While we may not stock Last Exit to Brooklyn, Groupie, or even any Hank Janson, Librarians have a long history of protecting your freedom to read and this week we celebrate Banned Books Week.
New Zealand has its own examples of the censorship of books. An early case involved Jean Devanny's 1926 book The butcher shop:
Set on a large sheep station near Taihape during the post-war years and featuring bloodshed, murder, suicide and 'a most vivid description of the symptoms of delerium tremens'."Its frank portrayal of farming conditions" were thought to be "detrimental to the Dominion's immigration policy" and the book was banned!
1 comment:
I think many of us assume that book banning is a practice no longer used in the States. However, the Harry Potter series has been banned as has some Maya Angelou books. It is still happening all across America.
So why should that concern us? I think that as American policies inflitrate and impact every other country we need to be aware of how 'freedom' is defined there.
For a list of banned books: http://www.ala.org/ala/oif/bannedbooksweek/bbwlinks/topten2000to2005.htm
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