Banned Books Celebration

[DanKroh]

Actually, I believe many of the requests for banning involve children's books. I wonder if everyone will still be in such harmonious agreement over the repugnance of banning books when it is "King and King", "Daddy's Roommate" or "Tango Makes Three" in their local library's children's section?

 

Here is a great response from a librarian about a request to ban a book that a patron felt did not belong in the children's section of the library:

 

http://jaslarue.blogspot.com/2008/07/uncle-bobbys-wedding.html

[Hal_Crawford]

That raises an interesting question. 25 years ago I was teaching at a college in Nebraska. The library had a suggestion box and they printed the suggestions and responses. Someone had suggested that the library should have a subscription to Playboy. While many at the time considered it to be pornographic it was a much more mainstream magazine than things like Penthouse or Hustler.

 

The Library's response was that there was no academic justification for having Playboy in the library. I was conflicted on whether I bought this answer. I wondered if a student were writing an essay on Jimmy Carter's presidential campaign would he or she want to read the full text of his Playboy interview which was a pretty big deal at the time. Would this be a legitimate academic justification?

 

On the other hand the phrase, "I just read it for the articles" is a line sure to get a laugh. I suspect that the library's patrons would spend more time looking at the pictures than in more scholarly pursuits. I also suspect that most issues would have been pilfered in short order. It probably was wise for the library to spend their money on something else.

 

I usually come down against censorship but in this case (in spite of my disagreement with the library's reason) I did think they made the right call. I have no idea what other college and university libraries do and I have never really thought to ask but now I wonder. BTW, the last time I looked at a Playboy it was far raunchier than back in the 80's; I can certainly see lots of reasons not to put it in a library. Still I wonder where the line should be drawn and if there should be a line at all.

 

Hal

[OldGreyEagle]

Hal, you wrote

 

"Oh well, at least they got past the civil war."

 

Just where was that as it seems many have not

[Hal_Crawford]

Virginia! I said they got past it... not that they got over it. Actually, here in Arlington we are not really part of the old Virginia as we are much more tied to the Federal City.

 

Not that we don't have our Civil War history; if you dig a hole the odds are still good that you will find a Union belt buckle or a minie ball. Though in Virginia, Arlington (then Alexandria County) was pretty much a Union armed camp with a series of forts that protected the capital city.

 

But now days most of the people here were born somewhere else and we have as many yankees as southerners. We are by far the most liberal county in Virginia. If a democrat gets less than 60% of the vote he or she is in trouble; 70-75% is more common.

 

That said you can drive less than 20 miles and go back almost 150 years to a day when Lee, Jackson, Stuart and Beauregard were rock stars.

 

Hal