Banned Books Week: Comic Books and Literary Censorship

An interview with Charles Brownstein, executive director of the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund

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Banned Books Week: Comic Books and Literary Censorship

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"Comic books are being challenged with greater frequency than they ever have been," says Charles Brownstein, executive director of the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund. "We are still fighting age-old stigmas that comics are low value speech."

Reason TV's Tracy Oppenheimer sat down with Brownstein at San Diego Comic-Con to discuss challenges to comic books today, and the history of censorship over the medium.

"Sixty years ago, this year, the United States government actually placed comics on trial in Senate subcommittee hearings around a moral panic that said that comics were a leading cause of juvenile delinquency," says Brownstein. "When you look back at that history, you see that it mirrors what has happened with video games, heavy metal, and other aspects of popular culture in recent years."

Comic books are the focus of this year's Banned Books Week, which runs from Sept. 21-27. The website describes the event as the following:

Banned Books Week is the national book community's annual celebration of the freedom to read. Hundreds of libraries and bookstores around the country draw attention to the problem of censorship by mounting displays of challenged books and hosting a variety of events. The 2014 celebration will be held September 21-27.

Banned Books Week was launched in 1982 in response to a sudden surge in the number of challenges to books in schools, bookstores and libraries. More than 11,300 books have been challenged since 1982 according to the American Library Association. There were 307 challenges reported to the Office of Intellectual Freedom in 2013, and many more go unreported. The 10 most challenged titles of 2013 were:

1. Captain Underpants (series), by Dav Pilkey
   Reasons: Offensive language, unsuited for age group, violence

2. The Bluest Eye, by Toni Morrison
   Reasons: Offensive language, sexually explicit, unsuited to age group, violence

3. The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, by Sherman Alexie
   Reasons: Drugs/alcohol/smoking, offensive language, racism, sexually explicit, unsuited to age group

4. Fifty Shades of Grey, by E.L. James
   Reasons: Nudity, offensive language, religious viewpoint, sexually explicit, unsuited to age group

5. The Hunger Games, by Suzanne Collins
   Reasons: Religious viewpoint, unsuited to age group

6. A Bad Boy Can Be Good for A Girl, by Tanya Lee Stone
   Reasons: Drugs/alcohol/smoking, nudity, offensive language, sexually explicit

7. Looking for Alaska, by John Green
   Reasons: Drugs/alcohol/smoking, sexually explicit, unsuited to age group

8. The Perks of Being a Wallflower, by Stephen Chbosky
   Reasons: drugs/alcohol/smoking, homosexuality, sexually explicit, unsuited to age group

9. Bless Me Ultima, by Rudolfo Anaya
   Reasons: Occult/Satanism, offensive language, religious viewpoint, sexually explicit

10. Bone (series), by Jeff Smith
    Reasons: Political viewpoint, racism, violence

About 7 minutes. Produced by Tracy Oppenheimer. Camera by Zach Weissmueller and Alexis Garcia. Music byEric Skiff, "All of Us."

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Comments

[Jaybirdmojo]

There was racism in Bone?

[Jensen]

These complaints tend to say more about the complainers than the books themselves. If you look at a lot of the lists 'occult/Satanism' is a common complaint. For stuff like Bridge to Terabithia.

[Jaybirdmojo]

Now, I haven't read the book but I'm willing to say that the guy sacrificing forest animals to bring Leslie back to life wasn't exactly Catholic doctrine, Jensen.

[Jensen]

Yeah, the legitimate complaint would be paganism, not Satanism/occultism. The use of the latter term rather than the former betrays the complainer's bias.

[Corning]

Islam and Judaism both have traditions of animal sacrifice...not just Paganism.

[Corning]

One could also argue the sacrament in Christianity is human sacrifice...though a very metaphorical one that doesn't actually involve any human sacrifices...well except the one.

[Notorious G.K.C.]

If one of my books were to be quote-unquote "banned" (oh, no, it won't be taught in the high schools or held in school libraries!), then I would give thanks to a merciful God that I received such free publicity.

In my marketing materials, I'd say, "read the book which was #3 on the Banned Books List for 2014!" "Too kinky for the East Long Island School District - do you *dare* read it?"

[Swiss Servator, Grundgesetz!]

Oh please don't throw me in that brier patch banned list!

