One of us...

I found this blog for another library school's intellectual freedom class (of particular interest to me because I'm currenly enrolled in a similar course). But this is a post by one of the students about book censorship,

http://libintellectualfreedom.wordpress.com/2008/10/16/book-censorship-and-intellectual-freedom/


The statistic that at least a book a day is challenged is sort of scary. And since the history of Anthony Comstock was so prevelent in the book Purity in Print, I especially liked the question about if interlibrary loans could fall subject to the 1873 Comstock laws. Something to think about the next time you order a book!

LibBie

Time flies like the wind...

but fruit flies like bananas!

So in studying views on censorship through time, I came across some resources to share. Along with the book and websites below, here are a number of articles about and views of censorship from 1897 through 2007.


The Boston public library and books that tend to encourage anarchic doctrine. (October, 1897). Bookman, 6, 88-89.

Sayers, W.C.B. (1928). The banning of books in libraries. Library Review, 1 (5), 184-187.

Foster, H. H. Jr. (1957). The “Comstock load.” Obscenity and the law. Journal of Criminal Law, Criminology, and Political Science. 48(3), 245-258.

Meyers, D. (1977, February 15). Boys and girls and sex and libraries. Library Journal, 102(4), 457-463. Retrieved November 18, 2008, from Academic Search Premier database.

Eidus, J. (1992, Oct.). Censorship from without; censorship from within: chilling trends. ANQ. 5(4), 188-190.

O’Sullivan, M.K. and O’Sullivan, C.J. (2007). Selection or censorship: libraries and the intelligent design debate. Library Review, 56 (3), 200-207.

and the ones from below...

Websites related to censorship:

National Coalition Against Censorship. (2008). NCAC - National Coalition AgainstCensorship. Retrieved 11/4/2008 from: http://www.ncac.org/home.cfm.

Parents Against Bad Books in Schools. (2008). Controversial and challenged books in schools -PABBIS. Retrieved 11/4/2008 from: http://www.pabbis.com/.

American Library Association, (2008). American Library Association: Banned Books Week. Retrieved 11/4/2008 from: http://www.ala.org/ala/aboutala/offices/oif/bannedbooksweek/bannedbooksweek.cfm.


And a book:

Boyer, P. S. (2002). Purity in print: Book censorship in America from the gilded age to the computer age, 2nd edition. Madison, WS: University of Wisconsin Press.

A little too graphic

Do comic books seem to be getting increasingly edgy? Pushing the limits of art and storytelling with their visual depictions? Corrupting young minds?

Well this isn't a new complaint. This site has a general history of comic book censorship through the decades.

http://www.weeklywire.com/ww/09-08-98/alibi_feat2.html

Still going strong, even the history of comics is being challenged and censored. In California, Manga: 60 Years of Japanese Comics was challenged due to a mother's complaint. Here's some articles collected about this particular case.

http://www.paulgravett.com/articles/041_californiancontroversey/041_californiancontroversey.htm

A book which can be considered an history of a modern art genre is not allowed to be circulated. Next will images of Renaissance art be taken off shelves?

And an article from 1997 about the history and escalation of comic prosecutions:

http://www.awn.com/mag/issue2.4/awm2.4pages/2.4alstonlegal.html

For those interested in looking deeper into this, here's a great bibliography from the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund

http://www.cbldf.org/research/biblio-30s.html

Banned books and other forms of censorship: Independent bookstore in Moscow challenged

While I really want to focus on book challenges and bans in the U.S., it would be pretty narrow minded of me not to bring up anything about the books challenged and banned all over the world. Let us always remember that the freedoms that let us challenge books are the same that let us keep them.

I came across this great blog that has a number of international censorship concerns.

Banned books and other forms of censorship: Independent bookstore in Moscow challenged

What is really interesting is the mention of how the market is getting monopolized by megabookstores. While not censored, sometimes smaller independent stores have to deal with the pressures of not being able to compete with larger chains. It's much easier to control one large thing that a bunch of small ones. Something we might have to watch out for in the future...

