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The Official Book Censorship Thread

Peder, I know your views don't always agree with those of others - mine included - but that doesn't mean that you should apologize for stating your opinion. Especially as this is a discussion board...meant to allow people to post their individual opinions and respond to those of other board members. Also, it might be that people sometimes respond strongly to you because you sometimes apologize beforehand - maybe that's just me.
This was my little soap box moment. :flowers:

I don't know enough about the subject of banning books in schools, mainly because Dutch schools operate differently: there it is mostly up to the teachers to decide on which books will make it to the reading list.
 
Polly Parrot said:
Peder, I know your views don't always agree with those of others - mine included - but that doesn't mean that you should apologize for stating your opinion. Especially as this is a discussion board...meant to allow people to post their individual opinions and respond to those of other board members.
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Polly,
I agree with what you say and I am glad to see you say it. However, practice often deviates from the ideal in one respect that I have noticed. I have often received personal attacks in response to thoughts of mine that some other person disagreed with. Some people seem to be personally offended when they hear something that is different from what they themselves believe to be so, and they respond personally. And that goes way back to my early days in this forum. So, I try to be careful what I say, even if it turns out, as you say, that my views are often different. I try to stay on topic and hope others will too. In my experience, directing remarks at people has seldom led to any good, for the people involved or for the forum.
Maybe this isn't exactly a wise thing to say here, but it is the one chance I'll have to exxpress my thoughts, so I'll take it.
 
You don't have to explain yourself Peder. Your desire to not wrestle in the mud may annoy others, but so be it. The discussion is going good, it has substantially improved from post #121.
 
Thanks SFG,
Well, let's hope that the road is smooth from here on -- at least until the next misunderstanding or conflict.
Regards:flowers:
 
Ma Jian protest paints the London Book Fair red | Books | guardian.co.uk

Beijing Coma author daubs paint over himself before branding Chinese publishers 'mouthpiece of the Chinese communist party'

In a dramatic act of protest at this week's London Book Fair, Chinese author Ma Jian smeared red paint across his face to demonstrate his anger at the choice of China as the event's "market focus".

It was the latest development in the row over the British Council's collaboration with China's General Administration of Press and Publications (Gapp). Critics have attacked China's record on censorship and selection of authors invited to London.

Ma, whose novel Beijing Coma is banned in his native country, said he had been "manhandled" when he tried to give a copy of the book to Liu Binjie, the head of Gapp, at the fair. Daubing a red cross over a copy of the book and on his own face, he declared that no Chinese writer has freedom of speech.

The incarcerated Nobel laureate Liu Xiaobo should have been among the authors invited, he said, calling the 180 Chinese publishers present at the fair "the mouthpiece of the Chinese communist party".

"In this book fair that looks so modern, so impressive, so beautiful, you will not see the ugly reality that lies behind, you will not see the Tibetan lamas who have set fire to themselves, you will not hear the voices of the writers who are persecuted in China," said Ma. The situation was "a dishonour to the values that make western civilisation so strong," he added.
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Banned Novelist Ma Jian Speaks at Independent Cultural Event Criticizing London Book Fair - YouTube
 
Peder said:
The more usual sort of thing, again, but with a difference:

'Coarse language' and violence top list of UK parents' complaints about books | Books | guardian.co.uk
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Wow. Ali Baba and The Nutcracker too scary; no wonder our world is in such a mess. We've all been warped by such terrible tales. I also don't understand the uproar over books like the Tintin series. Yes, they contain stereotypes, but those are representations of what some people thought at the time the books were written. They are also comic books..not exactly real life. But these are the same folks who would toss Huck Finn for racist language. Better to read the books and talk about whatever people find disturbing. I wonder what these people think kids are supposed to read. From my experience, there isn't any title that would not offend somebody somewhere.
 
To be fair, Tintin In The Congo isn't just stereotypical but pretty outright racist, by the standards of that or any time. Hergé himself denounced it later on. I'm not saying it should be banned because of it, quite the contrary, but neither should it be defended anymore than we defend, say, Birth Of A Nation.

There's an excellent essay by China Mieville on it here:

When Did Bigotry Get So Needy? | Racialicious - the intersection of race and pop culture
 
beer good said:
To be fair, Tintin In The Congo isn't just stereotypical but pretty outright racist, by the standards of that or any time. Hergé himself denounced it later on. I'm not saying it should be banned because of it, quite the contrary, but neither should it be defended anymore than we defend, say, Birth Of A Nation.

There's an excellent essay by China Mieville on it here:

When Did Bigotry Get So Needy? | Racialicious - the intersection of race and pop culture
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There was a short while where Tintin was encouraged in the home school community to encourage boys to read, since it was hard to find good boy-centered stories. Even so, they mentioned the biases of the writer and warned us we might want to discuss those issues with our kids if we used the books. Personally, if I were to use these books with my sons, we'd read them together and discuss the biases. Same with Little Black Sambo..although I wish I could find the Little Golden Book edition I had as a child. That Sambo was East Indian and was represented as being very clever. I didn't know about the African version til I was grown. Having seen an old copy of that version, I can certainly see why it bothered folks.
 
abecedarian said:
Same with Little Black Sambo..although I wish I could find the Little Golden Book edition I had as a child. That Sambo was East Indian and was represented as being very clever. I didn't know about the African version til I was grown. Having seen an old copy of that version, I can certainly see why it bothered folks.
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Same here, when I was a child, back in the stone age, it was the East Indian version. Quite wonderful.
 
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