Banned Books Week: Pit Bulls and Tenacious Guard Dogs

Title: Pit Bulls and Tenacious Guard Dogs
Author: Carl Semencic
Banned in: Logan, Australia’s West Library
For: being about prohibited breeds

I wasn’t able to read this one since my library doesn’t own it (it’s over 20 years old), but here’s the write up from the ALA of the reasons why it was banned:

Banned at the Logan, Australia West Library (2011) because it contains information on restricted dog breeds. In 2001, under Local Law 4 (Animal Management) the Logan City Council placed a ban on, among others, pit bull terriers and American pit bulls. Therefore, Logan City Council libraries do not stock literature on any of the prohibited breeds. Source: May 2011, p. 120.

I think it’s interesting that the books are prohibited just because the breeds are. Libraries usually have books about drugs–for children and adults–because even though they’re illegal, people are still curious about them and want information. Having information about them isn’t against the law–possessing them is, which is why I don’t really understand this library’s decision. Restricting access to information on a topic just because you can seems like a bad precedent.

On the other hand, I am side eyeing this library a little for their 20-year-old dog manual. Is it possible that this book was weeded, not for content, but just because its condition was getting gross? Since I was once an intern in the non-fiction department, I imagine the conversation went like this:

Intern: This dog book is 20 years old and getting kind of tattered. The pages are all yellow.
Librarian: Ew, yeah, and what’s that stain?
Intern: It’s about breeds that you can’t even have here anyway.
Librarian: Weed it like a dandelion!!!!

“Weeding” is the technical librarian term for the process of taking books out of the collection for damages, general deterioration, or inaccuracy (like a book about a country that has undergone some kind of upheaval and their whole system of government has changed was always the example I was given). I can definitely see how “well, these breeds are illegal anyway” would be the deciding factor in whether or not to weed an old book that’s condition is borderline. I would probably make that call myself, especially since anyone truly interested in the breed can (presumably–I don’t live in Australia) still find that information on the internet, even at the library’s computers. However, if this is just a systematic excising of information about prohibited breeds from the library’s collection–and the sentence “Logan City Council libraries do not stock literature on any of the prohibited breeds” leads me to think it might be–I am shaking my head in disapproval. I would agree that, depending on funds, buying new titles about the restricted breeds–particularly owner’s manuals rather than simply informational books–probably wouldn’t be high on the library’s priority list, but why remove all existing information, which is costing you nothing but shelf space?

Which, admittedly, is sometimes also at a premium. It’s hard to decide without knowing the library’s and the book’s specifics. Sorry I don’t have more deets. I promise to have a book I’m actually able to read tomorrow.

Previously: Great Soul: Mahatma Gandhi and His Struggle With India
Next: The What’s Happening to my Body? Book For Boys

Banned Books Week: Great Soul

Title: Great Soul: Mahatma Gandhi and His Struggle With India
Author: Joseph Lelyveld
Banned In: parts of India
Event Honoring Pulitzer Prize Winning Author Cancelled by: Foundation for Excellence in Santa Cruz, California
For: raising the possibility that Gandhi had a homosexual relationship

How much did I not know about Gandhi? So much! This book was fascinating. Everything was meticulously researched, but also very well-written so I never felt like I was reading a history text book. Joseph Lelyveld’s Pulitzer is well-deserved; he really understands how to use story in a non-fiction context, which is, I think, something many biographers struggle with. I was particularly interested to learn about Gandhi’s time in South Africa, and how this British-educated, suit-wearing lawyer transformed gradually into the leader of a spiritual and political movement.

I can also see why this book might upset some people. You can tell Lelyveld has the utmost respect for Gandhi, but he’s also a researcher interested in the truth, even when that truth differentiates from Gandhi’s own autobiography. He always cites multiple sources, and postulates about the most likely reasons why they might disagree. Though the story it tells is still overwhelmingly admiring and positive, it is difficult for some people to see this person not as a saint, but as a man. One who sometimes made mistakes or changed his mind or acted for political and practical rather than ideological reasons. And that’s not even taking into account the specific question of his relationship with Hermann Kallenbach.

