Book Bans

[ysabetwordsmith]

6 states expand library protections amid surging book bans: 'The freedom to read... is supported and protected'

New Jersey joined at least five other states — California, Illinois, Maryland, Minnesota and Washington — that have passed legislation within the past two years that aims to preserve access to reading materials that deal with racial and sexual themes, including those about the LGBTQ+ community.


So let's be blunt:

You have a right to read or not read whatever you choose. You do not have a right to take books away from other people who prefer different reading material than you do, because that leads to empty libraries, ignorant people, and even worse problems than we have already. Other people's reading choices are none of your business.

Unless you are a librarian or the sponsor of a special collection, the contents of a public library are not your personal responsibility. If you are an official member, the library will likely offer you forms to request adding books or topics should they lack materials you need. But you should not be trying to take books out of the library, as other people may need them.

If you are a parent, you have the legal right to control what your own children read, although depending on your choice of censorship, this could cripple or kill them, so choose mindfully. Ethically, you should be encouraging your children to learn everything need to stay safe, healthy, and happy in this life. You do not have a right to control what anyone else reads, of any age, as it is none of your business.

And what people read is not the state's business either, for the same above reasons regarding ignorant people and worse disasters.


Things You Can Do:

Are you a bookworm? Reading three books on a topic will make you an expert compared to average people. Go absorb something. You can easily annoy bigots and censors by consuming and transmitting information they wish to stamp out. You never even need to face them; you can attack their worldviews from a safe distance. On Dreamwidth check out Books communities, especially 50books_poc and pluralstories. See challenges for Reading, Writing, Community Thursdays, and Fannish 50.

Are you a person of color? Read everything you can. Nothing scares the shit out of white people like a black man with a book in his hands.

Are you a datahoarder? You are needed now. Observe what people are trying to ban or destroy, determine which of those topics are dear to your, and gather them into your hoard for protection. Especially favor ephemera and small-press titles that are easily wiped out in pogroms and other purges. See datahoarders for further ideas.

Are you a writer? Make more of things that bigots hate! Tell ALL the stories.

Are you a crowdfunding supporter? Prompt for and/or sponsor topics under attack. Back creators of targeted groups -- women, people of color, queerfolk, the disabled, etc.

Are you an activist? Pressure your representatives to outlaw book bans.


Here are some resources:

Banned Books Week 2024: 100 of the Most Challenged Books

Banned in the USA: Beyond the Shelves
This report on book bans in the 2023-24 school year documents how censorial trends have continued to ripple beyond the shelves.

Building Resilient Libraries: Protecting Against Book Bans

Private Libraries as Bibliophilic Paradise
When public libraries come under assault, consider other options.


Banned, censored, attacked, or otherwise oppressed topics include sex/gender (sex scenes, sexual health, sexual / romantic orientation, gender studies, gender identity, and pretty much the whole QUILTBAG), race/ethnicity (history, activism, critical race theory, basically anything by/for/about people of color), death and grief, substances (use, misuse, abuse, recovery), mental health (self-help, mental illness, self-harm, suicidal ideation), empowerment/self-esteem, Palestine, climate change, and more.

1500 Books with Trans Characters/Topics
I compiled a list of 1500+ books with trans characters/topics
GoogleDocs file of list

Activism Book Lists

Activist Book Lists

Addiction Book Lists

African Book Lists

Asexual Books Recommendations

Best Books about Palestine

Best Nonfiction Sex Books Ever!

Bipoc Authors Books

Bipoc Book Lists

Black Book Lists

Books with Aromantic Characters

Climate Change Book Lists

Critical Race Theory Book Lists

Critical Race Theory: The Key Writings That Formed the Movement Lists

Death Book Lists

Dying Book Lists

Empowering Book Lists

Empowerment Book Lists

Environment Book Lists

Ethnic Book Lists

Ethnicity Book Lists

Feminism Book Lists

Feminist Book Lists

Gender Book Lists

Gender Critical Book Lists

Global Warming Book Lists

Grief Book Lists

Grieving Book Lists

Hispanic Book Lists

Indigenous Book Lists

Latinx Book Lists

Mental Book Lists

Mental Health Book Lists

Mental Illness Book Lists

Native Americans Book Lists

Palestine Book Lists

Palestinian Book Lists

Popular Mental Wellness Books

Popular Self Respect Books

Popular Self Worth Books

Popular Sex Non Fiction Books

Protest Book Lists

Queer Book Lists

Rape Book Lists

Self Esteem Book Lists

Self Harm Book Lists

Self Help Book Lists

Self Injury Book Lists

Sex Book Lists (mostly erotica and romance)

Sexual Abuse Book Lists

Sexual Health Book Lists (nonfiction)

Sexual Orientation Book Lists

Sexuality Book Lists

Substance Abuse Book Lists

Suicide Book Lists

Transgender Book Lists


* This message brought to you by the Order of Hypatia. We are everywhere.

Comments

I am quite proud

[dialecticdreamer]

of these things:

- I can count on one hand the books/movies/tv shows that we censored for the kids before age ten or so. (The usual conversation was 'we'd rather you wait a few years to discuss this topic,' not, 'this is not allowed in our house'.) As soon as they had a frame of reference, the discussions amped up.

