K2Jul 20
Viss
barnes and noble, right as you walk in the door :D
Jul 19 at 9:51pmTusky
Show threadHomewreckin Carnival GirlJul 19
@Viss the worst is that many of these were assigned reading through HS and college.
Show threadVissJul 19
@h2onolan yeah i found 5 that i had to read
Show threadHomewreckin Carnival GirlJul 19
@Viss imagine if B&N sold the stack at a discount for Little Free Library distribution ops.
Show threadAlexJul 19
@Viss always been a cozy place.
Show threadmastodonphanJul 19
@Viss Wow, these book-banning, dick-tater-sucking idiots really showing their whole ass by banning The Handmaid's Tale and 1984.
Show threadSpace Catitude πŸš€Jul 19

@Viss

"The Odyssey"? 

Show threadDebbie BelairJul 19
@Viss It's a terrible time to be an author, especially a beginning one.πŸ€”
Show threadJohnWJul 20

@Viss

It's pretty apparent our dear leaders have never read dark fantasy. 😘 πŸ‰

Never, ever in a million years will they be able to control the outflow of artistic diversity (add as many X's to the ratings as you want, lol.)

Show threadJack Yan (η”„ηˆ΅ζ©)Jul 20
@Viss Holy heck, Fahrenheit 451 and The Alchemist are banned?! (Obviously not at this location but presumably elsewhere in your country?)
Show threadVissJul 20
@jackyan california tends to not just fall in line like 'the south' does, and like texas does.
Show threadJack Yan (η”„ηˆ΅ζ©)Jul 20
@Viss Good on California!
Aw man, just spotted To Kill a Mockingbird. WTF?!
Show threadVissJul 20
@jackyan yesh this is gonna be one of those 'the harder you look the more you get angry' sorta deals
Show threadSuzanne Aldrich (she/her)Jul 20
@Viss @jackyan as a California drama, chorus, and English junior high school teacher, my mom had to contest with parents’ objections about various elements of the plays and musicals she was directing, as well as the books she was assigning to students in classes. If there was any witchcraft, or supernatural elements, the fundamentalists were likely to question it. With the other tomes in the referenced pile, it would be anything sexual or controversial in nature.
Show threadVissJul 20
@suzannealdrich @jackyan my highschool got famous because a vice principal was checking to make sure students were wearing underwear to prom
Show threadBob LeFridge  Jul 20

"Vice" principal, snigger.

@Viss @suzannealdrich @jackyan

Show threadMartin Vermeer FCDJul 20
@BobLefridge @Viss @suzannealdrich @jackyan At least he didn't check what was in that underwear - I assume. That's where things stand today.
Show threadJack Yan (η”„ηˆ΅ζ©)Jul 20
@martinvermeer @BobLefridge @Viss @suzannealdrich Creepyβ€”and gross. These fundamentalists are obsessed.
Show threadJack Yan (η”„ηˆ΅ζ©)Jul 20
@Viss @suzannealdrich Creepy.
Show threadJack Yan (η”„ηˆ΅ζ©)Jul 20
@suzannealdrich @Viss Gosh, whatever your mom was paid, it wasn’t enough. These sorts of objections are so foreign to me, though I’m sure if I searched I would find some that happened here. But I suspect it’s remarkably rare. I can’t understand why parents would get so up tight about these thingsβ€”just let the kids get on and have some fun!
Show threadSuzanne Aldrich (she/her)Jul 20
@jackyan @Viss I agree, it was never enough pay for the service she gave to her community. It was depressing how parents would obstruct her lesson plans for small minded reasons, or how when teachers strike the district would force them to choose between pay raises or future benefits. Meanwhile my mom was a real Renaissance woman. A Northwestern University trained music educator who came to the SF Bay in the 60s and became a folk musician, then later a public school teacher. Decades of inspiring students in Windsor and Healdsburg schools to try their best, be their best selves, strive to understand the other side of the story, practice the script and put together a production with your class, walk out on stage and express themselves in front of hundreds of strangers, take critique graciously, and everything else that goes along with learning how to be a human being. In some cases my mom taught three generations of the same family. Everyone knew her and would always greet their teacher, Ms. Aldrich, when we were walking down the street or shopping.
Show threadJack Yan (η”„ηˆ΅ζ©)Jul 21
@suzannealdrich @Viss Those parents certainly are small-minded! The only thing I suppose they get out of it is some temporary sense of joy from being a bullyβ€”but this is a woman who is educating their kids! Shows how little they actually care about education.
Good on your mom for not just her amazing history but for being so (deservedly) admired by generations in the community. Teachers are awesome.
Show threadSuzanne Aldrich (she/her)Jul 21
@jackyan @Viss Yes, here’s to teachers! They are heroes and should be held up in our communities! ☺️
Show threadBeccaJul 20

@jackyan @Viss It's a table full of the books that used to be required reading in school, pre-fascism.

Rarely have I read every book on a table in a photo, but... this was easy.

