Banned Books published by Google

Lens Hood Man writes "Marking the 25th anniversary of Banned Books Week, Google is inviting users to celebrate their freedom to read by making Banned Books available to all. From the Google Blog: "...you can use Google Book Search to explore some of the best novels of the 20th century which have been challenged or banned." Those books challenged this year include 'To Kill a Mockingbird' and 'Lolita'."

Homework assignment

[BadAnalogyGuy]

When Humbert Humbert has sex with Lolita at the Enchanted Hunters for the first time, is Nabokov describing a rape or consensual sex?

these are banned?

[brunascle]

these books are actually banned? this lists sounds more like a list of required-reading books than banned books.

put Anarchist Cookbook on there. i dare you.

Good thing we have free medias like slashdot.

[Anonymous Coward]

If it weren't for these free speech forums, then information could possibly be censored so that no person knew about it! Examples include books about what's under the clay (if you dig 3 ft. you get clay), and books that claim yet cannot prove that certain politicians are cheating. Luckily those things can be posted here.

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The backyard hole / claymine website: http://amtgard.shop.tm/ [amtgard.shop.tm]

Re:Where's Stephen King...

[FishWithAHammer]

Heinlein. Card. Asimov. Sturgeon. Ellison.

King's very good, but "the best"?

Re:Just previews?

[jZnat]

Which is especially annoying for the books that are public domain...

Banned? Try heavily promoted.

[bbagnall]

I can't help but notice that most of these books have been carried everywhere since they were published: in every library, in every book store. Perhaps one small rural school system somewhere decided not to order it, hence they start crying about it being banned. That doesn't seem to be much of a ban. In contract, books that have really been banned don't appear on the list anywhere. For example, "Jewish Supremacism" by David Duke is officially banned in Canada and gets intercepted at the border and burned. That to me constitutes a real, actual banned book.

Re:Intellectual dishonesty

[Elemenope]

Sounds like someone doesn't live in hickville. Or belonged to a PTA anywhere. To believe that banning books is either temporally remote or over with is naive AND incorrect. These days parents seem to just are about different stuff, like 'promoting witchcraft' (Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings). And sometimes, they succeed for a time (till a suit or injunction slaps them back into shape). Same shite, different decade.

Re:I don't see how they are banned books...

[AhtirTano]

• 3. I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou -- Slavery apologetics.
• 5. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain -- We wouldn't want people to read anti-slavery propaganda
• 16. Goosebumps (Series) by R.L. Stine -- Childhood is a happy time, kids shouldn't get scared
• 22. A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle -- Too many kids were putting on gloves and trying to walk through walls.
• 40. What's Happening to my Body? Book for Girls: A Growing-Up Guide for Parents & Daughters by Lynda Madaras -- If you aren't sure how to explain the facts of life to your child, maybe they just shouldn't know.
• 41. To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee -- If kids learn to judge by facts instead of stereotypes, how are we going to win the War on Terror?
• 51. A Light in the Attic by Shel Silverstein -- Clearly a metaphor that people should have a clue.
• 56. James and the Giant Peach by Roald Dahl -- Reveals Monsanto's trade secrets
• 61. What's Happening to my Body? Book for Boys: A Growing-Up Guide for Parents & Sons by Lynda Madaras -- Too many young boys were made to feel inadequate.
• 88. Where's Waldo? by Martin Hanford -- Pictures of him dressed as Osama bin Laden are clearly taunting the Bush administration.
• 96. How to Eat Fried Worms by Thomas Rockwell -- Promotes fried foods, which are unhealthy.

Seriously: So many of the books on this list are completely and totally harmless. I can understand the challenges to "My Dad's Roommate" from a Christian perspective (Don't agree, but understand). But WTF is wrong with Waldo? "How to Eat Fried Worms" is a nice, innocent book. My mother is a conservative Mormon, and she loves to read it to her First Grade class every year.

The fact that many of these books make these lists says a lot about the mentality of people who want to ban books.

Re:Where's Stephen King...

[soft_guy]

I'd hardly call Heinlein a "hack". I'm not saying he's the most important writer ever, but a "hack"? No.

Interesting use of the word banned.

