fREADom of Information
With the economy in shambles and the election as depressing as usual, I thought I’d try to lighten the mood a bit by reminding people about Literary Censorship, and the attempts of narrow minded people to suppress materials from public libraries.
Yes that’s right, it’s time for Banned Books Week, September 27 to October 4, 2008. The American Library Association has a lot of great background material on Banned Books Week, as well their annual list of most frequently challenged books from last year. (A challenge is when someone formally requests that a book be banned/removed from a library)
So do yourself, your community, and the world a favor this week: read a banned (or challenged) book; buy your children a banned book and talk to them about the issues of censorship and why that particular book scares people; visit your local library and make a donation, ask the librarians how they deal with attempts to ban books and if there is anything you can do to help preserve intellectual freedom.
September 28th, 2008 at 2:33 pm
My goodness! Banning books? How shocking that anyone would even dream that such a thing would happen in the Western World! Why if any newbie tin horn governor of a small population state would be harassing Librarians about banning books, why that would just be so wrong, wouldn’t you think?
;-)
I recall my mother ringing me up a while back about some heathen atheist written children’s story that the Catholic League sent out a email hategram that called it “a book fit for burning!” That book? The Golden Compass. About a fantasy world of fantasy talking animals with a evil fantasy god that the fantasy good characters eventually destroy. Oh. That book! I sent my mother back a picture of it already on my son’s shelf. fyi, I also read it before he did and didn’t find anything unusual about it. Other than that it was considered good enough to be made into a movie.