well-Known Member
Anyone up for reading banned books? I'm about to make an amazon purchase, just curious if folks wanted to pick a book and discuss it for a month or two. I'd prefer to stay away from Animal Farm and the Waldo book. Anyone game? If not, that's fine. I'll pick one and post in this thread 5,000 times.

A list of banned books

2nd list of banned books
 
I'm in the middle of reading Uncle Tom's Cabin now. So I'm up for that discussion. Stowe has some good passages, like when Tom realizes he'll be sold from his babies and Eliza's flight across the Ohio River.
 
Personally I thought Black Beauty being banned was pretty funny...I've read it...its pretty good...I can totally understand most of the books being banned there were a few I would read.
 
Woo-hoo!

Fantasy Moon said:
I'm in the middle of reading Uncle Tom's Cabin now. So I'm up for that discussion. Stowe has some good passages, like when Tom realizes he'll be sold from his babies and Eliza's flight across the Ohio River.
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You know, that is arguably one of the most important and influential books written in 19th century America. I'm ashamed to say that I haven't read it. Huckleberry Finn gets a lot of attention, and rightly so. However, Stowe's book deserves some honor. Just ordered it tonight.

Uncle Tom's Cabin it is :D

Also purchased What's Eating Gilbert Grape? if anyone is interested in discussing it.
 
A Light in the Attic

"Banned because parents believed a scene in the book encouraged children to break dishes to avoid washing them."

I'm surprised the same parents did not object to The Cat in the Hat and Peter Rabbit. Lots of rebellion and bad acting in both of them. The children went along with the cat's antics, as he set a very bad example for them. Peter entered forbidden territory and was only sorry that he almost got caught, not that he ate the lettuce.
 
silverseason said:
"Banned because parents believed a scene in the book encouraged children to break dishes to avoid washing them."

I'm surprised the same parents did not object to The Cat in the Hat and Peter Rabbit. Lots of rebellion and bad acting in both of them. The children went along with the cat's antics, as he set a very bad example for them. Peter entered forbidden territory and was only sorry that he almost got caught, not that he ate the lettuce.
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I got that book as a gift when I was 9 or 10, perhaps a few years younger, I can't remember exactly now that I think about it.:eek: I absolutely loved A Light in the Attic. The poems were just silly as could be, no harm in them.
 
I read Uncle Tom's Cabin several years ago. I didn't read it because it was on a list of banned books. I read it because I wanted to read for myself the book that was instrumental to the Abolitionist movement.
 
Have you seen a series of children's books published by Usborne Books? They're wonderful, with titles for just about every school subject, to suit every age/grade level. Homes schoolers love them. But a lot of folks spend a lot of time helping others figure out how to handle the one bothersome factor with this series: the occassional nude figure in the history books. Rather than take a few minutes to point out to the kids the cultural aspects of the nudity shown, they say to just put a sticker over it! We are not talking about lewd nudes here.. Thees figures are often a naked child running around in the background, or a picture showing dress styles in Ancient Crete or Egypt..

That said.. bring on the banned books!
 
That's just weird. I suppose that those folks don't read National Geographic either.
 
By whom have these books been banned, and why? Animal Farm - why would anyone want to ban that? (ignoring the obvious old-school hard-line Communists like Vladimir call me Dobby Putin)
 
PhilW said:
By whom have these books been banned, and why? Animal Farm - why would anyone want to ban that? (ignoring the obvious old-school hard-line Communists like Vladimir call me Dobby Putin)
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From what I found on the web, it was banned in Malaysia due to religious reasons, post-war Germany by the allies, not to mention in the Soviet Union for obvious reasons.:D In recent news, it has come out that MI-5 spied on Orwell.:eek:
 
PhilW said:
By whom have these books been banned, and why? Animal Farm - why would anyone want to ban that? (ignoring the obvious old-school hard-line Communists like Vladimir call me Dobby Putin)
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I was going to say that maybe some people thought that talking animals would be blasphemous but according to the wiki article on Animal Farm:

During World War II it became apparent to Orwell that anti-Russian literature was not something which most major publishing houses would touch — including his regular publisher Gollancz. One publisher he sought to sell his book but rejected it on the grounds of government advice — although the assumed civil servant who gave the order was later found to be a Soviet spy.

Orwell originally prepared a preface which complains about British government suppression of his book, self-imposed British self-censorship and how the British people were suppressing criticism of the USSR, their World War II ally. "The sinister fact about literary censorship in England is that it is largely voluntary. ... [Things are] kept right out of the British press, not because the Government intervened but because of a general tacit agreement that ‘it wouldn’t do’ to mention that particular fact." Somewhat ironically, the preface itself was censored and is not published with most copies of the book.
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SFG75 and Sparkchaser - I thank you!

And I don't care what anyone says - you never see Vladimir Putin and Dobby the house elf in the same room...
 
Animal Farm

PhilW said:
By whom have these books been banned, and why? Animal Farm - why would anyone want to ban that?
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As others have commented, Orwell had a hard time getting his book published. One excuse was the shortage of paper at the time, a real problem apparently, and a motivation to bring out inspiring and morale-building works.

One of the editors who rejected it was T. S. Eliot who said he could not see the point of the book. Since the pigs seemed to be bad element in the book, he suggested that the answer was better, more enlightened pigs.
 
Forbidden Library has a lot of interesting tidbits.

1984 . George Orwell. Challenged in the Jackson County, Fla. (1981) because the novel is "pro-communist and contained explicit sexual matter."
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Well, yeah. Because the society portrayed in 1984 is so incredibly tempting that kids will want to emulate it.
 
SFG75 said:
You know, that is arguably one of the most important and influential books written in 19th century America. I'm ashamed to say that I haven't read it. Huckleberry Finn gets a lot of attention, and rightly so. However, Stowe's book deserves some honor. Just ordered it tonight.

Uncle Tom's Cabin it is :D
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Excellent! I look forward to discussing it with someone else while reading! :)
 
I "read" Uncle Tom's Cabin in like grade 4. I remember not understanding it. I just ordered it from the library though, I'll join in.
 
I'll head down to my college's library and grab Uncle Tom's Cabin when I get the chance, that I may join in as well.
 
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