{"id":348,"date":"2005-09-27T17:18:17","date_gmt":"2005-09-27T17:18:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.jasonbennion.com\/?p=348"},"modified":"2005-09-27T17:18:17","modified_gmt":"2005-09-27T17:18:17","slug":"stick_it_to_the_thought_police","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.jasonbennion.com\/index.php\/2005\/09\/27\/stick_it_to_the_thought_police\/","title":{"rendered":"Stick It To The Thought Police — Read a Banned Book"},"content":{"rendered":"

It’s the American Library Association’s Banned Books Week<\/a>, during which we remember the immortal words of Dr. Henry Jones, Sr., as portrayed by the immortal Sean Connery:<\/p>\n

“…gooshe-shtepping morons should try reading<\/i> booksh inshtead of barning<\/i> them!”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

“Barning” is, of course, Scottish for “burning.”<\/p>\n

I don’t know about you, but I find the very notion of banning books deeply offensive. I resent well-meaning busybodies taking it upon themselves to tell me what’s good for me or my children, if I had any. I resent authority figures that would presume to tell me or my hypothetical children what we should think. I resent the implication so often made by the self-appointed forces of morality and\/or political correctness that reading something — or viewing something or listening to something — that they dislike somehow makes me a sinner. Mostly I resent the fact that the books that most often come under fire from Those Who Would Protect Us From Ourselves are so frequently the ones that have the most value, to me personally as well as to society in general. Of course, there are also plenty of cases in which the targeted text is utterly innocuous and the whole thing leaves me scratching my head and wondering what anyone could find wrong with that<\/i>. Case in point: Where’s Waldo?<\/i>, which appears on the ALA’s list of the top 100 most frequently challenged books of 1990-2001. Where’s Waldo?<\/i> And they say Trekkies need to get a life.<\/p>\n

If you, like me, shudder at the thought of somebody like Ned Flanders — or Pat Robertson, if you’re looking for a real boogeyman — dictating what you can and cannot put into your brain, take a look at the ALA list. I’ll reproduce it below the fold, so just click on through. If you’re like me, you’ll recognize a lot of these titles from your childhood and young adulthood. Think about those books and ponder what they may have meant to you, even if they meant nothing more than a good read or something you were exposed to in one of your English classes. Let yourself get pissed off at the foolishness of trying to keep a book like S.E. Hinton’s The Outsiders<\/i> out of the hands of the kids who most need to read something like that, to have it speak to them and assure them that someone out there understands what they’re feeling and thinking, that they’re not freaks. Then select one of these horrible, evil, sinful titles that you haven’t read and pick it up from the library or bookstore in the next five days. Read it proudly, in public. Maybe one of those goose-stepping morons will dare to say something to you about it, and you’ll get the chance to do your Connery impression…<\/p>\n


