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Underground > Books, Criticism & Writing >

The Forbidden Library

13:31 / 10.10.04

Don't click here!

19:30 / 10.10.04

Interesting link, but why have you posted this here and not in the Thread 'O Weird Links thread in the Convo? Do you wish to discuss how and why some books have been banned? Or how a look back at the books a nation has banned in the past (and the length of time it took for some to be reinstated) can reflect underground culture and the populist reaction to it?

08:12 / 11.10.04

Naw. I'm just jerking off into the petri dish and seeing what grows.

ONLY NICE THINGS

13:05 / 11.10.04

This may perhaps be why Lord Morgue never managed to hold onto the lab assistant's job...

OK, so.. trying to salvage something from this, one of the books on this list that caught my eye was Malory, which was challenged on the grounds that it was "junk". This is novel in itself, but also identifies one of the weaknesses of the site or, of you rather, one of its features.

Now, first up, what does "challenged" mean? Presumably, that means an official challenge was mounted by a parent or parents' association, or by a teacher. However, presumably such a formal challenge would require a lot more than the statement "this is junk". I read that as a literary judgement, which is what caught my eye in the first place - very few of these challenges are made on the grounds that a book is just shit - not even Stephen King's "The Stand" (sex). However, I guess it could mean that is "junk" in the sense of being highly addictive, or morally garbage. Who knows? We don't, because this site doesn't tell us. We are given links to buy the books, but not to more details of the complaints levelled against them.

Possibly this is because, as a librarian, the creator wants people to seek out the information themselves, but it relegates this to a humour site rather than a resource in many cases. Likewise, the creator of the site editorialises at will (explained, presumably, because this list is divided between books he has read and books the claims against which he finds amusing). So, the idiocy of the "junk" claim gets a gag, whereas attempts to ban To Kill a Mockingbird are reported without comment.

So, first up, do people have comments about the way this site treats books and attempts to ban them. More broadly, *is* there a case for banning certain books, either in the absolute sense or the more specific sense often used here of having them removed from school libraries? There are, presumably, some books that everyone might be happy with not being made easily available to tiny eyes...

13:29 / 11.10.04

What got me was the challenge to the Diary of Anne Frank, for being "A real downer". Perhaps it's time for revisionist history, you know, edit out all the sad bits.

ONLY NICE THINGS

14:32 / 11.10.04

Now, first up, what does "challenged" mean? Presumably, that means an official challenge was mounted by a parent or parents' association, or by a teacher. However, presumably such a formal challenge would require a lot more than the statement "this is junk" or "this is a downer". I read that as a literary judgement, which is what caught my eye in the first place - very few of these challenges are made on the grounds that a book is just shit - not even Stephen King's "The Stand" (sex). However, I guess it could mean that is "junk" in the sense of being highly addictive, or morally garbage. Who knows? We don't, because this site doesn't tell us. We are given links to buy the books, but not to more details of the complaints levelled against them.

Possibly this is because, as a librarian, the creator wants people to seek out the information themselves, but it relegates this to a humour site rather than a resource in many cases. Likewise, the creator of the site editorialises at will (explained, presumably, because this list is divided between books he has read and books the claims against which he finds amusing). So, the idiocy of the "junk" claim gets a gag, whereas attempts to ban To Kill a Mockingbird are reported without comment.

So, first up, do people have comments about the way this site treats books and attempts to ban them. More broadly, *is* there a case for banning certain books, either in the absolute sense or the more specific sense often used here of having them removed from school libraries? There are, presumably, some books that everyone might be happy with not being made easily available to tiny eyes...

23:15 / 21.10.04

Yes!

I think children should be vigorously defended from books that are trite, boring, or glorify violence.

Books on my shitlist:
1. Steinbeck, The Red Pony
Objection: Badly written, deathly boring.
2. Ayn Rand, Anthem
Objection: trite, badly written, boring, stupid, evil.

My only concern is that these shit books will acquire some sort of sexy glamour by virtue of having been banned, as Sade did.

16:47 / 22.10.04

Haus, I think your question is a child development question. What kind of impact does literature have on children? The idea being that there is a set which contains books whose effect is harmful, but what might be nice is to also have a children's canon: things you wouldn't want a child to go without.

unheimlich manoeuvre

19:02 / 22.10.04

nd, now children are hardly going to read books that they find trite or boring?
the glorification of violence depends on your definition. i'm not one for intimidation or violation, but sometimes passionate action is necessary. self-defence, justified warfare or martial arts can all be rightly glorified.

20:28 / 22.10.04

Sure! Kids have awful stuff forced on them all the time. School, they call it.

But you do raise a good point. Am I assuming kids are too stupid to tell right from wrong without having it spelled out explicitly? Is portraying something the same as endorsing it, and even if it is, should kids not be given the opportunity to reject endorsements of violence, rather than having such stuff hidden from them?

All Acting Regiment

23:49 / 30.07.05

Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl. Anne Frank. Modern Library. Challenged in Wise County, Va. (1982) due to "sexually offensive" passages. Four members of the Alabama State Textbook Committee (1983) called for the rejection of this book because it is a "real downer." (Purchase)

This explains (to me at least) why books should never be banned

07:32 / 31.07.05

Rise, Darth Thread!
Well, here's a slightly more in-depth, but not as shiny, site on the same subject.
Banned Books Online

23:23 / 31.07.05

DETOURNEMENT they call it - the marketing of the once dangerous and subversive art of literature co-opted into the Buy Or Die Cultures. Nothing is rebellious before it gets sold in a niche or within a cottage industry or re-labelled as a lifestylist's a-z of accessories in a Style Culture Magazine. Went to Anne Frank's it is fucking wierd vibes - like going to the "Crime & Time" Museum in Newent, Gloucestershire UK. Vibes cut you like ice sheets in Greenland.