Banned Books

[thegreatmissjj]

Originally posted at Uncreated Conscience.

As it’s Banned Books Week, I’ve been doing a bit of musing about the subject in the past few days. I just finished John Green’s most excellent PAPER TOWNS (review to follow soon), which I believe was challenged somewhere in this country, although for what conceivable reason I have no idea.

Comments

[solitaryrose14]

AMEN to that last line.

[katranna]

Hahaha. All the books I read as a kid. Although I quickly found BBC boring...

I wonder sometimes what my parents thought about the fact that I started reading all these cheap, crappy kids' series books after I had already spent several years going through all of Mark Twain, Chekhov, Tolstoy, and a fair amount of French sentimental writers ("Consuelo"--so awesome!). But they never seemed to care about vetting what either my sister or I read (or they wouldn't have let my sister read "Fractal Mode" when she was 9). I don't think they thought it would do any good.

[neveth]

The idea of my parents not letting me read something is laughable. I was reading Heinlein and Tolkien and Terry Brooks when I was 7. The only reason I didn't read Stranger in a Strange Land till high school was my parents explained I probably wouldn't understand all the sex bits and the symbolysm and so forth. I think I read Starship Troopers when I was in like 5th grade. But they strove to watch/read/know about everything I was interested in, so they could form educated reviews. I was forbidden movies far more than books, but I always knew they were doing it for my sake. I had/have serious problems with visual enactions of violence and terror. I'm 25 and Jurassic Park STILL makes me squirm and uncomfortable in parts. No WAY was I allowed to see it in theaters. I watched it with my parents after they watched it so they could tell me when to close my eyes.

[hotpinkmanolo]

I LOVED the Baby Sitter's Club books growing up, and my dad never "banned" books, although there were certain BSC books he wouldn't let me read until a little later because he didn't want me reading about them having boyfriends and stuff, mainly because I think he thought I was a little too young for that, which I think is fair.

But those books and other all got read once I got a teensy bit older and he never said anything else.