[LWATCDR]

If they are banned how is it I can go buy them? A more honest and less inflammatory term would be controversial books. At least in the US they are not truly banned. Maybe not available in some school libraries or even some public libraries but that isn't the same thing as banned.
Frankly I would like to see libraries "ban" more books.
Chariot of the Gods would be a good start.
Why wasn't the Bible on the list? It is banned in and or restricted heavily in many countries.
Also I didn't see any Holocaust denial books or pro Nazi books on the list. Those have been banned in many countries as well.
If you are going to pretend that you support freedom of speech I guess posting a list of books "banned" in some US high schools is a freaking safe way to do it.
I have to admit that publishing a book online that you can can buy at most any book store in the US really does make up for censoring pro-democracy cites in China. Good for you Google. Let us all bask in your "Celebration of the Freedom to Read".
I think I will go puke now.

Re:Banned...

[Ellis D. Tripp]

Perhaps the reason behind banning such books is to PREVENT "the ability to think freely and creatively, and develop critical thinking and reasoning skills".

Such abilities are dangerous to existing power structures, be they governmental or religious.

Re:Well, things are better here

[drinkypoo]

Uh, no. We get a picture of Tipper Gore [wikipedia.org]. I dislike the republicans as much as the next guy, but it doesn't mean I forget that the Democrats are a bunch of assholes too. Tipper Gore (as per the link) got all hot and bothered when she heard her daughter listening to a Prince album and it flustered her so much she went the wrong direction and tried to get all kinds of great music banned.

Re:Well, things are better here

[Grishnakh]

I dislike the republicans as much as the next guy, but it doesn't mean I forget that the Democrats are a bunch of assholes too.

That's why they're called Republicrats. Two sides of the same coin.

Re:Just previews?

[IAmTheDave]

It's cool - I've read about 60-70% of the books on the list.

It's odd - Call of the Wild has been challenged?

It's informative - I've just started reading The Satanic Verses, and now i have a new reading list

It's missing? - I can't believe Farenheit 451 isn't on that list...

It's scary - many people in the world are denied access to these books.

It's scarier - many people in this country would have these books banned

It's sad - in 100 years, who knows if we'll all still have access to these books.

It's encouraging - challenges, even recently, to these books in schools and libraries have failed - let's hope history repeats itself in such a fashion for years to come.

Missing words

[xant]

Notably absent from these pages are the words "in the United States". This list would be a hell of a lot longer if we included books banned by, for example, Nazi Germany. (Uh oh, I feel a Godwin coming on.)

I realize Google is based in the US and this isn't necessarily even an accusation of USA-centrism (why would I even object? I'm a US citizen myself..) but it is a factual omission that seems important considering this will be seen by Google's hundreds of millions of users all over the world.

Re:Just previews?

[Anonymous Coward]

I can't believe Farenheit 451 isn't on that list...

Has anyone actually been irony-impaired enough to call for a ban on a book about (in part)... banning books?

Re: Google China and Banned books, Irony?

[triumph_larry]

Sort of ironic to celebrate Google's showing these banned books when Google China agreed to censor itself.

Re:Banning a book is ok!

[99BottlesOfBeerInMyF]

Let me remind you that the Islamic-Fascist's go one better: attempt to kill the author. Salman Rushdie and the cartoonists that drew the Mohammed cartoons in Denmark have had to live in hiding

I find the news coverage and people's opinions of the cartoon issue very interesting. Certain rabble rousers intentionally tried to cause trouble over the cartoons, the the point of sending ones they created and which had never been published anywhere to newspapers and to religious zealots in many countries. And yet, I saw not in one place, but in many, Muslim clerics placing themselves between an embassy and a mob throwing stones and trying to calm the situation and prevent violence. Islamic culture won big points in my mind that day.

I just picture a bunch of hicks from rural America showing up at an Iranian embassy after the widespread publication and promotion of pictures of jesus being sodomized. Then, to put it in context, I picture this happening in Texas, months after an army of middle easterners had conquered Mexico, bombing cities and sending frightened refugees to hide in the USA. Where each of these hicks knew some old friend or relative or friend of a friend or friend of a relative who had lost a mother or son or child to the bombings. And then I pictured all this happening after the President of Iran had made comments about how they should invade the US too, since the US had aided Mexico and all those christians were violent sodomites. With this picture in my mind, I wondered how many local pastors and priests in texas would be there, placing themselves between the rocks and the mob, and the Iranian embassy.

Yes Virgina, evil exists and it wants to kill you.

I don't approve of censorship or murder, but I do understand why people are convinced that both are right in certain circumstances. Lets just be sure not to pre judge people based upon religion or ethnicity. A catholic, muslim, or atheist is equally capable of promoting fascism.

Re:Where the hell is Mein Kampf?

