26 ms·

What? There are a shit load of books banned for being "offensive" that aren't because of graphic displays of sexuality. The perks of being a wallflower has bee

What? There are a shit load of books banned for being "offensive" that aren't because of graphic displays of sexuality. The perks of being a wallflower has been banned. 13 reasons why. Slaughterhouse 5. The Decameron. Uncle Tom's Cabin. The Grapes of Wrath. Do I need to keep going? The sexual nonsense has been used recently to ban lgbt books, as if queer kids aren't a thing that exists.

soulofmischief 2y ago
Every single one of the books you listed were suggested to me by a teacher. It often felt like some of my teachers latched onto my strong ethical stances and continual disregard for the brand of institutional authoritarianism common in the Deep South, and felt compelled to nurture it. Of course, it goes both ways. Plenty of teachers fixated on the idea of breaking me and making me fall in line. By middle school I had over 50 write-ups, a few suspensions, and had been subject to corporal punishment (literal State violence) mainly for "willful disobedience", a derogatory term which always confused me because I felt it positively described exactly what I was doing. In middle school, that number exploded as some authoritarian teachers became fixated on forcing me to adhere to school uniforms or demanding that I stood and participated in the cult-like Pledge of Allegiance, attempting to embarrass me in front of the class or to get my guardians to whip and punish me at home. Public school was a battleground for the future of our society. It felt like 99% of people at the time simply didn't understand that. The few teachers who "saw" me and did what they could to help me navigate my abusive and restrictive home life became the most important people in the world to me, and I owe everything to them.
- losergotabused 2y ago
  [flagged]
lurk2 2y ago
Where have these books been banned?
- Loughla 2y ago
  Inside the United States. Wikipedia has a complete collection of titles that have been banned.
  - lurk2 2y ago
    > Inside the United States. Show me one that was banned at the federal or state level from being either owned, read, possessed, transmitted, and / or sold. This is what an ordinary person understands when you say that a book has been banned. I know you don’t have any examples of this occurring in the United States or you would have offered up specific examples. > Wikipedia has a complete collection of titles that have been banned. No it doesn’t.
    - Loughla 2y ago
      1. Keep moving the goal posts. But all of those books were banned by either a state or the federal government at one point. Keep moving the goal posts. I can kick harder. 2.https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_books_banned_by_governments https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_books_banned_by_gove...
      - lurk2 2y ago
        > 1. Keep moving the goal posts. No goal posts have been moved. No common person understands the word "ban" to mean "removed from circulation by a school district." > 2.https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_books_banned_by_gove https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_books_banned_by_gove... Of the 19 books listed here, The Meritorious Price of Our Redemption (1650) is the only one that fits, and it was banned 375 years ago. Of the remaining 18 books: 7 were banned from US mailing and transport across state lines under the Federal Anti-Obscenity Act of 1873. This notably includes Geoffrey Chaucer's Canterbury Tales. Note that the laws which permitted these bans were overturned in 1959. 1 (Uncle Tom's Cabin) was banned by the Confederate States of America. 1 (Elmer Gantry) was banned in around half-a-dozen US cities (I do not care to investigate what these bans entailed). It looks like this one may have also fell under the Anti-Obscenity Act. 1 (The Grapes of Wrath) was ostensibly banned in "many places in the US" and the state of California (the citation for this one has no link). 1 (Forever Amber) is listed as being banned in fourteen states in the US, but the first citation listed seems to imply that it was banned under the Anti-Obscenity Act. The second citation is an independent article which does not even specify what states the book was banned in, nor what these bans entailed. 1 (Memoirs of Hecate County) is listed as having been banned in New York by the Supreme Court, but again, the citation does not specify what this ban entailed. It also strongly implies that the boot would have fallen under obscenity laws. 1 (Howl) was seized by the San Francisco customs authority as obscenity, but these charges were later dismissed. 1 (Naked Lunch) was banned in Massachusetts for obscenity. 1 (Pedagogy of the Oppressed) was "banned" from Tucson Arizona public schools, but the citation listed does not mention what this ban entailed, when it occurred, or even any proof that it occurred. The table itself mentions under the "Year Unbanned" column that the work was never illegal. 1 (The Pentagon Papers) was an attempt by US President Richard Nixon to suspend the publication of classified information. This restraint was lifted in a 1971 court case, and the papers were subsequently declassified in 2011. 1 (The Federal Mafia) was subject to a court injunction, forbidding author Irwin Schiff from profiting off the work after a court found it contained fraudulent information. This book is not banned from publication. "The court rejected Schiff's contention on appeal that the First Amendment protects sales of the book, as the court found that the information it contains is fraudulent, as it advertised that it would teach buyers how to legally cease paying federal income taxes." 1 (Operation Dark Heart) was seized by the Department of Defense "citing concerns that it contained classified information which could damage national security." So the prime examples here are a book from 375 years ago (126 years before the Declaration of Independence was signed), a book banned by the Confederate States of America, a book intended to aid and abet the reader in the commission of a federal crime, and a couple of books which were sequestered due to national security concerns. The rest were "banned" for graphic displays of sexuality. > I can kick harder. I'll be waiting patiently for you to cite any other examples.

