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Banning Books - Where Do We Draw The Line?
Notoriouslyconservative.com ^ | 02 18 09 | Notoriously Conservative

Posted on 02/18/2009 8:20:59 AM PST by Notoriously Conservative

You may or may not be aware that Harry Potter, The Anarchist Cookbook and Stephen King books have been banned from schools around the country. But where do we draw the line? We want to protect our children, but what about freedom of speech, artistic expression, etc.? It is pretty strange to consider Shakespeare has not only been banned from public schools over sexual themes, but that censored editions have been out since the 1700s.

Was there offensive material in them? Yes, but there is offensive material in Walmart too, not to mention offensive odors. Did Lolita make me sick to my stomach? Yes. But these are truly great works of literary art, and I'm glad I read all of them. Protecting our kids is very important, but when does it become over bearing, or harmful sheltering?

Of the Radcliffe Publishing list of the top 100 books of the past century, almost half have been challenged by schools, many are banned in whole countries. Here are a few banned titles that may surprise you:

*Note: Plot summaries may include spoilers.

A Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway

Plot: A soldier, Henry, on the Italian front meets and seduces a young woman, Catherine. Their relationship continues as he heals a knee that was injured in battle. By the time his knee is fully healed, Catherine is three months pregnant. Unfortunately, Henry has to return to the war and the Germans break through the Italian lines. The Italians charge the soldiers for treachery for letting the Germans defeat them. Henry escapes during another officer’s execution and runs away to Switzerland with Catherine. They live happily until Catherine gives birth to a stillborn and then dies in labor.

Where it’s been banned: Published in 1929, this novel caused trouble immediately...

(Excerpt) Read more at notoriouslyconservative.com ...


TOPICS: Arts/Photography; Books/Literature; Religion; Society
KEYWORDS: art; banned; books; literature
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To: ReneeLynn

“And I haven’t noticed any odors in Walmart, except in the candle aisle. ???”

Most of the odors are from the hippies that infest my local walmart.


21 posted on 02/18/2009 8:37:02 AM PST by Notoriously Conservative
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To: karibdes

I think it is different if the government decides it cant be published/distributed. But there has to be some kind of common sense about what we allow impressionable children to read. Of course if the UN convention on the rights of a child is adopted in this country, children will have freedom of access to information. Restricting anything our kids read or see will be unlawful.


22 posted on 02/18/2009 8:37:32 AM PST by christianhomeschoolmommaof3 (I homeschool because I have seen the village and I dont want it raising my children.)
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To: brytlea

“So, shall Playboy be available in the public school library?”

Just the articles. Pasties can be applied to cover anything else.


23 posted on 02/18/2009 8:37:49 AM PST by Notoriously Conservative
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To: Notoriously Conservative

LOL yeah, that’s a great idea! ;)


24 posted on 02/18/2009 8:38:29 AM PST by brytlea (You can fool enough of the people enough of the time.)
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To: Dr._Joseph_Warren

If the library is full of Communist party case studies, you can’t chose them either.


25 posted on 02/18/2009 8:40:06 AM PST by muawiyah
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To: AppyPappy
The schools should only assigning books that contain language and themes that be printed in the newspaper.

The benefits of free-market economics, firearms as tools of self-defense, and other such news unfit to print are strictly verboten!

26 posted on 02/18/2009 8:41:37 AM PST by steve-b (Intelligent design is to evolutionary biology what socialism is to free-market economics.)
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To: brytlea

Playboy is available behind the 7-11 counter. Makes it so much more desirable.


27 posted on 02/18/2009 8:41:51 AM PST by muawiyah
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To: Notoriously Conservative
We want to protect our children, but what about freedom of speech, artistic expression, etc.? It is pretty strange to consider Shakespeare has not only been banned from public schools over sexual themes, but that censored editions have been out since the 1700s.

Then comes youporn.com and its ilk, and banning Shakespearean sex themes seems quaint.

28 posted on 02/18/2009 8:48:13 AM PST by King Moonracer (Bad lighting and cheap fabric, that's how you sell clothing.)
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To: Notoriously Conservative
The Anarchist Cookbook is full of incorrect crap. Half of what is in there would blow up in your face even if you follow the instructions to the letter. That book is dangerous, factually inaccurate, and does not belong in our schools where kids will get their hands on it. You know kids will experiment with this stuff. I would have when I was a kid.
29 posted on 02/18/2009 8:51:13 AM PST by sadamico
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To: Notoriously Conservative

There should’nt be any banning of books in public (government) school libraries because there shouldn’t be any public (government) schools.

The trouble is that in government schools, you have a captive audience with zero choice control. Most students go to a particular school because their parents live in a government drawn “school district”, not because of a positive choice by parents to send them there.

In other words, government should not be involved in education, period.


30 posted on 02/18/2009 8:54:26 AM PST by ecomcon
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To: Notoriously Conservative

Books are not ‘banned’ in schools.