[bigpat]

Plus, may I be the first to say, that putting online all books that have been banned at one time and at one place in human history would be a very huge work and probably would result in a digitalization of the entire litterature.

I believe digitization of our entire literature is the goal. Think big.

Re:Homework assignment

[tinkerghost]

Have you ever actually read that book?!
Good god; voilence, terrorism, fratricide, sex, rape, a whole section devoted to love poems - writen by a self proclaimed polygamist!, calls to vigilante justice. We just can't be letting anyone read that book!
Nope, of any of the books I've seen people protest over, the bible has more & worse.

Re:Just previews?

[IAmTheDave]

Has anyone actually been irony-impaired enough to call for a ban on a book about (in part)... banning books?

No need to let people know the actual consequences of letting governments sensor reading materials...

Re:Can somone explain ....

[T.E.D.]

I suspect "challenged" means that someone attmpted to ban it.

A "ban" would typically refer to a law or ordinace passed which either removes said book from libraries, or prohibits its sale. Due to the way our Federal government works a lot of power devolves on states and on small municipalities, which aren't always run by the sharpest tools in the shed, if you know what I mean. They can ban or attempt to bad all sorts of stupid stuff for the most trivial of reasons. Getting something like that overturned on constitutional grounds is a long process.

For example, when I was a kid in the early 80's our city government banned The Garbagepail Kids [garbagepailkidsworld.com] because they thought they were gross and would thus hurt kids somehow. Of course all that did was generate a heap of free publicity for the stupid things. Kids who'd never heard of them suddenly started collecting them.

Re:Not a Black and White issue.

[thelonious_cube]

I'm not sure that justifies removing it from the curriculum. Shouldn't they be trying to ADD something contemporary to the curriculum and lobbying for teachers to use it? Why present this in terms of banning a book that does, in fact, criticize racism and is a great book? Sounds like a bad way to go about it to me.

The same thing goes on constantly with "Huckleberry Finn" - at least I assume it's similar - it is always presented in the press as being motivated by use of the N-word, but is perhaps more sophisticated than that (if still just as wrongheaded in my view)

BTW - minor point - Harper Lee is a woman

Re:"Islamo-Fascists"

[psykocrime]

Maybe, but fascism is a good discription of what they, the Islamo-Fascist, want. A world wide totalitarian society with scrict information control, progroms, purges, and thought policing by a central Islamic government called the Caliphate.

Fascism is also a good description of the ideology of the Neo-Cons here in the US. It's almost funny how we have one group of fascists calling another group fascists. It brings to mind that old quote from Huey Long:

When fascism comes to America, it will come wrapped in an American flag

Or, Long's response to the question of whether or not Fascism would ever come to the US:

Yes, but in America, we'll call it anti-fascism.

Re:Banning a book is ok!

[metlin]

I just picture a bunch of hicks from rural America showing up at an Iranian embassy after the widespread publication and promotion of pictures of jesus being sodomized.

Listen to yourself - you are equating a funny picture showing the real state of affairs (i.e. the trend of Islamic states heading towards terrorism) to an intentionally offensive one of showing a religious head performing sexual acts.

Did they show Allah making out with a naked guy? All they did was have a comic commenting on Islamic terrorism, and a very valid one at that.

I'm sorry, Islam by itself may not be violent, but a significant chunk of Muslims out there are increasinly turning to a violent version of the religion. You can say all you want about hicks and conservatives, but their percentages are way lower.

Heck, you see comics and cartoons involving almost every religion in a lot of democractic countries -- the thing is, you can publish a funny cartoon of Jesus in the US and people would perhaps even laugh at it. Good luck trying to publish one in Saudi or Pakistan.

Re:I don't see how they are banned books...

[orkysoft]

It takes a frustrated fundie to even notice that...

Re:Homework assignment

[Garrett Fox]

Thomas Paine, Deist, famously agreed with you in his book The Age of Reason [infidels.org]:

"Whenever we read the obscene stories, the voluptuous debaucheries, the cruel and torturous executions, the unrelenting vindictiveness, with which more than half the Bible is filled, it would be more consistent that we called it the word of a demon, than the Word of God. It is a history of wickedness, that has served to corrupt and brutalize mankind; and, for my own part, I sincerely detest it, as I detest everything that is cruel."

And ironically, the Bible's got its own clear policy on censorship: Deu 13 [biblegateway.com]. But historically, it was probably banned for that content far less often than for the fact that it encourages people to worship something other than the State.