Sinister: book banning

[James Gilmer]

>Someone posted that as late as the 1980s books were being banned in this
>country.  Try as late as Oct. 18th 1999.

    To those who corrected the terminology angle. Yes, *banning* no longer
exists in the sense that books become illegal and possesion is a crime.
However, there is still a congressional list of books that for lack of a
better term is called the banned books list. This is the list I was
refearing to, in the sense that a list existed started by a goverment
sponsered agency to investigate appropriate reading material. This list is
meant as a guide as to what books may be *dangerous* for children and others
to read and has in the past included Huck Finn, James and the Giant Peach,
Alice in Wonderland, the Bible for a short time, and so on. It existed as
late as the 1980's and I've been told an *advisory* list and panel still
exists as a congressional sub-sub-panel somewhere. Also, many churches and
evangelical organizations have these types of lists. Also, it's not all
christians doing the banning, Many groups try to supprese what they don't
like. I'll use and example: last year a childrens book called Nappy Hair or
somesuch was boycotted because of a precieved racism. The book was highly
reguarded by many teachers and children as having a positive message about
being oneself and it was boycotted and removed from a school because a
person who hadn't read it assumed a racist intent. It went so far that the
teacher who read the book to her class faced disciplinary actions as a
result. Thankfully they were all cleared when the book was reviewed by
parents and found to be not racist in the slightest.
    Talking to one of the local librarians I've found that many of the
town's library books like Catcher in the Rye, and magazines like Cosmo (sex
articles and the like) are routinly vandilized. The fellow who owns the
local bookstore tells me that at least once a day someone complains about
his stores content and demands he remove things like D&D games, Buddist
texts, science fiction, etc.

     Beyond all that, let's try not to start a mudslinging contest between
countries, okay? The taboos and censorship that exists in different
countries all suck. Sure, Clockwork Orange may be banned in London (is it?)
but Dogma was effectivly banned for awile because Kevin Smith couldn't get
anyone to release it thanks to possible backlash from christians. As Steve
mentioned banning ( or suppresion, or taking out of circulation, or whatever
nomenclature you use) exists everywhere in America and other countries to
certain degrees, and what gets banned depends largely on what cultural mores
are present in what area. - Jim

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