Saturday, August 14, 2010

Ban This! 2010


As you may or may not be aware, the American Library Association's Banned Books Week is from September 25th to October 2nd this year. The short of the long of Banned Books Week is basically a national, week-long celebration of those books that have been challenged and/or successfully banned across the country. This year I'm working in conjunction with Steph Su over at Steph Su Reads who's hosting a Banned Books Reading Challenge. Once you sign up here, be sure to head on over to her site and join in the reading.

People are still challenging books in this day and age, you ask? Unfortunately, yes. See, there are people out there, small-minded people that feel the need to force their feelings about certain pieces of literature on others instead of just keeping it in the family. These people are usually adamant loud mouths that, chances are, have never read the books they're challenging.

Well, how can they not like a book they haven't read, you say? Easy. They hear things. They read blurbs. Their friends tell them. And because of this you get gems like Twilight landing on the most challenged books list due to it's sexually explicit content. I'll give you a moment with that one . . . no, I'm not kidding.

So these Nazis (yes, jackwagons, you're Nazis, see photo - )


(psst . . . those people aren't waving hi to each other . . .) feel that since their children shouldn't be reading these books, no one's children should be reading these books. And it's people like Ginny Maziarka that we can thank for the awesomeness that is Banned Books Week. Ginny, without people like you, we wouldn't have such fodder and then where would that leave us? We can only blame the first round of Nazis for so long before it gets old. But thanks to the likes of this second generation, the fodder is endless.

If you were hanging around my blog last year, you'll know that I took it upon myself to extend Banned Books Week into Banned Books Month with Ban This! There's just way too much fun to cram into one week. At least for me.

The thing is, this year my vacation spans half the month of September so I won't be around to pump my blog full of bigoted housewives on steroids. So what I'm doing this year is Mr. Linky-ing it up. If you're going to be posting anything about banned books in the month of September, add your blog to this list and be sure to spread the word. Considering the relative noobness of my blog last year, Ban This! turned out pretty good. I'd like to make it even better this year.

So call in your connections with authors and publishers, fellow bloggers and even yourself. Get those posts lined up now and let's flood the book blogging community with banned books love this September! And this year I even have a pretty little Ban This! button all ready and able for you guys to grab over in the sidebar! So get your reading caps on (as if they weren't already) and stuff it to those knobs that insist on attempting to take our books away.

Resources:

American Library Association - Banned Books Week
Banned and Controversial Books
Banned Books Week

Banned Books Week Proclamation

WHEREAS, the freedom to read is essential to our democracy, and reading is among our greatest freedoms; and

WHEREAS, privacy is essential to the exercise of that freedom, and the right to privacy is the right to open inquiry without having the subject of one's interest examined or scrutinized by others; and

WHEREAS, the freedom to read is protected by our Constitution; and

WHEREAS some individuals, groups, and public authorities work to remove or limit access to reading materials, to censor content in schools, to label "controversial" views, to distribute lists of "objectionable" books or authors, and to purge libraries of materials reflecting the diversity of society; and

WHEREAS, both governmental intimidation and the fear of censorship cause authors who seek to avoid controversy to practice self-censorship, thus limiting our access to new ideas; and

WHEREAS, every silencing of a heresy, every enforcement of an orthodoxy, diminishes the toughness and resilience of American society and leaves it less able to deal with controversy and difference; and

WHEREAS, Americans still favor free enterprise in ideas and expression, and can be trusted to exercise critical judgment, to recognize propaganda and misinformation, and to make their own decisions about what they read and believe, and to exercise the responsibilities that accompany this freedom; and

WHEREAS, intellectual freedom is essential to the preservation of a free society and a creative culture; and

WHEREAS, conformity limits the range and variety of inquiry and expression on which our democracy and our culture depend; and

WHEREAS, the American Library Association's Banned Books Week: Celebrating the Freedom to Read is observed during the last week of September each year as a reminder to Americans not to take their precious freedom for granted; and

WHEREAS, Banned Books Week celebrates the freedom to choose or the freedom to express one's opinion even if that opinion might be considered unorthodox or unpopular and stresses the importance of ensuring the availability of those unorthodox or unpopular viewpoints to all who wish to read them; now, therefore, be it

RESOLVED, that Bites celebrates the American Library Association's Banned Books Week, September 25th to October 2nd, and be it further

RESOLVED, that Bites encourages all libraries and bookstores to acquire and make available materials representative of all the people in our society; and be it further

RESOLVED, that Bites encourages free people to read freely, now and forever.

Adopted by Donna at Bites
8/14/10
Connecticut

28 comments:

Angelique said...

I'm in. I'll definitely be posting something for this, thanks!

Audra said...

Brilliant idea! I love it -- and I'm in. One week isn't enough to raise awareness. :)

Danielle said...

Hi. I just thought you'd like to know your post has been plagiarised;

http://abooksblog.com/2010/08/14/ban-this-2010/

j said...

