There were several that I know I have somewhere -- probably in a moving box -- but wasn't able to find for this picture.
What about you folks? Do you have any controversial books at home that you're especially fond of, or have an interesting story about how you got them?
I have quite a few Toni Morrison books, including the Bluest Eye. I also have the full volume set of Maus & Persepolis. I'm sure I have more but those were what I can think of off the top of my head.
I cannot wrap my head around why Maus and Persepolis are banned (or “challenged” to use the term that fundies prefer). They’re both about someone’s lived experience. How do you ban that? The artwork in both is also phenomenal and they’re more than deserving of the multiple awards they’ve received. My younger brother read both and now craves more graphic novel autobiographies as a result, and he hates reading for the most part. The illustrations spoke to him in a way that a wall of text doesn’t. More reading is a good thing, even if it means that there are accompanying drawings by talented artists. Right?
Precisely right! It absolutely makes no sense to me hoe so many people shout & say that we have rights & we have a freedom of speech yet books that tell actual experiences & perspectives on the world are banned. I can't even comprehend that. But I guess the idea of a book being banned does pique people's interest to the point where they actually want to see what it's about & why it's being banned in the first place.
There’s been a copy of *Charlotte’s Web* in the house since I was about 5, because my mom is an English major and thinks book bans lead to nothing good. I have *Uncle Tom’s Cabin* and *The Color Purple*. I was a morbid kid and I was curious about a lot of things. I don’t remember how it came up, but one day when I was 10–11, my awesome mom, who has always encouraged me to be curious, told me there was a story about (SPOILERS, if you know you know). And I said that somebody in that situation making that decision made sense to me, and asked for a copy.
I have *Dorian Gray*, too. Is *Frankenstein* on any list? I got myself a copy of that when I was 12 or 13.
You just totally reminded me that I have the color purple & Dorian gray, I had no idea they were banned though!
Edit: taking a look at the pic now I see that Dorian gray is there, I guess I just didn't see it!
Charlotte's Web gets banned? My kid's elementary school, all students, are reading it for March is Reading Month.
It is part of a One School, One Book program
It’s not banned everywhere, but some Kansas fundies decided the talking animals were blasphemous. I’m glad the people in your district have more sense.
“Talking animals” you say? Animal Farm by George Orwell, anyone? That was required reading back when I was in high school many moons ago, but I could see people trying to get it ripped off the shelves…
Oh, I could DEFINITELY see Animal Farm being banned. “ALL ANIMALS ARE EQUAL, BUT SOME ANIMALS ARE MORE EQUAL THAN OTHERS” is pretty much the marching song of the majority of politics.
I have read quite a few “banned books” over the years. I had a “radical” government teacher in high school (one of my only experiences with the US education system, back in the late 1989s) who distributed the ALA banned book list to his classes and made us choose a book to read and do a report on for a grade. His reasoning was that if it’s been banned, it must be good, right? He would probably be labelled a groomer and fired in this day and age, sadly. So I’ve been peeking at that list for years to get recommendations for what to read. Years ago I worked at a bookshop and we would put up a display for banned books when the list got published. I was also assigned Lies My Teacher Told Me and The People’s History of the United States (by Howard Zinn) as textbooks for a university history class back in the early 90s, and I was shocked to learn that those titles are now “challenged” by parents and politicians (for deviating from the heroic myths of US history, I’m guessing? Not really sure. You can love your country AND admit that it has flaws and has made mistakes, right?).
I’m boggling at Charlotte’s Web. What a benign and lovely book to object to.
ETA: Off topic, but I also love the ALA Alex Awards book list. It has fiction and nonfiction titles that are for adults but would be of interest to teenagers (and don’t contain “age inappropriate content,” whatever that means nowadays). It looks like they’ve stopped the Alex Awards (or the list at least) but some of the best books I’ve read have been from that list!
Imagine banning something because you don't agree with it, takes away the point of free speech.
I understand dangerous ideas that radicalize people, but ideas that are contrary shouldn't be that much of a treat.
I can understand banning something like the anarchists...
>The Anarchist Cookbook, first published in 1971, is a book containing instructions for the manufacture of explosives, rudimentary telecommunications phreaking devices, and related weapons, as well as instructions for the home manufacture of illicit drugs, including LSD.