Lelyveld isn’t just making wild claims to create a literary sensation. As always, he backs his postulations up with evidence:

“They were a couple,” Tridip Suhrud, a Gandhi scholar, said when I met him in the Gujarati capital of Gandhinagar. That’s a succinct way of summing up the obvious–Kallenbach later remarked that they’d lived together “almost in the same bed”–but what kind of couple were they? Gandhi early on made a point of destroying what he called Kallenbach’s “logical and charming love notes” to him, in the belief that he was honoring his friend’s wish that they be seen by no other eyes. But the architect saved all of Gandhi’s, and his descendants, decades after his death and Gandhi’s, put them up for auction. Only then were the letters acquired by the National Archives of India and, finally, published. It was too late for the psychoanalyst Erik Erikson to take them into account, and most recent Gandhi studies tend to deal with them warily, if at all. One respected Gandhi scholar characterized the relationship as “clearly homoerotic” rather than homosexual, intending through that choice of words to describe a strong mutual attraction, nothing more. The conclusions passed on by word of mouth in South Africa’s small Indian community were sometimes less nuanced. It was no secret then, or later, that Gandhi, leaving his wife behind, had gone to live with a man.

Lelyveld goes on to describe the course of the relationship–whether close friendship or romantic or a mix of the two–and quotes from the letters often, as well as other sources. He certainly raises the possibility, but, in the end, makes it clear that any sexual aspect was ultimately of less importance historically than the close friendship that helped develop many of Gandhi’s ideas. To me, this chapter is a nuanced and well-researched treatment of a subject which another writer might have exploited more crassly for attention. But I can see that some people would be unhappy with any perceived criticism of Gandhi. Though the possibility of a homosexual or homoerotic relationship is hardly a criticism–especially as Lelyveld writes it–it’s the sad reality of our society that some will take it as such.

If you’re interested in reading more, the book’s Wikipedia entry has quotes from the letters, and more about the controversy this book caused.

Previously: The Awakening
Next: Pit Bulls and Tenacious Guard Dogs

Banned Books Week: The Awakening

Title: The Awakening and Other Stories
Author: Kate Chopin
Challenged in: Oconee County, Georgia
For: “the cover of the book… shows a painting of a woman’s bare chest and upset the patron”

So this morning I got out my copy of The Awakening (it still has a Lord of the Rings bookmark in it from senior year of highschool!), all ready to comb through it once more for the sexy parts or the parts glorifying suicide or the (multiple) times when Edna is a terrible mother. So you can imagine my delight when I rechecked my list and saw that this book is another one that was challenged for the cover. I’m really pleased to not have to read any part of The Awakening again, since I didn’t really enjoy it the first time!

So, let’s talk about covers and breasts and how upsetting they are. I couldn’t find any reliable news articles about this incident, so it’s hard to know what cover Oconee County is objecting to. Since this book was first published in 1899, there have been a lot of editions with tons of different covers. I did a search on Amazon and came up with at least three possibilities for you: (behind a cut to protect you from painted breasts) Read the rest of this entry »

Banned Books Week: We’ll Be Here For the Rest of Our Lives

Happy Banned Books Week!!!! I’m going to try to post with a Banned Books Week review every day this week. We’ll see if I make it!

Title: We’ll Be Here For the Rest of Our Lives: A Swingin’ Showbiz Saga
Author: Paul Shaffer with David Ritz
Challenged In: Mitchell, South Dakota
For: “too frank depictions of sex and sexual matters”

This book actually was shocking. Shockingly boring. It let me down so hard. I meant to have it read by Friday, but I kept having to push myself to get through it. The writing style is (I think?) trying to be conversational, but just ends up sounding like even it would rather be somewhere else. It jumps around chronologically with no purpose or structure until the text reads like the undirected rambling of someone approaching senility. Occasionally in the beginning it switches from first to third person for no obvious reason, like the writer just forgot what he was doing for a few moments.

So, I’m pretty shocked that anyone made it through this book to object to it. Maybe they saw the cover and thought that was reason enough. It’s happened before. The author does mention sex a few times–maybe three?–but not nearly enough for a tell-all showbiz memoir. The only example I can think of off hand was when Paul Shaffer sleeps with a groupie, but he doesn’t describe it at all. I feel like I need to write to Mitchell, South Dakota and suggest some books that are actually racy, because this wouldn’t even satisfy a Gossip Girl fan. And it’s shelved in the adult section, so there’s no excuse for holding back.