Also on this blog is a little about the distruction of libraries in Iran since the 1980's. Perhaps it's just because I'm so much of a bibliophile, but I feel that the destruction of those books, the lost culture and history, is a crime against humanity.

K.L. Going

I was directed t the blog of K.L. Going, author of Fat Kid Rules the World. These posts in particular deal with responses and challenges to her book.

That's probably the best part about blogs, the direct intercourse between people. An author is able to connect to readers around the world, and learn the effect of their writing.

http://klgoing.wordpress.com/2007/03/

http://klgoing.wordpress.com/2007/08/16/another-book-challenge/#comments

The comments are amazing, so many different views are accounted for! People get so passionate about this subject. Book challenges are raised a few notches when kids are involved, it seems.

I vant to suck your... books?

So with all this hype over the new movie Twilight, I was wondering why there was no uproar like over the Harry Potter novels. While talking to a friend, I realized that I was under a rock, because there has been. However this was not because of the supernatural forces, but because of age appropriate materials.

It turns out that in an Orange County school district, the books were banned for about 4 days, then inexplicably returned to library shelves...

http://www.mercurynews.com/news/ci_10609383?nclick_check=1

And in slightly more depth:
http://www.ocregister.com/articles/books-school-series-2175239-district-library

I agree with some of the comments below the article, that people are objecting to books, when there is so much more out there on the Internet and film which they could be objecting to. I'm not saying that they should object, only what they chose to focus on is interesting. It's a story, and the fantasy genre is a particularly interesting medium to explore the issues facing a developing personality (i.e. children and young adults), because they are able to bring them more fully to light. It's a sort of empathy. Your parents don't like your boyfriend? Well, at least he's not a vampire!


I'm trying to get a chance to read these books (right now school is really getting in the way *sigh*).

Brave New World?

I came across this article from earlier this month up in Idaho, how a school board is trying to prevent the use of Brave New World in ciriculum. What got me most was its satirical tone.

http://www.spokesmanreview.com/local/story.asp?ID=267872

Yes, please, let's block a book that's over 70 years old. That literature is bound to start a fire any day now...

Censorship and the web

The internet is probably a place where people can feel the most free to speak their minds and put new ideas out there for everyone to see. Which makes filtering software sort of an irony.

But there are factions on both sides of the censorship of books struggle using the web to promote their cause. So here's a website of each.

National Coalition Against Censorship. (2008). NCAC - National Coalition Against
Censorship. Retrieved 11/4/2008 from http://www.ncac.org/home.cfm.

This site represents the cooperation of fifty organizations, and arranges reports of censorship in their focused areas of art, media, literature, science, internet, education, and entertainment, as well as a large selection of subdivisions. There are resources for dealing with challenges, advocacy, and education, as well as events in support of their cause. This site provides a great number of resources, is very well organized, and frequently updated.


Parents Against Bad Books in Schools. (2008). Controversial and challenged books in schools -
PABBIS. Retrieved 11/4/2008 from http://www.pabbis.com/.

This site based out of Virginia aims at alerting people to objectionable content in books being read in schools. Along with numerous passages out of context, it also has links to various reviews of books, and what is and is not said about them. There are resources concerning Virginia's laws on what can be done to challenge books, how to report "bad books", and ideas for challenging books and attempting to "change the system." This site, while it does raise awareness if a parent is wondering about the content of a book, can misrepresent the snippets taken out of context and could cause misleading perceptions of literature.

and just to throw this one in for good measure:

American Library Association, (2008). American Library Association: Banned Books Week. Retrieved 11/4/2008 from http://www.ala.org/ala/aboutala/offices/oif/bannedbooksweek/bannedbooksweek.cfm.

