Book burning fun time!

[kebechet]

So, how many of these have you read, and did you find them controversial? Thoughts?

Comments

[curseangel.livejournal.com]

I read Catch-22 (by Joseph Heller) in a class in high school. It's still one of my favorite books. I can't imagine why anyone would want to ban it!

...well, okay, more than half the class was completely confused by the whole book, but that's not really a good reason. :P

[kebechet.livejournal.com]

I loved Catch-22!

[heartbreakangel.livejournal.com]

I've read a small portion of the list. Most of which were because of requirements in high school English classes. The ones that weren't due to school were the books by King, with the exception of Cujo. I didn't find a solitary one of them "controversial" in the slightest, to be honest.

[kebechet.livejournal.com]

I'm still trying to figure out why menstruation is controversial.

Damn that scandalous Judy Blume! LOL!

[anmorata.livejournal.com]

1984 is, by far, one of my most favorite books. It might have been controversial for its time, but eh, not now.

The Catcher in the Rye was controversial because Holden attempts to solicit a prostitute. I could have cared less, but I didn't like the book whatsoever. I think I was too old to have read it when I did. Too jaded. Heh.

You know, I could probably come up with a reason for all of the books that are on that list that I've read. Doesn't mean that I find them controversial in the least bit. But it questions you on how you define art, even in the literary form. Isn't art supposed to provoke you to get a response? Isn't it supposed to be controversial to some degree?

[kebechet.livejournal.com]

Isn't art supposed to provoke you to get a response? Isn't it supposed to be controversial to some degree?

I ask myself that same question every time I go to MOMA, and am subjected to giant paintings of single yellow dots. >;)

I was baffled when I saw that list. I don't even consider some of them provocative, much less controversial.

[hurrigirl.livejournal.com]

I've read over 25 books on that list and I don't think any of them were controversial. Are you there, God? It's me, Margaret is about wanting to be a woman and wondering about what religion one should be. I think the people who want to ban/remove them are the ones that should have their narrow little brains examined. How is Call of the Wild controversial? I don't understand why these books would be considered controversial.

[kebechet.livejournal.com]

Maybe Call of the Wild is controversial for people that don't like the Charlton Heston rendition?

XD

[asqmh.livejournal.com]

I've read 94 of them.

I think people get confused and think "controversial" = "uncomfortable." *headdesk*

If it makes you think, it IS NOT DANGEROUS. Thing is, quite of few of these are dystopian - and what's funny is that the people challenging them are the stereotypical "bad guys" of the stories.

It seems to break down in such a way that if your book deals with human sexuality (whether relational or developmental), human interpersonal relationships, masturbation, God, magic or communism, you're "controversial."

Excuse me. I have to go write a book about a gay commie priest who is invited to a magical school where they teach questionable quantum physics.

[kebechet.livejournal.com]

You make me laff!

[squeeful.livejournal.com]

Quite a number of them. Some through school, some from my parents or grandparents, some I found on my own. Thought-provoking, yes. Controversial, not to me. Worthy of banning, no. Provoking thought and self-reflection as a person and a society prevents stagnation.

I still love Lord of the Flies. But I am a twisted person like that. ;-D

[kebechet.livejournal.com]

I love Lord of the Flies, too.

[thrd-uncle.livejournal.com]

Okay, long reply ahead.....

Basically, I've read and enjoyed a lot of those books. When I was in elementary school, I tried to borrow 'Are You There God,...' and was, well, rebuffed. I was told firmly, "This is a girl's book.". I did eventually find it elsewhere.

Blubber is one of my favorite childhood books. It did make a big impression on me, I think it's a great look at the sociology of childhood and development, etc....I guess it's challenged because of the cruel behavior. But I love mean 11 year old girls!! : )

Where Did I Come From is the book that taught me about sex. My parents gave it to me when I was about 10. I still have it, and it's a great book!

American Psycho really did push some boundaries. I read it and it was horrifying, but also kind of numbing because it was just so over the top. But I still think if people want to read it, they should be able to do so. Just because I don't exactly see the redeeming qualities, doesn't mean the book should be banned or made unavailable to someone else. I don't think children should read it but that's kind of obvious. And if they want to get a hold of it and read it, they will do so one way or another. I can't imagine a child wanting to read it.

I don't understand the challenge (why people want to ban books). If someone wants to read provocative material, they're going to find it. If someone has psychological problems, they are going to manifest, whether or not they read books with violent/controversial subject matter. Many of these books gave me some important life lessons. People should be able to read whatever they want.

