Celebrate Banned Books Week!
John's written a great omnibus post pointing to several worthy celebrations of Banned Books Week all around the net:
Banned Books Week is really about two different, but related, things. The first of these, the focus of sites like Amnesty’s and the “Books Suppressed or Censored by Legal Authorities” section of my exhibit, deals with attempts to restrict who is allowed to speak about what matters to them. And in a lot of the world, the right to speak out is severely and violently repressed. The other day I added to my online books collection a number of titles from Human Rights Watch, which has many books, press releases, and other publications about grave threats to freedom of the press and freedom to protest in places like Burma, Chile, China, Cuba, Pakistan, Turkey, Venezuela, various Middle Eastern and African countries, former Soviet republics, and many other places around the world.Why Banned Books Week matters (Thanks, John!)Americans enjoy a country with a much freer press than the countries above (and indeed, a freer press than we had in my grandparents’ day). We’re not perfect; our legal system does sometimes suppress legitimate expression, for a time at least, in the name of security, copyright, or “the children”. (And sometimes the threat of criminal violence can suppress books when the law does not.) It is worth remembering the important books that can be published thanks to the free press, and not to take them for granted.
the latest
latest episodes
I should send Sarah Palin a Hallmark card for the occassion.
Does the name Wilhelm Reich ring any bells among US readers?
Local bookstores have been setting up really sassy displays of all these banned books. It is heartening to see all these good juicy books all together in one place. Fear of Flying was in there... zipless fuck anyone? And the Lorax. Catcher in the Rye, a ton of other really good ones. I hope the economy goes all to hell and we just have to eat peanut butter and macaroni and read (and trade) books.
Library links to the 100 most challenged books from 1990-2000 (as compiled by the ALA):
http://www.worldcat.org/profiles/andyhavens/lists/198220
Thinking about banned book week I went out and finally got a new library card. Most of the controversial stuff was taken but I did borrow some art stuff that I should catch up on.
@2
I'm american, and yes. I've also heard that "The Iron Heel" by Jack London (precursor to Orwell's 1984) suffered a similar fate for a while.
They wouldn't let my government teacher in high school assign 1984. (Small town, south Mississippi.) They claimed it was the sex. I stole a copy from Barnes and Noble and devoured it.
#2
Yep. Was introduced to him by reading Burroughs and some medical anthropology / medical sociology texts.
I always thought his concept of body armor was interesting and relevant to my own experience. I believe most people become rigid in the presence of emotional pain, tensing up before a blow that will never actually arrive. And it is so nice, when you feel protected and loved, to allow your body to soften and your movements to flow.
Can't say I believe in orgone, though. To me, orgone theory is magical thinking, not scientific thinking.
Wilhelm Reich was definitely one of a kind all right. He was a big fan of J. Edgar Hoover too.
http://drvitelli.typepad.com/providentia/2008/04/the-case-agains.html
Books are not banned in Venezuela! This is totally false. FYI: Venezuela is a democracy with regular, transparent elections where citizens exercise their right to freedom of speech. The Bush regime wants to give Chavez a bad rap, but don't be fooled.
As I noted in a reply to a similar comment on my blog, the source for my claim that Venezuela is among the countries where there are "grave threats to freedom of the press and freedom to protest" is not the Bush administration, but Human Rights Watch.
For details, see their recent report: A Decade Under Chávez:
Political Intolerance and Lost Opportunities for Advancing Human Rights in Venezuela.
Venezuela is hardly alone in the world in its attempts to censor dissent, but that doesn't mean we should ignore what's going on there and in other countries (some of which are US allies, some of which are not).
This week on "The New Adventures of Queen Victoria" by Pab Sungenis he has been celebrating "Banned Book Week" with "special guest Sarah Palin"...I thought you might want to see this morning's strip:
http://images.ucomics.com/comics/naqv/2008/naqv081002.gif