- I have made it a point to read a banned book at least twice a year. When I was expecting the oldest, I read Maurice Sendak's "In the Night Kitchen" aloud many times before the oldest was born, and many times afterward.

- Yes, we included banned children's books in their read-aloud stories and their assigned reading for homeschooling.

- I argued vehemently against censorship in the public library, but also made the librarians aware that one of the ASL videos in the kids' section showed a common sign mistake for the word "month." Hold the pointing finger differently in the sign, and it's the word "condom". My kids thought that it was a good mistake not to make, but as sure as toast landing jam side down, the very NEXT patron who checked it out first tried to have it banned, then held it out for an extra month before "losing" it. My goal wasn't to censor the material, at all, but to make them aware that the single topic could, like a swear word, mean shifting the title to the adults' collection.

and finally,

- Teaching someone to read is a subversive act. I've taught two adults and my two kids to read, so I'm well on my way to my merit badge.

[crunchysteve]

To paraphrase RAtM, some of those who ban books are the same who burn crosses, (or wear swastikas)

Yes ...

[ysabetwordsmith]

Prevailingly true.

This is why I persist in vexing my old enemies.

And if they try burning? I can cast both the Curse of Ashes and the Blessing of Ashes.

Re: Yes ...

[crunchysteve]

>> And if they try burning? I can cast both the Curse of Ashes and the Blessing of Ashes.

♥️‼️

Re: Yes ...

[kengr]

There's a reason there's an edition of Fahrenheit 451 printed on asbestos paper...

We need some other material to print on that's durable and fireproof...

Re: Yes ...

[ysabetwordsmith]

I've seen companies microscribing whole libraries onto diamond or sapphire discs. More affordable and accessible is ceramic, which stands up quite well for thousands of years and requires considerably hotter than an average fire to burn. If you can't write cuneiform, stamping with letters in your own alphabet works tolerably well.

Also, if you wish to speak to the future, toss your message into a landfill or other garbage dump. Archaeologists always know to check the middens.

Re: Yes ...

[kengr]

I understand you can get M-discs with a sapphire base instead of the usual plastic. Given that the plastic ones are rated for 1000 years, the sapphire ones should last a really long time. Though I expect the data layer will fail first if the temp gets high enough.

Re: Yes ...

[ysabetwordsmith]

Well, it has the detail, and detail is always more vulnerable. But consider whether it is on the surface, or if the microscriber is writing inside the crystal, or there is a sandwich of layers. Different people have used different methods. Surface scribing will be the most vulnerable.

[cmcmck]

If kids aren't allowed to read about my being here, it doesn't stop my being here............

What about this don't 'they' understand?

[arlie]

But if kids like you don't know what they are, just that they are "defective" in some shameful way, they'll lead a miserable life passing as normal, or better yet commit suicide. Or, in the fevered imaginations of the bigots, live happy, "normal" lives. Praise Jesus!

*sigh* A friend spent a lot of time volunteering at the local hospice during the AIDS epidemic, where she got to observe the young men whose birth family never visited. Those bastards who picketed funerals were not as exceptional as is now claimed, though perhaps their particular stunt was.

[cmcmck]

My own birth family rejected me when I was fifteen and I lived through AIDS epidemic and saw that happening to other young people my age when I was living in Belgium and it broke my heart.

Trust me when I say that I'll never stop giving help to anyone who needs my knowledge and experience whatever 'they' might think!

I started dealing with it all in the seventies and sadly, there were as many arseholes around then as there are now.

The 'happy normal life' is the one I have now! That must really upset 'them'! :o)

[kengr]

Oh yeah. I was interested in "kink" from a very early age.

But every reference to any of it basically said "folks that are into that are evil, sick or both".

So I hid it and was ashamed (or worse) until I finally ran into some positive portrayals in my 20s.

Not *remotely* a fun way to live.

[priscilla_king]

I'm always annoyed when stores do a big display of new books that have been "censored" by overwhelming rejection, while quietly censoring books that actually have value. Burn all books that were actually written and read in the 1920s, and buy new books that claim to be about the 1920s but erase the tuberculosis epidemic! Erase the historical facts of war out of "Little House on the Prairie"! Burn books about teenagers earning their own money! And then scream about its being "censorship" that real families that have "Two Mommies" that are really Mom-and-Gran, Mom-and-Aunt, even Mom-and-Hired-Help but NOT Mom-and-Girlfriend, did not love Leslea Newman's misleading and charmless book. Some books just plain fail because they are just plain bad. Stores want to buy them because people hope the books aren't as bad as they are, then want to sell them to recover their investment, but when they lose better books their pretending to defend the clinkers from "censorship" looks very, very bad.

I like books that were actually written in an historical period better than new "historical" fiction about that period, generally. There are things about historical periods that some people prefer not to talk about. In a 1920s novel, a real one, you might find nice, public-spirited, role-model type teenagers helping Ma and Pa by leaving school--after all they could get jobs with a tenth grade education. I'd rather talk about things like that with teenagers than try to erase the reality. THAT is the kind of "censorship" I'm concerned about. People can always find somebody to chat with on some web site about sex.