Path: ...!weretis.net!feeder6.news.weretis.net!feeder8.news.weretis.net!eternal-september.org!feeder3.eternal-september.org!news.eternal-september.org!.POSTED!not-for-mail From: Rhino Newsgroups: rec.arts.tv Subject: Re: Censorship of books in libraries Date: Tue, 9 Apr 2024 16:51:03 -0400 Organization: A noiseless patient Spider Lines: 55 Message-ID: <20240409165103.00000c0e@example.com> References: MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Injection-Date: Tue, 09 Apr 2024 20:51:06 +0200 (CEST) Injection-Info: dont-email.me; posting-host="4878b423fbbc8c3896fe09ff90855707"; logging-data="487493"; mail-complaints-to="abuse@eternal-september.org"; posting-account="U2FsdGVkX19iJo5gB1Omj5XedJdWqoXucffOAZpevqo=" Cancel-Lock: sha1:BNhYX4APm9fcpnP+nx5oEjjD2ds= X-Antivirus-Status: Clean X-Antivirus: Avast (VPS 240409-4, 4/9/2024), Outbound message X-Newsreader: Claws Mail 4.2.0 (GTK 3.24.41; x86_64-w64-mingw32) Bytes: 3831 On Tue, 9 Apr 2024 18:27:13 -0000 (UTC) "Adam H. Kerman" wrote: > Is the left or the right winning the race to the bottom on censorship? > > Once again, I make the distinction between curriculum and books in > school libraries. The former might be subject to complaints of > inappropriateness by parents as it's mandatory. But reading books in > school libraries is optional so leave book selection to profession > librarians and not parents. > > That's not the law in Missouri. Librarians can be subject to fines and > imprisonment for sexually explicit material on bookshelves. > > A graphic novel adaptation of The Handmaid's Tale was withdrawn due to > one panel depicting a rape. The high school library decided it was in > violation of the law and withdrew it. > > https://apnews.com/article/book-bans-libraries-lawsuits-fines-prison-0914fa6cbb2a99b540cbbd28a38179b4 > > Looks like the right is winning. What books are censored on the left? One book that was long censored in eastern Europe during the Cold War was 1984. It finally became possible to read it after the various revolutions of 1989 when eastern Europe finally became free of Soviet occupation. Time and time and time again, I've seen people comment at how amazed they are that Orwell so precisely described the situation in their countries under communism when he'd never been there. Those countries also censored the likes of Solzhenitsyn until well into Gorbachev's perestroika/glasnost campaigns. I remember talking to one guy on a class, a Soviet emigre (and Jewish refusenik) and finding that he'd only just read Gulag Archipelago when I had first read it several years before; prior to that, the book could only be read in "samizdat" form in the Soviet Union. (Samizdat was when typed copies were circulated among trusted friends; photocopiers couldn't be used because every Soviet copier had a watermark that made it very easy to determine precisely which copier had made the copy, making it much easier to determine who had done the copying.) I understand it is strictly forbidden to refer to - or draw - Winnie the Pooh in China because too many people see a resemblance to Xi Jinping and no one wants anything drawn or said that might be construed as a criticism of him. I'm sure there are any number of other things forbidden in China and even "democratic" Russia. I know that Russians faced significant jail time if they called the current "conflict" in Ukraine a war: the only acceptable term was "special military operation". There have been some claims that even Putin is calling it a war now but I'm not sure if anyone else dares to call it that yet. -- Rhino