Banned Book Recommendation Thread

[Riley]

Censorship is an inherently political topic. Talking about the book and why we think it should be read is political. But, okay.

How to Eat Fried Worms by Thomas Rockwell first published in 1973... It's not a great book, the only reason I have any memory of it is because of the title and the fact that it was one of the first books I chose to read, but it's amazing that something so bland an innocuous might be banned/challenged.

My grade-school teacher read that book aloud to us. I have no further memories about the book.

 

[Rabulias]

Strange, this was required reading last year for my son at school.

The overlap in the Venn diagram of Great Literature and Banned Books is notable.

 

[Ralif Redhammer]

William S. Burroughs' Naked Lunch. It's barely a novel, and is perhaps more easily read if you think of it as poetry. It challenges the reader on so many levels. It's starkly graphic on so many levels, but fiercely intelligent and anti-authoritarian.

 

[Mallus]

Nope, America is the shorts and Mexico is the legs. Florida makes for anatomical correctness on multiple levels.

The US are the cargo shorts of North America worn in winter.

 

[HaroldTheHobbit]

We don't ban books in my country. Yet. There are major forces here that want to go down that road though. But this is a great thread, go roleplayers!

And huzza, I type this with light fingers, resisting the strong urge to hammer-the-keys-vent my frustration over book-banning madness in general. A sincere thanks for the help, forum rules.

 

[Olgar Shiverstone]

Well, appropriate to EN World: The Player's Handbook and Dungeon Master's Guide (especially 1E DMG for the demon cover). Strangely, more seldom the MM despite nudity. But then that was the Satanic Panic for you.

The head scratchers for me (well, I mean beyond all of the other head-scratchiness in book banning), has been Shel Silverstein's Where the Sidewalk Ends and Dr Seuss' Sneeches book, both of which were attempted to be banned in the district I grew up in in the '80s.

 

[Alby87]

Who on earth banned Bone!?!?!? (Was the bath scene early on too salacious or something?)

Edit: See link in post 40 below.

I've written Bone because it made a sensation being banned in some USA schools, here in Italy there aren't banned books (but, to be fair, bookshelves of our school libraries used to have a lot of books that "should belong in a museum", back at my age. Maybe nowadays people with buying powers have bought comics and more recent books )

 

[trappedslider]

This is not the place to discuss, debate, or even casually mention politics

In that case, I'll just link

LibGuides: Banned Books Week - September 18 – 24, 2022: Home

Banned Books Week is an annual event celebrating the freedom to read.

guides.lib.de.us

 

[Benjamin Olson]

I think a thread on book censorship avoiding politics is only slightly less nonsensical than a thread on elections avoiding politics, but I suppose one can discuss to a degree with detached journalistic neutrality.

Basically, anything with a different and maybe strongly worded take on things in the contemporary zeitgeist is probably up to be challenged at some point - no matter how morally powerful and forthright that book is.

I would argue that, in the American context at least, its the actual good books (or at least the ones someone considered worthwhile) that are a lot more likely to be banned than the just mediocre ones, since banning is primarily something that happens through the public school system. It's the books some librarian considered good that get picked to be in school libraries and ones teachers consider particularly worth reading get picked for class syllabi. This makes them far more likely to come to some unhappy parent's attention, and by way of them a schoolboard intervenes. The book making whatever statements it makes in a particularly powerful way increases the likelihood that the solution is censorship rather than some manner of counter-programming.

From the other direction, of course, sometimes it is the teachers wanting to retire a book that has been a long established part of the curriculum because they don't like teachig it or don't believe in teaching it for whatever reason. If it is some more obscure book it probably just gets quietly dropped. If they decide they don't want to teach Huckleberry Finn anymore it's more likely to escalate into a controversy that gets the book removed from the school.

 

[Blue Orange]

Always a little tricky since most books are banned for political reasons, no?

Gonna jump in just to give one people haven't seen (especially my fellow Americans): Alan Sillitoe's The Loneliness of the Long-Distance Runner. Short stories, so great for those of us with limited time. Strong anti-authoritarian themes. The title story, about a reform school boy who turns out to have an athletic talent for running, I found pretty powerful.