\nThe 100 Most Frequently Challenged Books of 1990\u009620001<\/b><\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Scary Stories (Series) by Alvin Schwartz<\/li>\n
  2. Daddy\u0092s Roommate by Michael Willhoite<\/li>\n
  3. I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou<\/li>\n
  4. The Chocolate War by Robert Cormier<\/li>\n
  5. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain<\/li>\n
  6. Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck<\/li>\n
  7. Harry Potter (Series) by J.K. Rowling<\/li>\n
  8. Forever by Judy Blume<\/li>\n
  9. Bridge to Terabithia by Katherine Paterson<\/li>\n
  10. Alice (Series) by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor<\/li>\n
  11. Heather Has Two Mommies by Leslea Newman<\/li>\n
  12. My Brother Sam is Dead by James Lincoln Collier and Christopher Collier<\/li>\n
  13. The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger<\/li>\n
  14. The Giver by Lois Lowry<\/li>\n
  15. It\u0092s Perfectly Normal by Robie Harris<\/li>\n
  16. Goosebumps (Series) by R.L. Stine<\/li>\n
  17. A Day No Pigs Would Die by Robert Newton Peck<\/li>\n
  18. The Color Purple by Alice Walker<\/li>\n
  19. Sex by Madonna<\/li>\n
  20. Earth\u0092s Children (Series) by Jean M. Auel<\/li>\n
  21. The Great Gilly Hopkins by Katherine Paterson<\/li>\n
  22. A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L\u0092Engle<\/li>\n
  23. Go Ask Alice by Anonymous<\/li>\n
  24. Fallen Angels by Walter Dean Myers<\/li>\n
  25. In the Night Kitchen by Maurice Sendak<\/li>\n
  26. The Stupids (Series) by Harry Allard<\/li>\n
  27. The Witches by Roald Dahl<\/li>\n
  28. The New Joy of Gay Sex by Charles Silverstein<\/li>\n
  29. Anastasia Krupnik (Series) by Lois Lowry<\/li>\n
  30. The Goats by Brock Cole<\/li>\n
  31. Kaffir Boy by Mark Mathabane<\/li>\n
  32. Blubber by Judy Blume<\/li>\n
  33. Killing Mr. Griffin by Lois Duncan<\/li>\n
  34. Halloween ABC by Eve Merriam<\/li>\n
  35. We All Fall Down by Robert Cormier<\/li>\n
  36. Final Exit by Derek Humphry<\/li>\n
  37. The Handmaid\u0092s Tale by Margaret Atwood<\/li>\n
  38. Julie of the Wolves by Jean Craighead George<\/li>\n
  39. The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison<\/li>\n
  40. What\u0092s Happening to my Body? Book for Girls: A Growing-Up Guide for Parents & Daughters by Lynda Madaras<\/li>\n
  41. To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee<\/li>\n
  42. Beloved by Toni Morrison<\/li>\n
  43. The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton<\/li>\n
  44. The Pigman by Paul Zindel<\/li>\n
  45. Bumps in the Night by Harry Allard<\/li>\n
  46. Deenie by Judy Blume<\/li>\n
  47. Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes<\/li>\n
  48. Annie on my Mind by Nancy Garden<\/li>\n
  49. The Boy Who Lost His Face by Louis Sachar<\/li>\n
  50. Cross Your Fingers, Spit in Your Hat by Alvin Schwartz<\/li>\n
  51. A Light in the Attic by Shel Silverstein<\/li>\n
  52. Brave New World by Aldous Huxley<\/li>\n
  53. Sleeping Beauty Trilogy by A.N. Roquelaure (Anne Rice)<\/li>\n
  54. Asking About Sex and Growing Up by Joanna Cole<\/li>\n
  55. Cujo by Stephen King<\/li>\n
  56. James and the Giant Peach by Roald Dahl<\/li>\n
  57. The Anarchist Cookbook by William Powell<\/li>\n
  58. Boys and Sex by Wardell Pomeroy<\/li>\n
  59. Ordinary People by Judith Guest<\/li>\n
  60. American Psycho by Bret Easton Ellis<\/li>\n
  61. What\u0092s Happening to my Body? Book for Boys: A Growing-Up Guide for Parents & Sons by
    \nLynda Madaras<\/li>\n
  62. Are You There, God? It\u0092s Me, Margaret by Judy Blume<\/li>\n
  63. Crazy Lady by Jane Conly<\/li>\n
  64. Athletic Shorts by Chris Crutcher<\/li>\n
  65. Fade by Robert Cormier<\/li>\n
  66. Guess What? by Mem Fox<\/li>\n
  67. The House of Spirits by Isabel Allende<\/li>\n
  68. The Face on the Milk Carton by Caroline Cooney<\/li>\n
  69. Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut<\/li>\n
  70. Lord of the Flies by William Golding<\/li>\n
  71. Native Son by Richard Wright<\/li>\n
  72. Women on Top: How Real Life Has Changed Women\u0092s Fantasies by Nancy Friday<\/li>\n
  73. Curses, Hexes and Spells by Daniel Cohen<\/li>\n
  74. Jack by A.M. Homes<\/li>\n
  75. Bless Me, Ultima by Rudolfo A. Anaya<\/li>\n
  76. Where Did I Come From? by Peter Mayle<\/li>\n
  77. Carrie by Stephen King<\/li>\n
  78. Tiger Eyes by Judy Blume<\/li>\n
  79. On My Honor by Marion Dane Bauer<\/li>\n
  80. Arizona Kid by Ron Koertge<\/li>\n
  81. Family Secrets by Norma Klein<\/li>\n
  82. Mommy Laid An Egg by Babette Cole<\/li>\n
  83. The Dead Zone by Stephen King<\/li>\n
  84. The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain<\/li>\n
  85. Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison<\/li>\n
  86. Always Running by Luis Rodriguez<\/li>\n
  87. Private Parts by Howard Stern<\/li>\n
  88. Where\u0092s Waldo? by Martin Hanford<\/li>\n
  89. Summer of My German Soldier by Bette Greene<\/li>\n
  90. Little Black Sambo by Helen Bannerman<\/li>\n
  91. Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett<\/li>\n
  92. Running Loose by Chris Crutcher<\/li>\n
  93. Sex Education by Jenny Davis<\/li>\n
  94. The Drowning of Stephen Jones by Bette Greene<\/li>\n
  95. Girls and Sex by Wardell Pomeroy<\/li>\n
  96. How to Eat Fried Worms by Thomas Rockwell<\/li>\n
  97. View from the Cherry Tree by Willo Davis Roberts<\/li>\n
  98. The Headless Cupid by Zilpha Keatley Snyder<\/li>\n
  99. The Terrorist by Caroline Cooney<\/li>\n
  100. Jump Ship to Freedom by James Lincoln Collier and Christopher Collier<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    For those who may be interested in how you’d even go about compiling a top 100 list, here’s the disclaimer from the ALA that came with the list:<\/p>\n

    [These are the Top 100] out of 6,364 challenges reported to or recorded by the Office for Intellectual Freedom, as compiled by the Office for Intellectual Freedom, American Library Association. The ALA Office for Intellectual Freedom does not claim comprehensiveness in recording challenges. Research suggests that for each challenge reported there are as many as four or five which go unreported.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

    And on that happy note, I bid you good evening, and good reading…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    It’s the American Library Association’s Banned Books Week, during which we remember the immortal words of Dr. Henry Jones, Sr., as portrayed by the immortal Sean Connery: “…gooshe-shtepping morons should try reading booksh inshtead of barning them!” “Barning” is, of course, Scottish for “burning.” I don’t know about you, but I find the very notion […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-348","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-the-bookshelf"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jasonbennion.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/348","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jasonbennion.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jasonbennion.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jasonbennion.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jasonbennion.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=348"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.jasonbennion.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/348\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jasonbennion.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=348"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jasonbennion.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=348"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jasonbennion.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=348"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}