Hate-inspired novels

Lindsey writes “”The Turner Diaries didn’t just inspire a lot of extremist violence — it also inspired a lot of extremely violent novels.” Read the article by Camille Jackson on the Southern Poverty Law Center’s website:
http://www.splcenter.org/intel/intelreport/article .jsp?aid=490
As librarians, should we include these books in our collections? If we do, can we defend our choice to potentially outraged patrons? If we don’t, are we censoring? Would we purchase them if we live in a community with diversity problems? Are they indefensible in a library collection?”

October 28, 2004 by Uncategorized 6

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6 Responses

  1. GregS* says:
    October 28, 2004 at 2:34 am

    intent
    I’ve no problem tossing this book. I have no problem tossing Baker’s Checkpoint. Its one thing to disparage ideas, religion, or race but its quite another to say “now grab a gun and start shooting.”

    Reply
  2. lordjim_2001 says:
    October 28, 2004 at 5:58 am

    inspired violence
    I have to ask but since you did bring up the violence bit do you have some examples of the extreme violence that the Turner Diaires has inspired? Include The hit man and Hunter as well.

    For those wondering, these are all avaliable through Delta Press (deltapress.com and use the drop down menu at the top to select “Krause Publicaitons.”)

    Reply
  3. lordjim_2001 says:
    October 28, 2004 at 5:59 am

    Re:inspired violence
    oops, instead of “Krause publications” choose “Black medicine and poisons pg 31”.

    Reply
  4. ChuckB says:
    October 28, 2004 at 6:45 pm

    Re:inspired violence

    Thank you, lordjim 2001, for asking for evidence backing up the assertion about violence inspired by The Turner Diaries.

    It may well have inspired violence, and if it did, I want to know about it. But too often, people make or repeat assertions about matters of fact while having no good evidence to support their assertions. Then, the assertions just hang there in the air, until they fossilize into “what everybody knows”, at which point it becomes difficult to speak the truth about the matter.

    Reply
  5. GregS* says:
    October 28, 2004 at 7:24 pm

    Re:inspired violence
    first two paragraphs:

    “Few works of fiction have moved readers to action quite like The Turner Diaries. Written under a pseudonym by William Pierce, late founder of the neo-Nazi National Alliance, the bloody race-war novel has been dubbed the “bible of the racist right” by the FBI.

    Published in 1978, The Turner Diaries has fueled some of the last two decades’ most infamous outbreaks of extremist violence, including Timothy McVeigh’s bombing of the Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City. Although The Turner Diaries may be the most famous such novel, it is neither the first nor the last novelized version of dire conspiracies and drastic solutions.”

    Reply
  6. lmregan says:
    October 29, 2004 at 4:47 pm

    Re:inspired violence
    Well, Timothy McVeigh’s bombing of the Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City is the most famous, but there are many others. Read about it in the article at http://www.splcenter.org/intel/intelreport/article .jsp?aid=490

    Reply

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