30 YEARS OF BANNING BOOKS
Oct. 3rd, 2012 11:31 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
defrogI should mention that it’s Banned Book Week in the US again. It’s the 30th anniversary, in fact.
If yr not sure why it matters in the 21st Century when print is dead, everything’s available on Amazon and every bookshop in the civilized world is carrying the 50 Shades Of Grey series, my thoughts on this are here.
Speaking of 50 Shades, it’s interesting that regardless of the literary merit of those books, they’ve brought erotic literature to the forefront of the discussion on book censorship. After all, censors have never approved of the sexybooks, from Marquis de Sade and The Story Of O to Lady Chatterly’s Lover and the compleat works of Henry Miller and Anais Nin.
So it’s nice that the National Coalition Against Censorship and Comic Book Legal Defense Fund staged an open reading of erotic lit. It probably won’t convince the usual suspects from trying to ban naughty books from library shelves, but it’s the thought that counts.
Meanwhile, if you’d like to know the Top 10 Banned Books of 2012 so far, HuffPo has an infographic for you, which also tracks the number of book challenges in the last 30 years.
As far as this year’s most challenged books, all I can add is that – given my tendency to try and read as many “banned” books as I can out of spite – I’m fast running out of excuses to read The Hunger Games.
Granted, I’m not going to be picking up an installment of Gossip Girls any time soon. But still …
Reading what I ain’t supposed to,
This is dF
If yr not sure why it matters in the 21st Century when print is dead, everything’s available on Amazon and every bookshop in the civilized world is carrying the 50 Shades Of Grey series, my thoughts on this are here.
Speaking of 50 Shades, it’s interesting that regardless of the literary merit of those books, they’ve brought erotic literature to the forefront of the discussion on book censorship. After all, censors have never approved of the sexybooks, from Marquis de Sade and The Story Of O to Lady Chatterly’s Lover and the compleat works of Henry Miller and Anais Nin.
So it’s nice that the National Coalition Against Censorship and Comic Book Legal Defense Fund staged an open reading of erotic lit. It probably won’t convince the usual suspects from trying to ban naughty books from library shelves, but it’s the thought that counts.
Meanwhile, if you’d like to know the Top 10 Banned Books of 2012 so far, HuffPo has an infographic for you, which also tracks the number of book challenges in the last 30 years.
As far as this year’s most challenged books, all I can add is that – given my tendency to try and read as many “banned” books as I can out of spite – I’m fast running out of excuses to read The Hunger Games.
Granted, I’m not going to be picking up an installment of Gossip Girls any time soon. But still …
Reading what I ain’t supposed to,
This is dF
