BookFinder.com Journal

Banned books and challenges

It's Banned Books Week very shortly and as a ramp up I was looking at some material about which books had been banned or challenged in the past few years, which is where I came across this map.  I think it's really interesting to see, partly because I thought I might see a state or region pushing ahead in the number of bans, but in reality it almost looks like the population distribution.  So much for my conspiracy theories.

Strangely enough no one found anything shocking enough to challenge in Las Vegas, go figure.

Manga ruled as child pornography by US Court

I just had this io9 article sent to me which revolves around a literary censorship issue that has erupted.

A prolific collector of various types of manga in Iowa faces 15 years in prison because some of the books in his collection appeared to depict minors engaged in sexual acts. 

From a Wired article on the case:

Christopher Handley, described by his lawyer as a “prolific collector” of manga, pleaded guilty last week to mailing obscene matter, and to “possession of obscene visual representations of the sexual abuse of children.” Three other counts were dropped in a plea deal with prosecutors.

The 39-year-old office worker was charged under the 2003 Protect Act, which outlaws cartoons, drawings, sculptures or paintings depicting minors engaging in sexually explicit conduct, and which lack “serious literary, artistic, political, or scientific value.” Handley’s guilty plea makes him the first to be convicted under that law for possessing cartoon art, without any evidence that he also collected or viewed genuine child pornography. He faces a maximum sentence of 15 years in prison

It's a case to keep an eye on, especially if you happen to own the collected works of Nabokov

Banned Books

The American Library Association (ALA) has published its list of the most challenged books of 2008.  Top spot was once again taken by "And Tango Makes Three" the award winning children's book about two male penguins who become parents however Khaled Hosseini's The Kite Runner (which was challenged because of the books rape scene), Philip Pullman's "Dark Materials" trilogy (for being violent and anti-religious), Stephen Chbosky's "The Perks of Being a Wallflower" (drugs, suicide, language) and a myriad of other titles were also heavily challenged.

The ALA explained that in total there were 513 challenges last year, which resulted in books being pulled from library shelves 74 times.  The ALA defines a challenge as a "formal, written complaint filed with a library or school requesting that materials be removed because of content or appropriateness."

I think we have covered this topic on many occasions here at the BookFinder.com Journal so I will keep this brief but I am constantly amazed that complaints are being filed about books like Harry Potter, His Dark Materials, and picture books about pengins.  Parents should have a keen interest in what their children read, and as such help guide them to make good decisions.  But I think libraries should be free of censorship and screening and even though only 74 books were removed from the shelves of libraries that was still about 1 for every 7 complaints. 

It makes me wonder if the people complaining about these books shout as loudly about the violence on TV (even in the news), sexuality in advertizements and course language in music...

Full list Via The Guardian

Overcoming self-censorship

It’s Banned Books Week, and I’m trying to stop being a victim of censorship. Self-censorship.

Charlie and I took a flight to Canada shortly after 9/11. He was consistently waved through security, while I was stopped at every stage; as a young man with brown skin and a goatee, it was painfully obvious that I was being racially profiled. At one point, a security agent started methodically thumbing through my book, The Blind Assassin by Margaret Atwood. Given his reaction, it was obvious to me that I’d made a mistake carrying something with “Assassin” in the title, and that for my own safety, I needed to be more cautious when flying, by avoiding “suspicious” books.

For the past seven years, I’ve been incredibly careful about the books I carry with me on planes, to avoid being seen as suspicious. Anything could give offense. For example, I wanted to give my grandfather in India a book on early Middle Eastern history; it pissed me off, but I self-censored at the last minute, worried about the consequences of taking it with me on a flight to India.

I’m now in Canada again for a few days, and for the first time since 9/11, I’ve worked up the courage to bring a “suspicious” book onto a plane: a copy of Igniting a Revolution: Voices in Defense of the Earth, a collection of articles about radical environmentalists. I’m not trying to prove any kind of a point by bringing it; I’d started reading the book at home, and just wanted to finish it.

I hope my tiny act of personal bravery doesn’t backfire, but I’m finally willing to take the chance. I’ve spent this decade self-censoring, out of fear of what people who have power over me might think. I’m heartsick, and I’ve had enough.

Posted by Anirvan

ABFFE wins Indiana censorship lawsuit

BookFinder.com’s a member of the American Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression (ABFFE), which worked with the Media Coalition to overturn an Indiana law that might force most local booksellers to register their inventories with the state.