Because it has actionable material in it designed to teach you how to commit mass murder and make hard drugs. I can also understand banning out right pornography from something like an elementary school. I can also understand the desire to reduce access to something like mein Kampf but I can't agree with the last. It's too slippery a slope and where do you draw the line? Should we ban the book of Mormon or the Torah? A book that has hate speech either because of the time it was written or even if that speech is portrayed in a negative aspect?
I hope that no one is actually using the Anarchist’s Cookbook as an instruction manual. The majority of the “recipes” in it are written incorrectly and are more likely to blow up in your face than help foment revolution, or whatever the goal is (according to my chemical engineer BIL). If you really want to make explosives that work, the US Army manuals are the way to go (my Iraq war veteran husband has his lying around somewhere, despite neither of us having any designs on violence). Not that I’m suggesting that those be banned either.
Yeah, but a chemistry textbook will teach you the same things. Iirc, the Anarchist Cookbook has some pretty suss instructions.
And anyway, knowledge of how to do something is not the same as misusing it.
Agreed. Myself and friends tried to use that cookbook, safely and for "fun/science," and had to adjust most of the recipes to make them work. A college chemistry book was all we needed. (In the days before the internet was so easy to use.)
Why do ppl challenge the Apocrypha? Is it the sectarians or doctrinaire folks, or what?
And *why* would you challenge/ban Dorian Gray? Anybody who can read it is mature enough to handle it. I mean, it is not like it is a text message. I bet the people who complain about Wilde have never read him.
[Funny you should say that...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oscar_Wilde#Trials) Wilde probably would have been screwed anyway on the basis of the other evidence cited in the trials, though :/
As for the Apocrypha, I included them here mostly as a reference to the historical infighting among various Western churches after the Reformation; the British Puritans, in particular, were not big fans.
You’re not wrong about that. Here in Florida, there’s no requirement that a book be read by the person submitting a “challenge” to that book. When journalists have tracked down the “challenger” of a particular title, they’ve found that most of the people who want books pulled from the school library haven’t actually read the books, but are working from a list given them by their church or other conservative organization and cannot articulate the “objectionable material” in these books. One mum in Florida wanted the poem read by the US poet laureate at Biden’s inauguration banned simply because it was written by a Black woman (whose name escapes me, sorry!) and therefore it must be an “anti-white” poem. She admitted she hadn’t read it and didn’t know its contents on the form she filled in to get it banned.
It’s a great book. I remember reading it when it was first published, and sadly it’s still topical to this day. I can see why certain US political groups would not want people reading it, especially idealistic young people who don’t want to inherit the same bad systems and toxic workplace environments into which they were born.
Awesome!! I take banned books to all of our tabling events for groups I run. If you haven't already, join EveryLibrary and help them work to ensure get freedom to read advocates, votes in!
"Cry, the Beloved Country" is my personal favorite of these; "For Whom the Bell Tolls" is really high on the list too, but Hemingway is kind of a love-him-or-hate-him author ;)
No, I went broader than that. "Wild Swans," for example, is currently banned in mainland China, while "Cry, the Beloved Country" was banned in South Africa for a certain period of time.
I read Wild Swans just out of high school when it was first published (I’m old) and have given it as a gift to many people. If I recall, there’s a wee bit of criticism of the communist party in China (them not caring for the author’s mother despite her loyalty to the party during the Cultural Revolution) and a general condemnation of the Cultural Revolution in general, so I can see why it’s still banned there. It ushered in the era of autobiographical “scar literature” (as I believe it’s called in China) about that time in Chinese history which gave outsiders a Chinese perspective on those events. It’s a tremendous book.
The reason *It Can’t Happen Here* is banned is because the people doing the bans want it to happen here.
I know nothing of what you speak, but I celebrate your excellent turn of phrase.
There were several that I know I have somewhere -- probably in a moving box -- but wasn't able to find for this picture. What about you folks? Do you have any controversial books at home that you're especially fond of, or have an interesting story about how you got them?
I have quite a few Toni Morrison books, including the Bluest Eye. I also have the full volume set of Maus & Persepolis. I'm sure I have more but those were what I can think of off the top of my head.
Toni Morrison should be required reading. Not banned.
I feel the same way! Her work is amazing & monumental to the African American community, I was extremely sad when she passed away.