Show threadJack Yan (η”„ηˆ΅ζ©)Jul 20
@bweller @Viss Pretty rare for me, too, so I was surprised I had read quite a few of them! I even published an edition of Nineteen Eighty-Four. I released it on the day Mangolini was sworn in.
Show threadLoJul 20
@jackyan @Viss According to https://bannedbooks.library.cmu.edu/ (mentioned elswhere in the thread) it was banned at two instances due to it containing racial slurs.
The Banned Books Project – @Carnegie Mellon University

Show threadJack Yan (η”„ηˆ΅ζ©)Jul 20
@zner0L @Viss Thank you for looking. I read up on what Black scholars thought about these slurs and (correct me if I have this wrong) their position was to leave them in but note the lived experience of Black people in the context. In a classroom setting, I would hope this is what would happen. We read this at school and racism was discussed, but that’s New Zealand and we didn’t have anyone in our class who identified as Black back in 1990. I’ll defer to others who are better versed on this …
Show threadLoJul 20
@jackyan @Viss For sure, my intention was not to say that book bans are legitimate in this case or couldn't otherwise be dealt with in an education setting. However, I think it is important to make the distinction that many of these books are not actually banned explicitly bc they are seen as hostile by the current US government, which seems to be what the thread (in my corner of fedi) has converged to.
Show threadObot 50549535Jul 20

@jackyan @Viss I think the criterion is not necessarily "are banned now" but "were banned at some time somewhere."

Handy reference:
https://bannedbooks.library.cmu.edu/

The Banned Books Project – @Carnegie Mellon University

Show threadJack Yan (η”„ηˆ΅ζ©)Jul 20
@obot50549535 @Viss Thank you, that makes sense.
Show threadFumblingAboutJul 20
@jackyan @Viss "Book bans," as they occur in the US, generally refers state or local school districts that disallow grade schools to include these books in school library collections, the curriculum, and/or for educators to promote to students. There isn't literature that is illegal to own. Furthermore, displays like this often include books that have been banned at some point in some place, even if it is no longer current or was never banned within the US.
Show threadJack Yan (η”„ηˆ΅ζ©)Jul 20
@FumblingAbout @Viss Thank you for clarifying. Some of these are pretty tame! Like The Alchemist. Nice, simple book that’s clearly fiction, and pretty harmless. Really hard to imagine someone getting that upset over it, but evidently someone did.
Show threadFumblingAboutJul 20
@jackyan @Viss I'm not familiar with that particular title, but sometimes the reasons for bans can be outright absurd.
Show threadHiker Geek πŸŒ²πŸ’»πŸŒ²Jul 20

@Viss

I found this PEN America page about school 2023-2024 bans. From their page:

"PEN America found 10,046 instances of individual books banned, affecting 4,231 unique titles."

Wow, that's a lot of bans.

https://pen.org/book-bans/pen-america-index-of-school-book-bans-2023-2024/

PEN America Index of School Book Bans – 2023-2024 - PEN America

PEN America's 2022-2023 Index of Banned Books found 3,362 instances of books banned, affecting 1,557 unique titles. This searchable banned book list includes each documented ban.

PEN America
Show threadVissJul 20
@HikerGeek its pretty bad
Show threadThomas WassermannJul 20

@HikerGeek @Viss

As long as critical books are banned, it is advisable to read permitted books with particular skepticism.
Β© Werner Braun (1951-2006), German aphorist

Show threadVHG πŸ‡ͺπŸ‡ΊπŸ‡ΊπŸ‡¦Jul 20
@HikerGeek @Viss I assume β€œmein Kampf” is non of those, as it got no sex scenes 🀑
Show threadR. C. SalasJul 20

@Viss I bought a few titles off of the "banned books" table at B&N when I was in the US a few years back.

I'm actually surprised that there isn't actually a banned books _aisle_ now. Or several.

Show threadMartin Vermeer FCDJul 20
@Viss Using book bans as a reading recommendation, like the Lord intended
Show threadFightScoreJul 20
@Viss "Banned books" is probably a foreign phrase that means "required reading" in English. πŸ€”
Show threadGraham CJul 20
@Viss slaughterhouse 5 was banned? What in tarnation
Show threadPxl PhileJul 20

@Viss I don't know why people still suggest reading "The Catcher in the Rye". The writing style sucks as much as Holden's personal development.

But we're in luck because there's basically no plot, as well.

Show threadVHG πŸ‡ͺπŸ‡ΊπŸ‡ΊπŸ‡¦Jul 20
@Viss cool
Show threadπŸŸ₯ Eveline Sulman πŸ‡³πŸ‡±πŸ‡ͺπŸ‡ΊπŸ‡ΊπŸ‡¦Jul 20
@Viss with that title, these books will be popular!
Show threadsbiJul 20
@Viss I recently found something similar here in Berlin: https://toot.berlin/@sbi/114720127483475626
sbi (@sbi@toot.berlin)

Attached: 1 image My local bookstore has put up a section with books banned from US libraries.

toot.BERLIN