Let me repeat this BOOKS ARE NOT BANNED IN SCHOOLS.

The word ‘banned’ is completely inaccurate.

Parents protest when kids are *assigned* books to read which are not appropriate for their age.

That means they *have* to read them to pass a course.

Many of these books are very poorly written, are merely politically-correct crap, and have a great deal of graphic sexual content.

Parents have every right to protest.

The books are not banned. They are available everywhere. The kid can read them on their own if they want.

The trouble is that most of these books are badly written and boring except for the graphic sexual content.

The Bean Field, Snow Falling On
Cedars, etc.

They are not banned -— they are assigned and parents protest.

Don’t liberals always say, ‘get more involved in your child’s schooling’?

the ‘banned’ sh!it p!sses me off!


31 posted on 02/18/2009 9:00:34 AM PST by squarebarb
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To: Notoriously Conservative
"Banning Books - Where Do We Draw The Line?"

Errr... by not banning books?!?!?

32 posted on 02/18/2009 9:01:40 AM PST by Mad Dawgg ("`Eddies,' said Ford, `in the space-time continuum.' `Ah,' nodded Arthur, `is he? Is he?'")
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To: Notoriously Conservative

Define “banned,” Mister article-writer.

There’s the rub: All too often, books are said to be “banned” whenever a school board decides that a particular book isn’t appropriate for a given class. Often, this is largely done due to the age of the kids.

Example: When I was in gifted-ed in fifth grade (a tiny group of about 6-8 kids), the teacher assigned us Candide by Voltaire. It’s got some racy parts (albeit by implication) and had some female-topless illustrations, so it almost got pulled from the curriculum. It didn’t, but I wouldn’t have considered that “OMG THEY BANNED VOLTAIRE!” I would have considered that a judgment that Candide was a tad racy for 12-year-olds, even gifted ones, in a public school.

Similarly, Huckleberry Finn often is said to be “banned” because a school board decides that 5th or 6th graders are usually going to be too young to realize that, despite the uses of the N-word in it, Jim (the negro slave character who is called by that term) is the most virtuous person in the book and helps Huck realize that sometimes what “everyone says” is right, is wrong. Those school boards simply believe that the book should await high school years, typically. But how does this often play out? “OMG BANNED HUCK FINN!!!!11”


33 posted on 02/18/2009 9:04:59 AM PST by pogo101
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To: pogo101

Read the full article, it defines what is meant by banned. In this context, it refers to state, and federal governments banning it, as well as local entities, such as school districts. Totally removed, gone, not available in the area banned.


34 posted on 02/18/2009 9:08:48 AM PST by Notoriously Conservative
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To: squarebarb

I’ve always been happiest when I remember that I got to graduate from highschool and college before Maya Angelou became required reain. She’s one of the worst so-called poets in history.


35 posted on 02/18/2009 9:09:08 AM PST by muawiyah
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To: brytlea
So, shall Playboy be available in the public school library?

The book of Playboy interviews should be in every school library. The one where Alex Haley (of "Roots" fame) interviewed George Lincoln Rockwell (of American Nazi Party fame) is a must-read.

36 posted on 02/18/2009 9:09:08 AM PST by antiRepublicrat ("I am a firm believer that there are not two sides to every issue..." -- Arianna Huffington)
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To: muawiyah

Perhaps, but do you want it available to your 7 year old at school?


37 posted on 02/18/2009 9:09:09 AM PST by brytlea (You can fool enough of the people enough of the time.)
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To: Notoriously Conservative

If a kid doesn’t read “The Grapes of Wrath” in middle school in a class and can’t check it out from the middle school library, why can’t he get it from the public library?Why can’t he read it in high school? Why can’t he read it as an adult? Not every book out there has to be read before someone graduates from 12th grade. There are still 70 years or more of reading time after age 18.


38 posted on 02/18/2009 9:16:19 AM PST by SoftballMominVA
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To: Notoriously Conservative

I don’t agree with government banning everyone from getting it, i.e., adults, barring the extremely rare incidence of child porn/ obscenity or publication of national security matters.

But I disagree with your implication that the article explains what is meant by a SCHOOL “banning” books; for example, I see nothing there that answers my suspicion that “banning” simply means a curricular decision that a given book is not grade- or age-appropriate. (Would you consider a decision to keep the clearly rated-X “Fanny Hill” out of any high school class curriculum to be “banning” it in the pejorative sense indicated?) Plus, most of the examples are in the rather distant past; the writer never explains what he means at the outset when he says that Harry Potter, et al., have been “banned.” I strongly doubt it means a student would be disciplined for possessing such a book on campus; it rather means that the school decided not to TEACH ABOUT it, which is NOT a ban.


39 posted on 02/18/2009 9:16:46 AM PST by pogo101
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To: antiRepublicrat

It should be in every school library....why? Is there a ‘sell-by’ date that prevents a 25 year old from reading it?


40 posted on 02/18/2009 9:17:13 AM PST by SoftballMominVA
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