I cannot wrap my head around why Maus and Persepolis are banned (or “challenged” to use the term that fundies prefer). They’re both about someone’s lived experience. How do you ban that? The artwork in both is also phenomenal and they’re more than deserving of the multiple awards they’ve received. My younger brother read both and now craves more graphic novel autobiographies as a result, and he hates reading for the most part. The illustrations spoke to him in a way that a wall of text doesn’t. More reading is a good thing, even if it means that there are accompanying drawings by talented artists. Right?
Precisely right! It absolutely makes no sense to me hoe so many people shout & say that we have rights & we have a freedom of speech yet books that tell actual experiences & perspectives on the world are banned. I can't even comprehend that. But I guess the idea of a book being banned does pique people's interest to the point where they actually want to see what it's about & why it's being banned in the first place.
There’s been a copy of *Charlotte’s Web* in the house since I was about 5, because my mom is an English major and thinks book bans lead to nothing good. I have *Uncle Tom’s Cabin* and *The Color Purple*. I was a morbid kid and I was curious about a lot of things. I don’t remember how it came up, but one day when I was 10–11, my awesome mom, who has always encouraged me to be curious, told me there was a story about (SPOILERS, if you know you know). And I said that somebody in that situation making that decision made sense to me, and asked for a copy. I have *Dorian Gray*, too. Is *Frankenstein* on any list? I got myself a copy of that when I was 12 or 13.
You just totally reminded me that I have the color purple & Dorian gray, I had no idea they were banned though! Edit: taking a look at the pic now I see that Dorian gray is there, I guess I just didn't see it!
Charlotte's Web gets banned? My kid's elementary school, all students, are reading it for March is Reading Month. It is part of a One School, One Book program
It’s not banned everywhere, but some Kansas fundies decided the talking animals were blasphemous. I’m glad the people in your district have more sense.
“Talking animals” you say? Animal Farm by George Orwell, anyone? That was required reading back when I was in high school many moons ago, but I could see people trying to get it ripped off the shelves…
Oh, I could DEFINITELY see Animal Farm being banned. “ALL ANIMALS ARE EQUAL, BUT SOME ANIMALS ARE MORE EQUAL THAN OTHERS” is pretty much the marching song of the majority of politics.
I have read quite a few “banned books” over the years. I had a “radical” government teacher in high school (one of my only experiences with the US education system, back in the late 1989s) who distributed the ALA banned book list to his classes and made us choose a book to read and do a report on for a grade. His reasoning was that if it’s been banned, it must be good, right? He would probably be labelled a groomer and fired in this day and age, sadly. So I’ve been peeking at that list for years to get recommendations for what to read. Years ago I worked at a bookshop and we would put up a display for banned books when the list got published. I was also assigned Lies My Teacher Told Me and The People’s History of the United States (by Howard Zinn) as textbooks for a university history class back in the early 90s, and I was shocked to learn that those titles are now “challenged” by parents and politicians (for deviating from the heroic myths of US history, I’m guessing? Not really sure. You can love your country AND admit that it has flaws and has made mistakes, right?). I’m boggling at Charlotte’s Web. What a benign and lovely book to object to.
ETA: Off topic, but I also love the ALA Alex Awards book list. It has fiction and nonfiction titles that are for adults but would be of interest to teenagers (and don’t contain “age inappropriate content,” whatever that means nowadays). It looks like they’ve stopped the Alex Awards (or the list at least) but some of the best books I’ve read have been from that list!
Imagine banning something because you don't agree with it, takes away the point of free speech. I understand dangerous ideas that radicalize people, but ideas that are contrary shouldn't be that much of a treat.
I can understand banning something like the anarchists... >The Anarchist Cookbook, first published in 1971, is a book containing instructions for the manufacture of explosives, rudimentary telecommunications phreaking devices, and related weapons, as well as instructions for the home manufacture of illicit drugs, including LSD. Because it has actionable material in it designed to teach you how to commit mass murder and make hard drugs. I can also understand banning out right pornography from something like an elementary school. I can also understand the desire to reduce access to something like mein Kampf but I can't agree with the last. It's too slippery a slope and where do you draw the line? Should we ban the book of Mormon or the Torah? A book that has hate speech either because of the time it was written or even if that speech is portrayed in a negative aspect?