Here’s a “racy” excerpt:

She had slipped out of all her clothes except her high heels and stockings and had spread herself across my bed like a Playboy centerfold. “Praise God!” was the one thought that came to mind. I was so surprised, so delighted, that I spilled my vodka tonic.

Bow-chicka-wow-wow! This is going to get steamy, right? Wrong.

Here’s how he describes “it”:

I soon saw that I was dealing with a master craftswoman. Her attention to detail was exceptional, and she handled her task with both confidence and cunning. I had absolutely no complaints.

Is he talking about a sexual conquest or getting his teeth whitened at the dentist? Impossible to tell.

The book is made up of barely-connected reminiscing about the “author”‘s experiences as leader of David Letterman’s band and on Saturday Night Live. It’s almost entirely name dropping, but most of those names are people maybe my parents have heard of? I recognized Eugene Levy and Martin “Marty” Short, at least, but I’ve never been really aflame with curiosity about them. It’s hard to tell how much of the shitty writing and boring plot is Paul Shaffer and how much is David Ritz, his ghost writer. It’s annoying, because I’m not sure which of them to hate for wasting a week of my reading time. Is David Ritz really a competent writer, hampered by Paul Shaffer’s lackluster material and onerous input? How much work do celebrity “authors” really put into the books published under their name? Until Sam Neill hires me to ghost write his memoirs, I may never know.

Here’s the part I found the most ridiculous:

I have reason to believe my behavior may well have changed the landscape of our pop culture and, in a vastly more important way, even changed the always-sensitive dynamic between Christians and Jews in the United States of America… After Mel [Gibson] had charmed his way though Dave’s graceful interview, Dave asked him, “May we turn your pants into shorts?”
“Sure,” said the amiable actor. “Why not?”
I was called over to help circumcise Gibson’s trousers. That’s when my hand slipped and the state of Judeo-Christian relations changed forever.
Believe me when I say that the slip was unintentional. I merely placed the scissors too close to Mel’s skin. In doing so, I cut him. The skin broke. He bled. Drops of Gibson’s blood fell to the floor. Mel looked at me murderously. He was enraged. He had been bloodied by a Jewish piano player.
Because of my Hebrew heritage, I couldn’t help but feel great guilt when I started hearing about Gibson’s bloody movie, The Passion of the Christ. I couldn’t help but wonder whether the slip of my hand had caused what some reviewers were calling a blatantly anti-Jewish version of the Crucifixion story.

Yeah, this guy is totally taking credit for Mel Gibson’s Antisemitism, because one time on David Letterman he cut his leg a little by accident. The things I slog through for you.

Previously: The Quran
Next: The Awakening

Spam Report: September 2012

This month has been an exciting one for spam, including a few real people getting caught in the filters and more racial slurs than usual (I just delete those). Here are some highlights:

On my post about Jeremy Messersmith and his Supper Club Tour:

Silver account writes:

Now that is something to cry for because that is a disgrace, a national disgrace, and we haven’t done enough, obviously — this administration hasn’t done enough to cure that. Whatever interest they have is not strong enough, and I think possibly now it may be time for somebody else to come along and solve the problem.

You’re so right, Silver account! If only more politicians read my blog, they would see that what people really care about is hipster musicians from Minneapolis! My inability to attend the Supper Club Tour is probably the deciding issue in this election.

On my post making fun of wedding dresses:

Leather beds writes:

Well crafted post, well researched and useful for me in the future.

I hope you mean for when you are a ninja bride!!

Wedding gift ideas asks:

In Firefox – How to open in new tab automatically when I click a bookmark?

Either right click and select “open in new tab” or hold down the ctrl key while you click!

What? Even spambots have information needs sometimes and it’s my sworn librarian duty to help anyone in their knowledge quest, even if they’re obnoxious or not technically real.

As always, last month’s spam post got a lot of attention:

bigcat writes:

Aw, this was a really nice post. In thought I wish to put in writing like this additionally – taking time and precise effort to make an excellent article… however what can I say… I procrastinate alot and not at all seem to get something done.