Per Publisher’s Weekly:

“The American Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression took a victory yesterday when a federal judge dismissed an Indiana law requiring retailers to register ‘sexually explicit’ material with the state…Judge Sarah Evans Baker…said in her ruling that the law has too vast a reach ‘as written.’ She elaborated: ‘A romance novel sold at a drugstore, a magazine offering sex advice in a grocery store checkout line, an R-rated DVD sold by a video rental shop, a collection of old Playboy magazines sold by a widow at a garage sale—all incidents of unquestionably lawful, non-obscene, non-pornographic material being sold to adults—would appear to necessitate registration under the statute.’ Ultimately, Judge Baker said that ‘such a vague mandate will be unduly burdensome’ and ‘will have a chilling effect on expression.’”

Read the full Publisher’s Weekly article…

[Now reading: Glut: Mastering Information Through the Ages by Alex Wright]

Posted by Anirvan

ABFFE challenges Indiana law

The state of Indiana just passed HEA 1042, which requires dealers of sexually explicit materials to register and file a statement with the secretary of state. It also imposes a $250 filing fee and requires the secretary’s office to notify county officials of the “sexual” business. Indiana booksellers are deeply concerned that the law is too broad, and may target bookstores that sell books that deal with sex or sex education.

Should bookstores stocking racy romance novels, the Bible (the Song of Songs read literally), or Dr. Ruth’s Sex for Dummies have to become state-registered vendors of sexually explicit materials? The law seems arbitrary and unconstitutional.

BookFinder.com’s a member of the American Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression, which works to protect the rights of readers and booksellers. The ABFFE’s been working on an industry-wide effort against the law, with the Borders book chain, the Great Lakes Booksellers Association, and 15 Indiana independent booksellers. It may turn into a legal challenge down the road.

More details:

• “Sexual content law irks booksellers” (Indiana Star)
• ABFFE letter to governor last week
• Full text of the law (PDF)

[Now reading: Silverfish by Saikat Majumdar]

Posted by Anirvan

Censorship in the news

Speaking on the issue of piracy, science fiction writer Cory Doctorow said:

“For almost every writer, the number of sales they lose because people never hear of their book is far larger than the sales they’d lose because people can get it for free online. The biggest threat we face isn’t piracy, it’s obscurity.”

Censors seem not to understand that if you want people not to see something, it’s usually better to leave it buried it in obscurity, than to raise a big stink and shower it in publicity (e.g. the Streisand effect):

• A member of the Concerned Cuban Parents Committee, a Miami-Dade area Cuban exiles group, stole a school library book to circumvent the legal process for challenging three books about Cuba available in local schools. The parent is open about her tactics: “If you take it out and don’t return it, no kid can read it…It’s not censoring; it’s protecting our children from lies…We’re going to take the books and lock them in a box.” I’m astounded by the group’s chutzpah. How can anyone gloat about the vigilante censorship of our publicly-owned books? [via]

• BookFinder.com is a member of the American Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression, which recently spoke out against a Humane Society of the United States lawsuit against Amazon.com, trying to get it to halt the sale of subscriptions to magazines about cockfighting, a practice banned in 48 states. The Humane Society claims that sending the magazines through the US Postal Service is illegal, but critics counter that Amazon.com isn’t liable for otherwise-legal third-party content. I think I agree with technology law professor Eric Goldman: cockfighting is offensive, the Humane Society is within its rights to ask Amazon.com to stop selling related magazines, but the lawsuit is poorly thought out, and takes on the wrong party. The result: Gamecock magazine has shot up to #125 on Amazon.com’s list of bestselling magazines.

• 2007 Newbery Medal winning children’s book The Higher Power of Lucky includes a reference to a dog’s scrotum, which apparently caused quite a bit of hang-wringing among those worried that 9-11 year-olds might be exposed to the non-slang name for an animal’s body part. Per the Associated Press, the counter-backlash has been huge, with the book seeing significant sales, and public defenses everywhere from The View to the New York Times editorial page. The AP reporter couldn’t find a single librarian working to ban the book, even among those publicly critical of it. Hallelujah! This is exactly what we should be seeing more of — real public discussion about the work’s merits, but without the imposition of heavy-handed censorship to squelch the debate.

[Now reading Everyman by Philip Roth]

Posted by Anirvan

Election day, free speech pledge

We had a slow day here at BookFinder.com, with today’s 2006 US midterm elections in full swing. I spent last night doing phonebanking for a local city council candidate. Charlie did some last-minute research on some of California’s ballot propositions. And we all grumbled about ridiculous campaign ads, the runaway initiative process, and how there’s gotta be a better way.

