NEWS: America's Most Banned Books

I dont know about all that, but I remember that on one page it was a beach theme and there were two instances of topless females.

Have you ever *read* Beloved? (Or even worse, seeing the movie.) That was some fucked up shit. I read it in senior english. I think it's a beautiful book.

Either none of the parents from my school ever asked their children what they were learning, or else they just didn't give a fuck. Probably both.

I've read about a quarter of this list, and I can see why people have decided that they are offensive, but kids need to see offensive material. I mean, what do parents think real life is? And anyone in high school should be able to make their own decisions on what they should or shouldn't read.



[Edited on Aug 29, 2004 by AlienEeeter]

as for James and the Giant Peach, let me refresh your memories with a brief plot summary: James eats some magic pills given to him by a strange little man and proceeds to soar around the world on a giant peach with some enormous talking bugs.

sounds like something public school kids would be into.

*burn*

hey, I thought it was a documentary.

Hmm. I'm against banning books - any books. But this one tested me. A "how to" for suicide... I'm not a fan. And I strongly disagree that teens should be reading it; it was written for terminally ill people so that they could die with dignity. Teens generally attempt suicide as a "cry for help."

Still... no book should be banned.

Yeah, I saw that. I was mainly responding to handle's assertation that it should be required reading for high school kids... Anyways, I made my point.

Fuckin' Hippies. They say they want to change the world, but all they do is smoke pot and smell funny.

-Eric Cartman

Thanks for the link, that was a good read.

[As far as fantasy, The bible is the most historically accurate work of the ancient world, and vastly more verifiable than many works that people accept as fact.[quote[

In some ways I would agree with this. Besides the fantastical(In that they are amazing, not necessarily fictional) it is a good record of the leaders and peoples of that area in a time basically before most history was recorded.
To compare to another example which I hope supports my point. Herodotus who is considered by historians to be the 'father of history'(and the 'father of lies' ironically) included many fantastical elements in his histories, like godly interventions and appearances, like the runner to marathon encountering Pan. Yet people still consider Herodotus one of the best surviving sources of history as to what happened, partly because he is one of the few people who have anything surviving in modern times. Just like the bible is one of the only sources of anecdotal origin stories of a certain group of people. You cant discount histories because they include a few culutural religious occurance. And even though the deific occurances in the bible are very forefront, and are the main point, that doesnt mean we should ignore much of the information we can glean from it.

Its all about context, when there is very little to go on, you tend to look at what you have more closely to see what it could have inside. And t his is not to say that the bible is a very reliable source, but the details surrounding the deific elements are still noteworthy, as some have at least been corroborated to a limited extent, showing they arent just a pack of lies.

i doubt a book is going to make them more apt to kill themselves. plus there's a million good books to have your kids read. and call me ignorant, but i haven't heard of that one, to busy reading other fantastic books.

Tom Sawyer and The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.

Amazing.

Now is it because of their disobediant natures, and rebellious antics, or just because of a character named "Nigger Jim"?

If they can just stay away from Huck Finn, kids today will never hear that word anywhere else.

i havta say i second that wow... that was one of the first books i read ahead of the class to find out what happens. still one of the best books i've read.

Tigereyes challenged my view of the world.
Until I read it I had no idea that teens drink and almost have sex.

Let's not forget the left wing 'to protect the children' mentality that has been used to ban books, and that Tipper Gore used to pressure Al into holding congressional hearing about the evils of rock music.

This whole banning of books is insanity. I own near to 50 of the boos on that list and would be proud to say "My kid read *insert name of book here*". Banning is not necessary. Now, holding off on a book like "To Kill a Mockingbird" until the kids are in Junior High or High School is perfectly acceptable, but it doesn't need to be banned. Keeping a book like 'Sex' out of an elementary school is common sense. It doesn't need to be banned.

It's just plain stupid.

I shall now work to aquire the rest of the books on the list. Okay, maybe not the TekWar books. Shatner writes like shit...

He... doesn't... act... much better... either.

if you're saying that tipper gore and her delusional pmrc group are left-wing, then you are very very wrong. tipper is a right-wing stalwart, and the congressional hearing was an initiative of the right

I still wish i hadn't read 1984. The way the government purposefully, hatefully truncated the english word in the book and the way people talk now scares me. "oh, he's IMing me right now, talk to you later." "ROTFLMAO." "I'm d/ling some porn right now, talk later." When does an acronym become a verb? If anyone can guess what this means, you get a gold star, or a punch in the mouth.

WWWDWOA?

W W W D W O A

What would we do without our amplifiers?

1) There is a Left wing 'for the children' line that has been used by people like Hillary Clinton to censor or suggest censorship.

2) I know and you know that Tipper is a right wing nut, but most americans under the age of 25 have bought into the lie that she and Al are good little liberals.

3) my over all point was the censorship comes from the hard right and the hard left as a way to control the flow if Ideas and Information to the public.

4) The PMRC hearings were a 'For the Children' event, not a 'It's against the Bible' event, and it seems the most people in this thread see the banning of books (and really why bother when so many people don't want the challenge of reading) as a right wing christian only method of social control.