soulofmischief 2y ago

Every single one of the books you listed were suggested to me by a teacher. It often felt like some of my teachers latched onto my strong ethical stances and continual disregard for the brand of institutional authoritarianism common in the Deep South, and felt compelled to nurture it. Of course, it goes both ways. Plenty of teachers fixated on the idea of breaking me and making me fall in line. By middle school I had over 50 write-ups, a few suspensions, and had been subject to corporal punishment (literal State violence) mainly for "willful disobedience", a derogatory term which always confused me because I felt it positively described exactly what I was doing. In middle school, that number exploded as some authoritarian teachers became fixated on forcing me to adhere to school uniforms or demanding that I stood and participated in the cult-like Pledge of Allegiance, attempting to embarrass me in front of the class or to get my guardians to whip and punish me at home. Public school was a battleground for the future of our society. It felt like 99% of people at the time simply didn't understand that. The few teachers who "saw" me and did what they could to help me navigate my abusive and restrictive home life became the most important people in the world to me, and I owe everything to them.

losergotabused 2y ago
[flagged]

lurk2 2y ago

Where have these books been banned?

Loughla 2y ago
Inside the United States. Wikipedia has a complete collection of titles that have been banned.
- lurk2 2y ago
  > Inside the United States. Show me one that was banned at the federal or state level from being either owned, read, possessed, transmitted, and / or sold. This is what an ordinary person understands when you say that a book has been banned. I know you don’t have any examples of this occurring in the United States or you would have offered up specific examples. > Wikipedia has a complete collection of titles that have been banned. No it doesn’t.
  - Loughla 2y ago
    1. Keep moving the goal posts. But all of those books were banned by either a state or the federal government at one point. Keep moving the goal posts. I can kick harder. 2.https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_books_banned_by_governments https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_books_banned_by_gove...
    - lurk2 2y ago
      > 1. Keep moving the goal posts. No goal posts have been moved. No common person understands the word "ban" to mean "removed from circulation by a school district." > 2.https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_books_banned_by_gove https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_books_banned_by_gove... Of the 19 books listed here, The Meritorious Price of Our Redemption (1650) is the only one that fits, and it was banned 375 years ago. Of the remaining 18 books: 7 were banned from US mailing and transport across state lines under the Federal Anti-Obscenity Act of 1873. This notably includes Geoffrey Chaucer's Canterbury Tales. Note that the laws which permitted these bans were overturned in 1959. 1 (Uncle Tom's Cabin) was banned by the Confederate States of America. 1 (Elmer Gantry) was banned in around half-a-dozen US cities (I do not care to investigate what these bans entailed). It looks like this one may have also fell under the Anti-Obscenity Act. 1 (The Grapes of Wrath) was ostensibly banned in "many places in the US" and the state of California (the citation for this one has no link). 1 (Forever Amber) is listed as being banned in fourteen states in the US, but the first citation listed seems to imply that it was banned under the Anti-Obscenity Act. The second citation is an independent article which does not even specify what states the book was banned in, nor what these bans entailed. 1 (Memoirs of Hecate County) is listed as having been banned in New York by the Supreme Court, but again, the citation does not specify what this ban entailed. It also strongly implies that the boot would have fallen under obscenity laws. 1 (Howl) was seized by the San Francisco customs authority as obscenity, but these charges were later dismissed. 1 (Naked Lunch) was banned in Massachusetts for obscenity. 1 (Pedagogy of the Oppressed) was "banned" from Tucson Arizona public schools, but the citation listed does not mention what this ban entailed, when it occurred, or even any proof that it occurred. The table itself mentions under the "Year Unbanned" column that the work was never illegal. 1 (The Pentagon Papers) was an attempt by US President Richard Nixon to suspend the publication of classified information. This restraint was lifted in a 1971 court case, and the papers were subsequently declassified in 2011. 1 (The Federal Mafia) was subject to a court injunction, forbidding author Irwin Schiff from profiting off the work after a court found it contained fraudulent information. This book is not banned from publication. "The court rejected Schiff's contention on appeal that the First Amendment protects sales of the book, as the court found that the information it contains is fraudulent, as it advertised that it would teach buyers how to legally cease paying federal income taxes." 1 (Operation Dark Heart) was seized by the Department of Defense "citing concerns that it contained classified information which could damage national security." So the prime examples here are a book from 375 years ago (126 years before the Declaration of Independence was signed), a book banned by the Confederate States of America, a book intended to aid and abet the reader in the commission of a federal crime, and a couple of books which were sequestered due to national security concerns. The rest were "banned" for graphic displays of sexuality. > I can kick harder. I'll be waiting patiently for you to cite any other examples.