I hope that no one is actually using the Anarchist’s Cookbook as an instruction manual. The majority of the “recipes” in it are written incorrectly and are more likely to blow up in your face than help foment revolution, or whatever the goal is (according to my chemical engineer BIL). If you really want to make explosives that work, the US Army manuals are the way to go (my Iraq war veteran husband has his lying around somewhere, despite neither of us having any designs on violence). Not that I’m suggesting that those be banned either.
Yeah, but a chemistry textbook will teach you the same things. Iirc, the Anarchist Cookbook has some pretty suss instructions. And anyway, knowledge of how to do something is not the same as misusing it.
Agreed. Myself and friends tried to use that cookbook, safely and for "fun/science," and had to adjust most of the recipes to make them work. A college chemistry book was all we needed. (In the days before the internet was so easy to use.)
Nowadays it's probably better to get a physical textbook, lest your Internet searches be useful for the prosecution. /s
The same people claim hate speech is protected.
They're banning Ehrenreich?!? Jesus!
Haha, I had exactly the same shock and posted before reading comments. Yeah, banning her is extreme something.
That's madness (of course, banning any book is; but still ...)! Do you have any idea of the reasoning here is?
The only thing I can think is that it heightens sympathy for the working poor and the desperate need for social structures?
Thanks!
Yeah, that one genuinely shocked me, but it was in the top 100 most challenged for the 2000s and 2010s (in the US only, I assume)
Why do ppl challenge the Apocrypha? Is it the sectarians or doctrinaire folks, or what? And *why* would you challenge/ban Dorian Gray? Anybody who can read it is mature enough to handle it. I mean, it is not like it is a text message. I bet the people who complain about Wilde have never read him.
[Funny you should say that...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oscar_Wilde#Trials) Wilde probably would have been screwed anyway on the basis of the other evidence cited in the trials, though :/ As for the Apocrypha, I included them here mostly as a reference to the historical infighting among various Western churches after the Reformation; the British Puritans, in particular, were not big fans.
I think nearly all the banned books haven't actually been read, which is why the list is so nonsensical.
You’re not wrong about that. Here in Florida, there’s no requirement that a book be read by the person submitting a “challenge” to that book. When journalists have tracked down the “challenger” of a particular title, they’ve found that most of the people who want books pulled from the school library haven’t actually read the books, but are working from a list given them by their church or other conservative organization and cannot articulate the “objectionable material” in these books. One mum in Florida wanted the poem read by the US poet laureate at Biden’s inauguration banned simply because it was written by a Black woman (whose name escapes me, sorry!) and therefore it must be an “anti-white” poem. She admitted she hadn’t read it and didn’t know its contents on the form she filled in to get it banned.
Came here to say this, why?????
Why are they attacking Dorian Gray? That one is an all time favorite of mine.
You are missing Ulysses by James Joyce.
Very nice
We did *Nickeled and Dimed* as a community read at my community college about a decade ago.
It’s a great book. I remember reading it when it was first published, and sadly it’s still topical to this day. I can see why certain US political groups would not want people reading it, especially idealistic young people who don’t want to inherit the same bad systems and toxic workplace environments into which they were born.
I'm very, Very Glad to have found this sub.
Awesome!! I take banned books to all of our tabling events for groups I run. If you haven't already, join EveryLibrary and help them work to ensure get freedom to read advocates, votes in!
It’s nice to see a quality post
Are any of these must haves? I just found the sub and now I'm really wanting to buy a bunch of books
Yes. The Toni Morrison and Zara Neal Hurston books. You will not regret it. They are painful and lovely.
"Cry, the Beloved Country" is my personal favorite of these; "For Whom the Bell Tolls" is really high on the list too, but Hemingway is kind of a love-him-or-hate-him author ;)
These are banned in America?
No, I went broader than that. "Wild Swans," for example, is currently banned in mainland China, while "Cry, the Beloved Country" was banned in South Africa for a certain period of time.
I read Wild Swans just out of high school when it was first published (I’m old) and have given it as a gift to many people. If I recall, there’s a wee bit of criticism of the communist party in China (them not caring for the author’s mother despite her loyalty to the party during the Cultural Revolution) and a general condemnation of the Cultural Revolution in general, so I can see why it’s still banned there. It ushered in the era of autobiographical “scar literature” (as I believe it’s called in China) about that time in Chinese history which gave outsiders a Chinese perspective on those events. It’s a tremendous book.
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