[thrd-uncle.livejournal.com]

oops apparently I got stuck in italics....sorry! : )

[the-only-babbs.livejournal.com]

I have read a few of those and intend on reading a few of them with my daughter! Of course, Where's Waldo is my favorite and I will be keeping Henry Miller to myself. Oh, how I love Henry Miller.

[kebechet.livejournal.com]

I love that goddamn Waldo.

XD

[alicia-stardust.livejournal.com]

I've read 46 books from that list and many of those were read in school.

Shel Silverstein, WTF? The Giver? I cannot figure out why many of those even made the list.

My first grade teacher read How To Eat Fried Worms to us and then served us crunchy chow mein noodles covered in melted chocolate at the end of it. I still can't see it as controversial.

If uncomfortable and difficult = controversial, then why isn't Old Yeller on that list? When I read that as a child I cried so hard that I caused myself to throw up.

Fuck, now I'm on a roll. Even the content in Lolita doesn't, IMO, justify being taken out of circulation. There's so much more to Nabokov's writing besides the "uncomfortable parts" that someone apparently found issue with...

*flail*

[kebechet.livejournal.com]

My first grade teacher read How To Eat Fried Worms to us and then served us crunchy chow mein noodles covered in melted chocolate at the end of it. I still can't see it as controversial.

You know that, because of your post, I'm going to do this to my kid, right? LOL!

[tjcrowley.livejournal.com]

Weird -- just like the last person, I've read 46 of those books. Of them all, the only ones that seemed the least bit scandalous to me were Lolita and Naked Lunch -- the latter mostly because it just seemed to be presenting shocking imagery with no rhyme or reason, and the former for the kidfucking.

[kebechet.livejournal.com]

I totally agree with you about Naked Lunch.

For my part, I've always hated 'art' that was shocking for shock's sake.

[t3andcrumpets.livejournal.com]

I've read at least half of them. Some of them, I read when I was under 10. My parents honestly didn't care what I read so long as I read them, and I never found anything odd or controversial about them. *shrugs*

Some people are just so TOUCHY when it comes to the written word.

[supervillainess.livejournal.com]

Me too, dude. I think I read half of those (the kids' books) by the time I was in 5th grade. I remember something like "A Day No Pigs Would Die" or "My Brother Sam Is Dead" sort of disturbed me, but that had more to do w/ the emotional tenor of the books, and not the actual content. The Gift of the Pirate Queen hit me just as hard, and the most controversial element in THAT book was diabetes.

[avidbeader.livejournal.com]

I have read (or tried to read or used the cliff-notes) 35 of those books. And I'm with Judy Blume when she says that kids are their own best censors.

Example: In elementary and middle school, I was a big Judy Blume fan. And when I was 11, I noticed some girls at another lunch table passing around a Blume novel I hadn't read before. I added it to my Christmas wish list and my grandma got it for me, obviously not looking very closely at the contents.

That afternoon, I opened the book to a random page. It happened to be the scene where Kath gives Michael a handjob. I read it two or three times, not quite understanding what was going on. Then I took the book to my mom and asked her to put it away until I was older.

About two years later, something made me remember the book and I went and asked for it. My mom read it first, and gave it to me with the firm admonition that what the kids were doing was wrong because they weren't married yet. I read it, understood a lot more of what was going on in it, and took yet another step away from my parents' conservative values.

If my mom had refused to give it to me, I know I would have torn the house apart looking for it while she was gone. Banning something only makes it all the more attractive.

[naeelah.livejournal.com]

I've read maybe half of them (although that estimate may be optimistic). I can understand the challenges in a few cases -- Naked Lunch was, after all, a pivotal case in obscenity laws -- but... Where's Fucking Waldo? I've read explanations of that one, so I know why, but it is still the pinnacle of idiocy for me that people want it banned.

edit: speaking of using those books in school -- that's where I read many of them. I even did a report on Naked Lunch for my psychology class (in high school). Ha.

I speculate that the only reason half these are up for challenge all the time is because they're classics and widely read. If they were less common books, they wouldn't be challenged so often, because far fewer people would be reading them. No matter what you write, someone is going to be offended by it and want it banned. I could write Fluffy Puppies in Unicorn Land Enjoy World Peace and people would probably challenge it for including magical creatures that don't exist, for saying that it has world peace without any mention of JEAYSUS being responsible for it, etc.

