the 2 types of banned books

america.MP4

#bannedbooks

[paul_warner]

"why was this one banned?"
"a little too historically accurate"

[shinkaiatsuya]

Saw a bookshelf of banned books, had 1984 and Captain Underpants. Never thought I'd see them in the same section.

[saucevc]

You forgot the third kind:
"This book was banned in the Cold War for being communist propaganda."
"Oh so it was a Russian book then?"
"No, it was banned in Soviet Russia for being capitalist propaganda."
"... What?"

[masenformen]

And who could forget the classic "books about how racism is bad banned for having racism in it" section?

[casperrabbit]

Reminds me about the banned or censored episodes of Pokémon
"Why was this one banned?"
"Oh a kaiju Pokémon destroys a building and it premiered close to 9/11 and they didn't want to upset any kids."
"Fair enough. And this one?"
"It contained heavy strobing effects and they didn't want to trigger any kids with photosensitive epilepsy."
"Sounds fine. And this one?"
".... James wears a bikini complete with fake tits."

[DragonsRuby]

I absolutely love going through banned books lists because you'll find the craziest stuff on there! 'To Kill A Mockingbird' is banned for repeated uses of a racial-slur as well as its implications of sexual assault, 'A Clockwork Orange' for depicting ultraviolence and heavily disturbing material, and 'Captain Underpants' for having gross-out humor.

[darriendane]

agree, absolutely devastating they took Frog and Toad away from us like that.

[theshire]

And the Diary of Anne Frank was banned because there’s an entry where she writes about getting her first period, because that’s so horrible, clearly the worst thing that happened in that book

[sigh]

While I was growing up, in 3rd or 4th grade (i don’t remember), I was assigned My Brother Sam is Dead. This is a book that ended with most of the cast is either decapitated or stabbed to death by soldiers, an entire house of slaves was burned alive, and the only one left was a kid who got stabbed in the eye by a bayonet.

Nowadays the exact same school district is trying to ban a book about a kid who loves broadway.

[anonymousanonymous]

Rumour has it you can read banned books with gay characters, so long as you whisper “no homo” every page.

[drewsify]

Fun fact: 1984 was banned in the US for being pro communist, and banned in china for being anti-communist. The book is neither, and is anti authoritarianism.

[unfathomable]

I remember they banned Watchmen from my school in year 7 along with a bunch of other comics and books and I brought it in this year and literally no one cared, banned books more like schmanned looks

[joybrockway]

One time my school banned “7 Habits of a Highly Effective Teen” because it “had topics that are better for a parent-child conversation” …
And then we read 1984

[qjellyyy]

you forgot type 3, "valid criticism of the government"

[kaseywahl]

"If you were to bother to read my books, to behave as educated persons would, you would learn that they are not sexy, and do not argue in favor of wildness of any kind. They beg that people be kinder and more responsible than they often are. It is true that some of the characters speak coarsely. That is because people speak coarsely in real life. Especially soldiers and hardworking men speak coarsely, and even our most sheltered children know that. And we all know, too, that those words really don’t damage children much. They didn’t damage us when we were young. It was evil deeds and lying that hurt us."

--Kurt Vonnegut, in a letter titled "I am very real" responding to a school burning copies of his masterpiece, Slaughterhouse Five

One of the only letters I've ever read that truly sticks with me.

[corbans]

As a child I wasn't allowed to watch the lion kind due to an implied gay relationship between Simon and Pumba.

[greyowlaudio]

"The only thing worse than being a witch is being a gay witch." -Texas probably

[danhendricks]

My favorite part was when *REDACTED* went and did *REDACTED* with their *REDACTED* but honestly that mention of witchcraft was a little much for me.

[columbidaze-p]

Shoutout to 'And Tango Makes Three', a board book about penguins, which was challenged because the penguins committed penguin genocide! Just kidding, it's 'cause it was based on a true story about a bonded pair of two male penguins adopting and raising a chick together.

[thelordbaltimore]

Literally shaking right now thinking about how the book “It’s Morbin Time” could be snatched from our elementary and high school grasps, simply because Jared Leto is in it.