Thanks, bigcat! I always appreciate fan mail! Unfortunately, not everyone agrees with you:

Greatest writes:

Hi, I just wanted to mention, you��re dead wrong. Your article doesn��t make any sense.

I’m sorry you feel that way, Greatest. Responding to the demographic with which I’m most popular–spambots–makes perfect sense to me, and if that makes me dead wrong, then I don’t want to be right.

At first the comments on Banned Books Week 2012 seemed perfectly normal.

Efron Zableski writes:

After the raccons made my moms life a living nightmare she decided to call Master Trapper and get rid of her irritating problem.

Wow, you spambots seem to have as much trouble with raccoons as you do spelling.

Then things took a worrying turn:

Keenan Casburn:

I went to STD testing and they did a great job!

Le haire:

Call STD Testing for all your peace of mind.

Sarina Carmona:

STD Testing is something I recommend to all of my friends. I feel it is very important to stay safe and be aware!

I mean… I also agree that it’s important to be safe and aware, spambots, but… what are you trying to tell me?

But this was nothing compared to the insult that was to come. Usually I don’t let the trolls or haters bother me, even when they claim that my blog has given them cancer or that I’m working with a porn-pushing librarian cabal, but this one really hit me where I live:

nemme Ian writes:

naturally like your web-site but you need to take a look at the spelling on several of your posts. Several of them are rife with spelling problems and I in finding it very troublesome to tell the reality however I¡¦ll surely come again again.

WHY, nemme Ian? WHY must you say these hurtful things to me????

Another worrying, though less personally insulting, development on this same post, was my discovery that spambots have gained at least semi-sentience:

zilp writes:

I have read far more of those than I expected.You souhld do that first series because I want to know if I souhld read it. You souhld do Perks of Being a Wallflower because I want to see what pictures you would draw for it. You souhld do Catcher in the Rye ONLY if you hated it as much as me and will give it a horrible review, otherwise do something else. Maybe an adult book because you haven’t done any of those? Maybe Tweak because I think it is FAR FAR more inappropriate, and poorly written, and ban worthy (if I believed in banning books) than most of the things on the list.

I stared at this for awhile, trying to decide if it was a real person with terrible spelling and reading comprehension skills, or a surprisingly sophisticated spambot. Maybe the missing link between the two? Eventually the spammy-looking link attached to the name swayed me into putting it in the spam report, but that preliminary decision could be reversed at any time with new evidence. Comment again, zlip, so I can solve this mystery! Please! For science!

Also, I’ve already reviewed the Perks of Being a Wallflower and I don’t know what pictures you’re talking about.

More spambots seemed unusually on target for the Banned Books Week: Notebook Girls post, although without zilp’s human-passing skillz:

Silver price writes:

The world was just so unlike anything. There’s this mix of science fiction but yet most of the world feelings like you are feeling like it’s something straight out of Amish country. The hierarchy of the Luddites and the Reduced/Posts was so fascinating. The descriptions. ALL OF IT. I could picture the estate and the surrounding scenes of nature. It was written so phenomenally — one of those books where the world starts swirling off the pages and begins to be a motion picture in my mind. There were some things I wished were explained a little better about the world and I thought at the end I wasn’t so sure how Eliot completely reconciled what she learned about Kai so quickly but I got over that just fine.

Nice try, Silver price, but you’ve spammed my blog way too many times before to convince me that you are real. Also, you seem to be rambling about a completely different book, but props for realizing my post was a book review. Better luck next time.

Finally, besides some words from the author(!!), my Banned Books Week: My mom is having a baby post gained some good spam reviews:

good articles writes:

You are my inhalation , I possess few web logs and occasionally run out from to post .

I’m not really sure what “you are my inhalation” means, but my gut tells me it’s a come on. Thanks, good articles, I’m flattered, but I’m not ready to break society’s taboo on spambot-human relationships yet. Plus, I’m married.

And also:

first years wave stroller crimson:

naturally like your web site however you need to check the spelling on several of your posts. Many of them are rife with spelling problems and I to find it very bothersome to tell the reality however I will certainly come back again.

Sigh. See you next month.