[myskat.livejournal.com]

I'm pleaed to say I've read about 80 percent and the other twenty are great fodder for my reading list. Book banning is a sad lost joke on us all. The greatest internal debates on who we want to be or not to be come from the written work and propel us to make better decisions without having lived the content.

43, if you include all books in series, and I'll actually list as I bet there's an age-group thing

[juniperus.livejournal.com]

Some of them I can see being an issue at time of publication for mention of sex, or drugs, or violence, or race, or politics, or religion, or whatever...but others, not so much (the Hinton, Blume, and King titles are just issues of age appropriateness for, say, middle school v. high school, IMO, and having the Dahl, Rowling, George, and Silverstein titles on the list is just silly). I don't think any I've read on the list are really particularly controversial now, given what kids ingest from games and movies and television, except maybe Killing Mr. Griffin, since any discussion of killing teachers (or classmates) given the incidents of school violence in recent (and not-so-recent) years is going to set people off in a big way.


1984- George Orwell
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn- Mark Twain
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer- Mark Twain
Are You There, God? It's Me, Margaret- Judy Blume
Beloved- Toni Morrison
The Bluest Eye- Toni Morrison
Blubber- Judy Blume
Brave New World- Aldous Huxley
Carrie- Stephen King
Catch-22- Joseph Heller
Cat's Cradle- Kurt Vonnegut
Christine- Stephen King
The Color Purple- Alice Walker
Cujo- Stephen King
The Dead Zone- Stephen King
Deenie- Judy Blume
A Farewell to Arms- Ernest Hemingway
Flowers for Algernon- Daniel Keyes
For Whom the Bell Tolls- Ernest Hemingway
Forever- Judy Blume
The Grapes of Wrath- John Steinbeck
The Great Gatsby- F. Scott Fitzgerald
The Handmaid's Tale- Margaret Atwood
Harry Potter (Series)- J.K. Rowling
In Cold Blood- Truman Capote
James and the Giant Peach- Roald Dahl
Julie of the Wolves- Jean Craighead George
The Jungle- Upton Sinclair
Killing Mr. Griffin- Lois Duncan
A Light in the Attic- Shel Silverstein
Of Mice and Men- John Steinbeck
The Outsiders- S.E. Hinton
Slaughterhouse-Five- Kurt Vonnegut
Song of Solomon (novel)- Toni Morrison
The Sun Also Rises- Ernest Hemingway
That Was Then, This Is Now- S.E. Hinton
Tiger Eyes- Judy Blume

Some of the above I was assigned in class (high school, the Morrison and Twain titles, mainly), or just chose to read on my own. Others, however, were pointed attempts to increase my banned-book repertoire: When I was in high school [mid-to-later-80s] and those lists came out I used to make a point of choosing a few new titles from that list and reading them...as can be expected, there are those I never got to or started and didn't finish (for a variety of reasons), and I've noted those below. Often Stranger in a Strange Land- Robert A. Heinlein was on earlier lists, I should note, and I made a point of reading that, too. (so should you - good book!) There are books on the list I'm just not interested in, but expect I may see them in my house in the hands of my children at some point (like the Stines).


Bridge to Terabithia- Katherine Paterson
The Catcher in the Rye- J.D. Salinger
A Clockwork Orange- Anthony Burgess
A Day No Pigs Would Die- Robert Newton Peck
Go Tell It on the Mountain- James Baldwin
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings- Maya Angelou
In the Night Kitchen- Maurice Sendak
Invisible Man- Ralph Ellison
Lady Chatterley's Lover- D.H. Lawrence
Lolita- Vladimir Nabokov
Lord of the Flies- William Golding
Naked Lunch- William S. Burroughs
To Kill a Mockingbird- Harper Lee
Ulysses- James Joyce
The Witches- Roald Dahl
A Wrinkle in Time- Madeleine L'Engle

I'm aware of the content of Lolita and A Clockwork Orange, and I can see why those would still set people off. It's interesting to see what books that include a certain topic (main character suicide, for example The Awakening- Kate Chopin) don't make it while others do. Hm.

[edenssixthday.livejournal.com]

I've read about 1/3 of that list and the book I'm currently reading is on the list, too. I can understand why some would be challenged by narrow-minded people. Example: I had to do all my Judy Blume reading in secret as a kid because my mother, an ultra-fundamentalist Christian, found the books too scandalous and full of information she felt I didn't need to know about. However, there are books on that list that truly boggle the mind - Call of the Wild? A Light in the Attic? I honestly don't understand what people could find controversial about those.