This is a website for the celebration of increasing awareness to book challenges in the U.S. There are resources for statistics on frequently challenged books and authors. It also links to the official organization's site (www.bannedbooksweek.org), which provides links about pro-and anti-censorship sites, and encourages reporting of challenges. This is an interesting resource that is somewhat obligatory to this topic, since Banned Books Week is often talked about and has been observed for twenty-seven years.

Purity in Print

Here's a great book on the history of censorship in America from about the time of the Civil War until modern times:

Boyer, P. S. (2002). Purity in print: Book censorship in America from the gilded age to the computer age, 2nd edition. Madison, WS: University of Wisconsin Press.

LC Call number: KF4775. B6. 2002

Annotation:
Censorship is a battle waged for as long as there has been expression, and the strength has shifted sides, as has public opinion on the matter. This book offers a comprehensive overview of the history of censorship during the stated period, including the major players, court cases, and often the national feelings of the time, discussing the shifting attitudes towards censorship, and to a small degree the role librarians played. He places this within a "framework that includes cultural, political, social, and even technological components (pxiii)." This is an expanded second edition, updating the 1968 edition initially penned by the author for his doctoral thesis, and is updated to include more contemporary court cases and broadens from print to radio, television, and internet issues.


And a little more in depth:
As obvious from the title, the book covers quite in depth some of the major forces of censorship in the described period. Beginning with the Vice Societies of the Nineteenth Century, it follows the influence of Anthony Comstock who took a personal stake in all matters moral. It discusses how “immoral” books were thought to influence the weak mind and turn it away from the lofty goals of spirit. The Progressive Era fed this need for morality, encouraging censorship and forced ideals. Some censorship was even self-imposed, and publishers would fold at the least pressure from a Vice Society. However some works with “serious reformist intent” were being censored and this began to estrange their base of support and weaken their cause. The First World War brought about an idea of patriotic purity, and foreign immorality, thus influencing everything from the written perceptions of soldiers to the removal of “objectionable” (pacifist and salacious) books by the ALA from camp libraries. There was the thought that the war had purified its soldiers, and now America was on the path to pure spiritual morality, but the war returned disillusioned boys and social upheaval, bringing new ideas to literature, and a new generation of publishers was willing to bring this to print. John Sumner and the continuing efforts of groups like the New York Vice Society eagerly brought charges against as many of the offenders as they were able to, but there seemed to be a flood. Chapter 5 discusses the “Clean Books” Crusade, and the Jesse-Cotillo Bill and the subsequent incarnations, its support and opposition. Things laws like this wanted to address were to allow taking segments out of context, disallowing expert witnesses, and heavily acknowledging its effect on children. But through these attempts at censorship, the anti-censorship movement solidified, and alerted the average American to impending dangers. As the Vice Society power dwindled, they attempted to use other means to object to books, such as the supposed influence of foreigners. There were in the 1920’s the efforts of those in favor of Prohibition throwing their weight behind censorship movements as well. The pressure of censorship was instead put on magazines and theatre, which few were bold enough to defend. Boston had an almost self-censoring situation, with the ideals of the old puritans setting the course for the current trends, it was also greatly influenced by the Watch and Ward Society and after they lost influence, the Catholic Church. The police took it upon themselves to become censors, and lacking training and literary expertise that had accompanied the Watch and Ward Society, more outrageous censoring prevailed. Few protested, authors, publishers, or sellers.

Throughout the book are a number of references to specific court cases involving many books, sometimes contemporary, sometimes foreign translation, sometimes reprints of time-honored classics. Slowly the book does degrade from his more researched, flowing style, to a more fired-off list, as he gets closer to the 1990’s and beyond. The last 2 chapters barely deal with physical print, but quite a bit of radio, television, and internet media regulation.

Overall the book was pleasant reading, and really interesting.

LibBie

Let's get things rolling...

I'd like to get things started here with my first web post on this blog. In case you didn't gather from the title, this is a site about censorship. I want to mainly focus on an historical perspective, and put it in perspective of how things stand today.

Hope this proves to be interesting....

LibBie