"bigoted housewives on steroids" That is awesome! This is the perfect idea! I'm definitely in!

Donna (Bites) said...

Thanks for the heads up, Danielle. That actually looks like some kind of syndicate site where it picks up feeds from blogs. Still, they don't have permission to just lift the entire post's content and move it to another website. WTF is that about?

Shooting Stars Mag said...

Wonderful idea. Banned books are usually just the best ones. :-)

-Lauren

Marty Shaw said...

I am definitely in. Banned Books Week/Month is a great movement that needs to spread.

Your proclamation is right on the money.

Marty Shaw said...

bad Mr. Linky :oP

Don't know what was up with the triplicate entry but I'm on the list once again :o)

BURIED IN BOOKS said...

Don't know if I'll do anything but had a look at some of the lists. Captain Underpants! People have way too much time on their hands. I know teachers that have the whole series in their class. If it gets your kid to read, let him read it! And I died laughing about the sex and religion in the Twilight series. Where? I'm going to have to go back and read it again. I missed both! Thanks for bringing this to my attention! My local school system did not ban TTYL, but invited her to come and do a reading and discuss her book at the high school. Pretty cool!

Heather

Steph said...

Awesome post! Thank you for this!

Jessica said...

I really like this idea. I shall have to come up with some ideas on this topic for my blog. Once I do, I'll sign up on Mr. Linky.

Maybe I can find & brush off my old college paper on censorship on pull some ideas from it. Hmmm.


Thanks!

~M.A.CHASE said...

This sounds great! I'm totally in. Now I must find out what I'm going to write...

the story siren said...

oh my goodness Donna, where the hell did you find that Wisconsin site. That pissed me off to no avail. I just wanted to leave a comment on that post about the library.... as "are you fucking kidding me." but people like that are beyond reasoning. i'm so glad she is out there to protect all the poor children in wisconsin from those devil books. what would they do without her.

gah. i'm so freaggin pissed!

will be doing a shout out for banned books. might just have to find my own ya novel... one of those sex-how to book they were talking about over there and review that.... :P

Anne@HeadFullofBooks said...

Great Idea. For Now I am going to attach your Banned Books widget to my blog. I do a lot of activities in my library around Banned Books so I will make some posts at that time.
-Anne
http://headfullofbooks.blogspot.com

Anonymous said...

I am so in its not even funny. I have already started getting posts ready. I dont have to worry about material for September!

Lori Johnston said...

Great idea, please count me in!

squinto said...

Definitely, definitely in. And oh my gosh, that lady's website was horrific. Can't people grasp the concept of young adults being capable of choosing for themselves? Do they really think leaving us ignorant will help us in the long run?

Still laughing at Twilight being banned for sexually explicit material. Seriously?

Audra said...

Okay, my banned book post is up -- could you change the Mr Linky link for me, or should I submit again? Thank you!!

Kate E. said...

I'm planning a bunch of stuff for BBW over on my blog- but I love the idea of spreading it out for the whole month! I'm in- although the bulk of my stuff is lined up for the week of BBW :)

Anonymous said...

I am definitely in. Banned Books Week/Month is a great movement that needs to spread.

Nikki (Wicked Awesome Books) said...

This is a wonderful idea and I plan on joining in. I'm not sure what I'll be doing, but I'll definitely be doing something during the month.

Library Cat said...

Hi Donna,
This is Donna the LibrarysCat. Just so I am clear, it is ok for us to put the proclamation on our blog and ask that people come back to your blog to sign up - and then just post away with our seven books, etc....? I work in a library collecting children's materials, so I am excited!

Have a great vacation.

Emily said...

What a wonderful idea! I'm definitely doing something for this. People who think that they can make decision for other people or for other people's children drive me absolutely crazy. I don't tell them what to read, so they should kindly keep their mouths shut! I'll be writing up a list of banned books written by women, and doing a few reviews of banned books that I have read.

Franklin Beaumont said...

A great idea, and I'm glad to participate.

Peaceful Reader said...

I don't need another challenge yet this one is too important to pass up! I'll put together a post and sign on here! Thanks for hosting such a worthy challenge!

Lisa Potts said...

A little late to the party, I'm afraid, but my post is up. Thanks for organizing this!

RasoirJ said...

Banned Books Week is a more complex concept than it first appears. It seems the courts long ago opened the doors to the original canon of banned books - pornography - so the banners are now schools and libraries, not governments, and the banning seems mostly on grounds of age-appropriateness, political correctness, and the bureaucrat's fear of stirring up trouble. I've posted on the fruitlessness of book banning and Fanny Hill and will soon be considering Huckleberry Finn.

RasoirJ said...

Here's my take on Huck Finn and his banners - the greatest banned book of all: http://www.317am.net/2010/09/ras-huck-and-his-critics.html

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