librarian sees increase in number of banned books

The North Texas Daily has one on a lecture on the history of banned books and information given by Frances May, Coordinator of User Education and Outreach. The presentation, hosted by the Texas Academy of Math and Science, gave brief background information about the beginnings of censorship and detailed what May feels are the positive aspects of books challenged mostly by concerned parents.

March 31, 2004 by Blake Uncategorized 7

Eli says:

March 31, 2004 at 8:38 pm

Banned Books
It seems that our society has evolved from a system that designates age appropriate materials to banning what we don’t like or disagree with the contents. Things are so polarized that emotions and fears take center stage. One side feels that everything should be availble to all reading levels and the other side fears the indiscriminate distribution of appropriate and inappropriate materials. In a sense both opinions need to be addressed.

Wouldn’t it be better if standards applied in a way that could both retain intellectual freedom and take into account sensitivities. The system needs to be evaluted to include all readership. Any other way keeps polarization and a need for perceived protective measures. Limiting readership of a title does not mean banning it.
Would you give a ten year old a copy of Tropic of Cancer?

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pchuck says:

March 31, 2004 at 9:39 pm

This story is a mess.
This article is a mess.

First Toni Morrison didn’t win a Nobel Peace Prize, she won a Nobel Prize for Literature.

Second, what does this statement mean: “May said parents have expressed heightened fears for their children’s exposure to negative issues since 9-11.”? There is nothing else in the story about 9-11. The next paragraphs discuss censoring Huck Finn. From what I gather the main problem people have with Huck Finn is that it uses strong language (specifically one word) and this is usually attacked because it is insensitive. I’ve never heard anyone going after Huck Finn because of concerns about terrorism.

Also, why was the speaker crying?

WTF?

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Fang-Face says:

March 31, 2004 at 10:58 pm

I wonder what she knows.

Noting that the number of books that have been challenged has risen considerably in the past two years, May said parents have expressed heightened fears for their children’s exposure to negative issues since 9-11.

I haven’t noticed any great jump in the number of book bannings or challenges myself over the last couple of years, but I only track censorship movements through what I find in the news. Although, in the last couple of years Harry Potter has been subjected to censorship through efforts to ban the entire series rather than as individual volumes, and there was that simple-minded fool in Brooklyne ISD, Texas, who unilaterally banned all Stephen King novels from the schools.

Any perception of heightened efforts at censorship could simply derive from a greater sensitivity to the issue and the fact that people are reporting on such incidents more frequently.

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pchuck says:

March 31, 2004 at 11:23 pm

Re:I wonder what she knows.
I wonder what she knows.

Well, we will never find out from this article. I certainly don’t blame the poster from posting the article. I blame the author. This sounds like a interesting story, but that is about it. I would have liked to seen some relevant data rather than irrelevant anecdotal evidence.

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rochelle says:

March 31, 2004 at 11:27 pm

college newspapers
I’ve learned that college newspapers are not, generally, hotbeds of journalistic talent and integrity. I regularly wince at stuff I see in our local state college paper that I pick up once in awhile. Kinda like watching college tv-lab news broadcasts. Not that bits of brilliance don’t occassionally come out, but this sho’ nuff wasn’t one of them.

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Anonymous Patron says:

March 31, 2004 at 11:30 pm

Re:I wonder what she knows.
I work on the UNT campus and the North Texas Daily is not the most accurate newspaper out there. It is a student newspaper and they are still learning their craft as they produce the paper.
Some stories are well written and some stories provide more enjoyment at finding the mistakes made than enlightenment to the reader. One notorious story had a reporter run spell check and she ended up changing most of the people’s first and last names in the newsstory because they weren’t in the spell check dictionary.

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pchuck says:

March 31, 2004 at 11:52 pm

Re:I wonder what she knows.
A college paper. That answers a lot of questions. I must say, it has the look of a real regional newspaper.

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