[hackess.livejournal.com]

My mom, the school librarian, read aloud How to Eat Fried Worms to my third grade class. :) I've read a bunch of those books. While I didn't like some of them and agree that others are not appropriate for pre-teens, I think banning books is one of the most ridiculous practices. Parents should monitor what their children read and discuss the contents. Libraries should make the books available.

[coffeeslayer.livejournal.com]

?!?!?!!
I've read about 30 of them. None of the ones I've read I'd consider controversial. They just made me think & taught me a bit of empathy.

[marchenland.livejournal.com]

Ive read 40 of them:
1984, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, All the King's Men, American Psycho, The Anarchist Cookbook, Are You There, God? It's Me, Margaret, Beloved, The Bluest Eye, Blubber, Brave New World, Bridge to Terabithia, The Call of the Wild, The Catcher in the Rye, Catch-22, Cat's Cradle, The Chocolate War, A Clockwork Orange, Earth's Children (series), The Face on the Milk Carton, Flowers for Algernon, Go Ask Alice, The Great Gatsby, The Handmaid's Tale, Harry Potter (Series), Heart of Darkness, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, Invisible Man, Julie of the Wolves, A Light in the Attic, Little Black Sambo, Lord of the Flies, Naked Lunch, Native Son, Of Mice and Men, The Pillars of the Earth, A Separate Peace, Slaughterhouse-Five, That Was Then, This Is Now, and A Wrinkle in Time

I'd say they were ALL controversial in various ways, as most good art should be!

[http://users.livejournal.com/confessional__/]

I've read about 75-80% of that list and sluffed about another 5-7% out of my life-time reading list because the topics of the books just don't appeal to me.

My eleven-year-old daughter has probably read 25-30% of it. She's tried to Christine by Stephen King but it got a bit too intense for her. I found it in a ziploc bag in the freezer one morning. It's on the bookshelf should she ever wish to pick it up again. (Frankenstein all but lived in the freezer when she was 8, 9, and 10. She was determined to get through that book, and not the watered down kiddy version, either.)

The kid and I both have "read banned books" buttons and I've had more than a few conferences with her teachers through the years about her reading "inappropriate" books at school (she was in the 5th grade and reading Tom Sawyer during the free reading time, this year it was Rambo).

[paperdoll-i.livejournal.com]

hee. You just reminded me about my 5th grade book report on Rosemary's Baby.

My mom and I had a talk about using good judgement when completing school assignments after that parent-teacher conference. :)

[paperdoll-i.livejournal.com]

I've read many of these books - and I rarely understand those who are in favor of banning anything. I mean, Anastasia Krupnik? Seriously?

Some of the books that are on the list I found very disturbing (Clockwork Orange, Lolita, The Bluest Eye) and while I didn't personally enjoy them because they made me uncomfortable, I certainly believe they should be read.

There is one on the list that I conditionally agree with - I'm not sure I want any preteen/teenager to have access to The Anarchist's Cookbook in a school library. Just make them work a bit (you know, have enough motivation to use google or make a trip to the public library) to learn how to make a bomb. This is just based on my utter fear in 9th grade homeroom when the class delinquent got a hold of a copy and spent all of homeroom for the whole year making notes in the margin and drawing diagrams. Scary. :/

[cicadaqueen.livejournal.com]

How To Eat Fried Worms is on that list? Really? True it's been years since I've read that book but I don't seem to be irreparably scarred from it.I can't even think of what could be objectionable unless the corn lobby is upset that the worms don't contain HFCS and that kids might actually eat them and cause them to lose money.

Regarding Killing Mr. Griffin, I remember checking that book out in 7th grade and the librarian telling me that it was an 8th grade book and that it might be to advanced and that I could extend the check out time if I needed to. Just to spite her I went home and read it in one night. Not scarred for life by that one either.

[greenjeanz.livejournal.com]

Here are the ones I've read. I see a bunch of stuff on the list that I need to read, I'm going to hunt down online versions of them(I never get a chance to go out and buy books. sigh.)...

Brave New World: One of my favorite books. Probably very threatening to a lot of authoritarian people.

Harry Potter: Not seeing the controversy, I think the people who complain about these books haven't ever read a single word of them.

The Anarchist Cookbook: I only read a little of this..I just kinda shrugged and rolled my eyes. It all strikes me as dubious and what does work is an easy way to blow yourself up or get yourself arrested. It's also stuff you can find out basically anywhere if you really want to, so the controversy is pretty silly.