Previously: August 2012 Report

Banned Books Week: The Quran

Title: The Quran
Also Spelled: Qur’an, Koran, Al-Coran, Kuran, and Al-Qur’an
Challenged and burned in: Gainesville, Florida

You may remember this one. There’s a whole Wikipedia page about it. I was kind of surprised it appeared on the ALA’s list since it isn’t library-related, although arguably every time you burn a book, librarians hear its spirit cry out in pain like Obi-Wan Kenobi when Alderaan gets Death Star’d. After reading a lot of news articles about this guy, I’ve decided Florida pastor Terry Jones really just wants attention. Which is why he’s done things like threatening to burn a Quran on the 9th anniversary of the September 11th terrorist attacks, and then, a year later, actually burning it after “putting the Quran on trial” for crimes against humanity and finding it guilty of all charges. Why else would he post the video on youtube, with Arabic subtitles? Guy is clearly real-life trolling and trying to start something. Which he accomplished: Both instances sparked protests overseas, leaving at least 16 dead and many more injured. More recently he’s done things like hang an effigy of President Obama outside his church because “Obama is killing America”.

Apparently during the Quran’s “trial” Terry Jones wore “traditional judge robes” and considered shooting, drowning, or shredding as punishments after the accused was found “guilty” by the jury. This description reminded me really strongly of medieval animal trials where domesticated animals would be tried and sentenced for criminal damages, murder, or complicity in bestiality. They would also try things like weevils and other pests for ruining crops, and occasionally inanimate objects or corpses depending on who or what was perceived to be at fault for supposed crimes. If only this were still part of our legal system.

I would sue my dishwasher first thing. It knows what it did.

So I read the Quran. It was hands down the most interesting book I’ve read for the Banned Books project, and maybe even outside of it. I was grateful that the version I got from the library, translated by M.A.S. Abdel Haleem, came with lots of explanatory notes at the beginning of each sura (or chapter) and lots of footnotes too, explaining the history and different interpretations of the text. Since I don’t know much about Islamic culture or history, I would have been pretty lost otherwise.

Things that surprised me:
1) How much the Quran has in common with the Bible. The way Christianity and Islam have been historically at odds had me expecting some obvious and dramatic differences that would naturally lead to conflict, but really I think when it comes to basic morals there’s more commonality than difference. The basic message still seems to be “Be excellent to each other”.

2) How much I needed my knowledge of Biblical stories and characters to understand what was going on. Often people like Moses or Abraham were mentioned or alluded to without a full explanation of who they are, so I wonder how growing up in Islam works. I assume, unlike me, you don’t also read the Bible, but there must be some way to get a better understanding of who these people are and their back story? Or maybe you don’t need a back story to understand the message, although it certainly helped me be less confused.

3) It was pretty much poetry and I love it. I bet it sounds even better untranslated.

Even with the explanations, introduction, and maps that were helpfully provided, I still feel like I only got a surface understanding of what was going on, and would need to learn some more history to fully understand this book. But I’m really glad I read it, and would highly recommend it to anyone. I think, just like the Bible, its message can be distorted by people who want to use it to suit their own ends. An attempt at understanding can really stop these bigots and trolls in their tracks.

Previously: The Notebook Girls
Next: We’ll Be Here For the Rest of Our Lives

Banned Books Week: The Notebook Girls

Happy Friday!!


Title: The Notebook Girls
Authors: Julia Baskin, Lindsey Newman, Sophie Pollitt-Cohen, and Courtney Toombs
Challenged In: Waukee, Iowa
For: foul language, cussing

I’ve gotta say, I was really looking forward to reading this book. Look at that cover! I was totally expecting Amelia’s Notebook for an older crowd, and that’s just what I got!! Plus, it’s non-fiction! I am all about this concept, probably because I could read epistolary works all day–such a voyeur, I know.

It’s possible that in middle school or high school you too had a notebook with one or more friends. I did in 6th grade. Rather than pass individual notes, my best friend and I would trade a notebook with each other, filling its pages during spare moments in class or at lunch or at home with funny anecdotes, doodles, questions, observations, whatever. I distinctly remember how about half of our notebook was given over to deciding which nicknames we should use for each other, and then changing them almost daily. The other half was probably about boys.