All this thinking about politics reminds us of our civic responsibility as members of the bookselling community. The American Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression picked one of the busiest days in the US news cycle to release its new Free Speech Pledge, which it encourages member booksellers to post in their stores:

To Our Customers

The shelves of this bookstore hold a wide array of titles containing ideas as diverse as the world in which we live. We believe that it is in the best interest of our community and democratic society for ideas of all kinds to be available to interested individuals, regardless of what our own tastes may be. In that spirit, we believe that censorship—whether by individuals, special interests groups, or government—damages our society.

We also believe that it is our responsibility to you, and to the First Amendment, to respect the privacy of your choice of books, magazines and other materials. We will not sell information identifying your purchases to a third party without your permission or otherwise disclose it to anyone, including the government, on our own initiative.

Amen.

[Now reading The Monkeywrench Gang by Edward Abbey]

Posted by Anirvan

Censorship in Malaysia

Silverfish Books in Kuala Lumur has been reporting on its discovery of a new wave of censorship of foreign books in Malaysia. So far this month, they’ve discovered the censorship of Milan Kundera, the banning of works by Khalil Gibran, Chinua Achebe, and Iris Chang, and most recently, the restriction of books by Rushdie and many others.

They also managed to get a list of some of the restricted books from one of their distributors.

The list includes literary fiction (e.g. work from Salman Rushdie, Irvine Welsh, Anthony Burgess, Rebecca Wells), a fantasy novel by Robert Jordan, children’s books (e.g. SpongeBob Squarepants and Dora the Explorer titles), comics (It’s a Good Life, If You Don’t Weaken, The Best of “Drawn and Quarterly”), miscellaneous nonfiction (Mao: A Life, Making Globalization Work, etc.), as well as a host of books dealing with human bodies and/or sexuality (e.g. the Vagina Monologues, Breastfeeding Your Baby: Revised Edition, How to Talk to Your Child About Sex, The Best Sex Positions Ever).

The complete list is undoubtedly longer, and just as bothersome.

[Now reading The Locked Room by Paul Auster]

Posted by Anirvan

Banned Books Week

BookFinder.com takes the (what should be) relatively uncontroversial stand that people should be able to read, write, and exchange ideas freely. We've been members of the American Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression for several years, and responded to the US Copyright Office's call for comments on orphan works in 2005, helping draw attention to the role of unreasonable laws in preventing access to books. Like most organizations associated with books in America, we're joining the ALA, ABFFE, Amnesty, and other groups in celebrating Banned Books Week this week.

Over the past few days, I found myself repeatedly going through my bookshelves, and realizing how many banned and challenged books I've enjoyed reading over the years. Living in relatively uncensorious societies, we still grapple with issues of censorship all the time.

I remember how Cody's Books in Berkeley was firebombed in 1989 for carrying copies of The Satanic Verses, at a time when many large American chains stopped selling it; after the attack, the staff unanimously decided to keep on carrying the book. My local public library had a copy, which I checked out, but didn't really enjoy. It wasn't until years later that my uncle reintroduced me to Rushdie's work, and I really fell in love with his writing. It depresses me that the staff of one of my favorite bookstores was attacked for selling one of my favorite novels.

A few weeks after 9/11, almost exactly five years ago, Charlie and I were flying to Canada for a friendly visit with the folks at Abebooks. As a a young man with brown skin and a goatee, I was subject to quite obviously heightened inspection at the airport. I remember a security agent in Seattle very carefully leafing through my copy of Margaret Atwood's The Blind Assassin. (This was just days after a man was prevented from boarding a plane because he was carrying a copy of Hayduke Lives! by Edward Abbey.) While I was standing there having my reading material scrutinized, it dawned on me that there were good books and bad books in the world, and that in the days ahead, it would serve me well to carefully pre-screen the books I would carry on planes to avoid being caught at the airport with a suspicious novel. (Five years after 9/11, I still feel the need to self-censor some of my airplane reading, particularly when traveling internationally.)

Our freedom to read is not absolute. As we celebrate Banned Books Week and the struggles that won us our right to read relatively freely, we should keep in mind that we can win real freedom to read by not only working to challenge censorship (which is alive and well around the world), but also addressing issues like illiteracy rates, embattled library budgets, changes in attitudes toward print culture, the rising cost of books, barriers associated with copyright law, etc. As a community of bibliophiles, we have work to do.

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Banned Books Week resources from:

• American Library Association: Banned Books Week
• American Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression: Banned Books Week Handbook
• Amnesty International USA: Banned Books Week

Posted by Anirvan