October 3, 2008
Chicagoist's Favorite Banned Books
For the past 27 years, the American Library Association has sponsored Banned Book Week, to celebrate freedom of expression and remind Americans not to take this "democratic freedom for granted." The ALA also publishes it's "Top Ten Most Challenged Books" annually citing books with the most "challenges"- formal, written complaints, filed with a library or school requesting that materials be removed because of content or appropriateness. The number one most challenged book in 2007 was And Tango Makes Three by Justin Richardson and Peter Parnell for being anti-ethnic, sexist, anti-family, homosexual, having religious viewpoints and being unsuitable to intended age groups. We here at Chicagoist admit we both enjoy inappropriate content and strongly believe in the freedom to have access to all books, regardless of subjective opinions on what a book should and shouldn't contain. To celebrate, we give you the Chicagoist staff picks of our favorite banned books. Please give a shout on what your favorites are as well...
Amy: The Lorax by Dr. Seuss, A Light in the Attic and Where the Sidewalk Ends by Shel Silverstein, Where's Waldo and, OF COURSE, Harry Potter!
Karl: I've certainly read and re-read all the Stephen King books on the list through high school - I'm reminded of something he said during a lecture about banning books (and I'm paraphrasing): "Whenever someone tries to keep you from reading something, that's exactly what you should be reading."
Prescott: My oldest son is named Holden, so take a guess which banned book I like.
Anthony: The Giver by Lowry and Weetzie Bat by Francesca Lia Block. Also, Radclyffe Hall's Well of Loneliness and Giovanni's Room by James Baldwin for the gay contingent.
Marcus: Tom Sawyer, Catcher in the Rye, To Kill a Mockingbird, Slaughterhouse Five, and Are you there God? It’s Me, Margaret. Oh, and the Harry Potters, too.
Lauri: Slaughterhouse Five and Brave New World.
Rob: Ray Bradbury! It makes total sense that a novel about book burning Fahreheit 451 would itself be banned. Also: The Celluloid Closet: Homosexuality in the Movies.
Chuck: Tropic of Cancer and Tropic of Capricorn. I bought my mother Henry Miller novels for Mother's Day in response to her sending me self-help books on my birthday. She hated the Tropics, but loved the Rosy Crucifixion Trilogy and especially Crazy Cock,where Miller was just starting to find his voice.
Ali: The Witches by Roald Dahl is definitely my pick.
Kevin: American Psycho - a hilarious satire of greed and materialism in Reagan's New York. The Chocolate War - I could identify with the alienation and stubborn refusal to participate, just to challenge the order of things, when I read it in middle school. Flowers for Algernon and Forever by Judy Blume, just because they are such sweet and emotionally honest books.
Ana: The Giver was hands-down the greatest book I ever read before high school. Anything Judy Blume guarantees candid discussion of adolescent taboos, hence my approval with an A++!
Laura:I'm going to go with Harry Potter and Grapes of Wrath.
Jacy: When I was in fourth grade some crazy parents tried to ban Anastasia Krupnik and created a huge school/city controversy. I wrote an open letter opposing the ban that was published in the city newspaper. It didn't get banned. Niiiiice.
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Wow....so these people basically just mentioned books you may have been required to read in a non-book-banning high school like The Giver or Catcher in the Rye and then many many shout outs to Harry Potter.
I thought this post might be interesting but half of these books are things I would've yawned over in junior high. Nothing more exciting than these?
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This is Awkward -
Well, I think that's because we chose books that were our "favorites" so I chose something in recent memory that I enjoyed, not necessarily searched my memory for something tantalizing. :)
This isn't a book but it's certainly interesting, if you're sort of into things that were banned and maybe we'll redeem ourselves a bit to you. ;)
There was a documentary shot in 1967 called Titicut Follies. It was about patients at the Bridgewater State hospital for the criminally insane. The film showed horrible treatment and the Massachusetts government tried to prevent the film from showing. Anyway, a legal case ensued and it went to the Supreme Court and the S.Ct. banned it and it was the first time in U.S. history that a film "was banned from general distribution for reasons other than obscenity, immorality, or national security." Admittedly, I pulled that quote from wikipedia but it's easily confirmed from the many web pages about the video.
It was allowed to be shown in 1991. I saw it on PBS and it was unlike anything I'd ever seen before. In one scene, a patient is strapped on a bed and a doctor feeds a tube in through his nose, down into his stomach. It has a funnel on the top. The doctor poured what looked like pancake batter into the funnel to feed the patient. The doctor's cigarette was dangling over the funnel. I can still picture it - now, 19 years later. Nuts, huh?
Anyway, I think it's actually available to the masses as of just a couple of years ago. I actually studied medical ethics because of it.
So! There's something banned - not a book, admittedly - that was always fascinating to me.
How about you? Any good books you like that were banned? I'm sort of curious about more of these, too!
-L.
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your child's name is holden? that *rules.*