This book came about when four girls took their notebook and published it, pictures and doodles and all! It’s way more interesting than my old middle school one for a number of reasons:

1) Four girls instead of two=more drama and “plot”
2) They’re in high school, so have slightly more interesting observations about the world and life events than I did in 6th grade
3) This notebook covers a huge amount of time for a project like this, 3/5/02–12/27/03 so you really get to see the “characters” change and grow
4) They live in New York City and talk often about September 11th, which was only 6 months behind them at the start of the notebook! Their discussion of their experiences and their reflections on them at multiple points afterwards is fascinating

Also it’s published with handwriting font, and there are pictures!

I found the whole concept of this book amazing. Because it’s non-fiction, you don’t get as coherent a narrative as you would out of something more constructed. Sometimes characters or events just happen for no reason and then are never mentioned again, or aren’t really explained that well since all four writers are already familiar with them. Giant blocks of time are just missing, specifically in the summer, but all of this makes me feel like an archivist detective (maybe only I am in love with this feeling, but whatever). I think these issues might frustrate some people, but for others it’s a really enlightening look into the real lives of four teens.

But since it’s real, there are lots of things I can see some people objecting to. Lots of cursing, as the challenger pointed out, as well as drugs, drinking, and sex. Since this is real life and not a constructed story, there’s no authorial voice saying “… but that’s a bad idea” so I was surprised and pleased when the original writers do this anyway. Okay, not to the extent that Concerned Parent would like, probably, which would undoubtedly include Go Ask Alice-levels of “try marijuana one time and you will obviously die homeless in the streets”. But over the course of the narrative all four girls have moments where they admit things like “last night was a mistake, I shouldn’t drink that much” or “all of us smoke too much and it’s getting in the way of other things” or “this boy is taking advantage of me and just not worth my time anymore”. Sometimes it takes them awhile to realize these things, but I think these decisions about moderation are all the more compelling to the reader because they’re real. Teens are capable of thinking about their own lives and making their own decisions, and I like how this book validates that, yeah, we all make mistakes or try things that we might later regret–though not always–and that doesn’t make us terrible people.

This challenge, to me, had a happy ending–or mostly happy. I couldn’t find any information about the original challenger’s reaction, but hopefully they were also satisfied with the review board’s decision. Before the challenge, this book was apparently shelved in teen fiction. The challenger wanted it removed from the library completely, but the review board decided it had been miscataloged and moved it to adult non-fiction. I actually agree with this decision, since teens can still access it in adult non-fiction and it seems like it fits more in that collection. I can see why this would be a difficult book to place–it’s clearly not fiction, though it’s written in a similar format, and the whole concept of a teen non-fiction section is widely debated, with each library deciding something different. At each library I’ve visited where I’ve noticed this book, it’s always been in adult non-fiction, although many of those don’t have separate teen non-fiction sections. Yay for continued access and more accurate cataloging! A library collection is always in the process of becoming.

Onward!
Previously: My Mom’s Having a Baby
Next: The Quran

Banned Books Week: “My Mom’s Having a Baby”

I thought I’d kick off my Banned Books Week posts with the only title on the 2011 list I hadn’t already read!

Yeah, I can already tell this is going to be downright salacious

Title: My Mom’s Having a Baby
Author: Dori Hillestad Butler
Illustrator: Carol Thompson
Challenged In: Carrollton, Texas and Hillsborough County, Florida
For: nudity; sex education; sexually explicit; unsuited to age group

I feel like one of the most important points of this case which the author attempted to bring up when she was dramatically confronted on Fox and Friends is that this book is shelved in the children’s non-fiction section, J618.2. Even though it looks like a picture book, it’s not stuck in with Good Night Moon and If You Give a Mouse a Cookie. It’s with the explanatory books about childbirth, diseases, how blood works, and World War II. And if you let your kid wander around on their own in the non-fiction section, cool, but it’s not like the library makes a secret of what that section is for. Non-fiction books are meant to explain the world in ways a child can understand, and that’s what this book does. Here’s a sample page:

This fetus is clearly rocking out to some music inappropriate for his age group

It goes through month by month of the pregnancy, explaining prenatal development and what an ultrasound is, eventually culminating in birth (with all the blood and grossness tactfully edited out). The only difference between this and the countless other books designed to help parents explain what’s happening to mom is that it goes into more detail about how the baby got in there. Which, come on, they are totally going to want to know: Read the rest of this entry »

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