Meeciteewurkor:: This is your brain on Tulsa: Excerpt:
"Apparently Sept 24 through Oct 1 is “Banned Books Week.” Oh yay!
Banned Books Week (BBW) celebrates the freedom to choose or the freedom to express one’s opinion even if that opinion might be considered unorthodox or unpopular and stresses the importance of ensuring the availability of those unorthodox or unpopular viewpoints to all who wish to read them. After all, intellectual freedom can exist only where these two essential conditions are met.
I like the way the phrase “unorthodox or unpopular viewpoints” is used. Might as well say “hedonistic and immoral.”"
Also, to learn more about books that have been banned the U of Penn has a good article.
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2 comments:
Proponents might get more enthusiasm for "Banned Books Week" if y'all banned some works with Christian themes.
:) Why Okiedoke would you by chance have any specific titles you want us to start with?
Seriously though, it did kind of concern me that there are individuals out there who automatically assume that if a book is banned that means it has to be 'hedonistic and immoral'.
The U of Penn article explains the point well--historically books have been banned/challenged by both the left and the right for various reasons. Whether its a specific version of the Bible, Little Red Riding Hood, or I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings--activists on all sides have taken offense (for their own reasons) and then try to (or successfully) impart their sense of right or wrong on their communities.
I'm not saying you can not disagree with what is written in a book--that is every person's innate right. Just as it is their right not to be forced to read something which they find objectionable. I just feel you head down a slippery slope when you feel so superior to your neighbors that you start dictating what they are allowed to read...
Once again these views are my own and not necessarily shared by any librarian anywhere else in the world.
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