[Doctor Whom]

The "Banned in Boston" effect FTW.

[brokencycle]

I like the reason category "political viewpoint." No one should ever have to learn there are other viewpoints out there.

[Doctor Whom]

My favorite is "unsuited to age group," which appears to be a catch-all for whatever someone doesn't like. How does one even define that? By the time I finished elementary school, I had read several adult novels, some of which had sex scenes, and I like to think that I came out okay.

[Dances-with-Trolls]

Seriously, by the time I was 11 I had read the Bible cover to cover. It damaged me for life. Talk about violence, sex, hate, terror, the freaking end of the world..

[UnCivilServant]

It's amazing that most of them are books I've never heard of, and the rest are books I can't bring myself to give a crap about beyond the abstract.

Pray tell, what criteria is used to determine "unsuited for age group"?

[Notorious G.K.C.]

Perhaps one of the females can tell us whether 50 shades of grey is suitable to all age groups.

[Mrs. Premise]

Hopefully none of the women who frequent this site had the bad taste to read that drek.

[Doctor Whom]

Pray tell, what criteria is used to determine "unsuited for age group"?

Our Top Men should work out a way to ban cross-posting. For the children.

[HazelMeade]

Wait a minute... The Hunger Games has a religious viewpoint????

WHAT?

is it that it's not religious at all, or is there some sort of religious subtext that went right over my head?

[RBS]

Statism is a religion.

[Hyperion]

It has an anti-government message. That's the same as heresy, just like being a climate change denier. So it's an abomination to the great gawd of government who all proggies worship.

[SugarFree]

It disrespects the state, that which must be worshiped above all others.

[Corning]

is there some sort of religious subtext that went right over my head?

"The infallible power of the human spirit" is nothing if not religious.

[Episiarch]

Why oh why is A Separate Peace not on there...for being "unsuited to anyone with any taste"?

[Swiss Servator, Grundgesetz!]

I wanted to throw that at my English teacher...

[Idle Hands]

Yeah I think everybody in 9th grade class hated our english teacher for that slog.

[Idle Hands]

I fucking hated that pretentious piece of shit book.

[SugarFree]

I wish I could push you out of tree.

[Spencer]

Sure you shouldn't be pushed out of a tree by your friend... but... maybe if you die from being pushed out of a tree you were shit.

[SugarFree]

He survived the tree. It was the tumble down the stairs that did him in.

[Spencer]

That's right. Damned marrow. even more shit.

[Corning]

It breaks the mold as being one of the few bad pieces of fiction with a compound fracture in it.

Just look at all the awesome films with compound fractures:

Deer hunter
Ravenous
Deliverance

How can you fuck that stuff up?

[Idle Hands]

Do you often have homoerotic fantasies about you and Episarch?

[SugarFree]

Fantasies?

[Fist of Etiquette]

If you love something, push it out of a tree. I don't remember what happens next, but it indicates whether it was ever yours in the first place.

[tarran]

Oh God! I had completely blocked my memories of that fucking piece of shit book. Now I'll need minutes of therapy as the memories come flooding back!

Fuck you Episiarch for reminding me!

[Idle Hands]

And he claims Nicole is the worst.

[Rhywun]

You spelled Moby Dick wrong.

[UnCivilServant]

That was a great book. Fantastic reference material about whaling. If they could get the annoying bit about the narrator and the ship of fools out of the way, it'd be a classic.

[Corning]

it'd be a classic.

lulz

[Jgalt1975]

A Separate Peace was specifically ripped on in an Onion article about banned books: http://www.theonion.com/articl.....books,401/

[Homple]

I wish I still had my childhood copy of Little Black Sambo to show my anti-banning lefty acquaintances.

[Jaybirdmojo]

Google "The Boy and the Tigers".

The book is still available. Kinda.

[Swiss Servator, Grundgesetz!]

I AM OUTRAGED THAT "WARTY HUGEMAN AND THE DOOMCOCK OF DOOM" IS NOT ON THIS LIST!

/concerned helicopter parent

[SugarFree]

You should start calling libraries for me, demanding that it be banned.

[Idle Hands]

Think of all the free advertising if you were able to get it banned.

[SugarFree]

I just want the chance to say "prolapsed anus" on Charlie Rose.

[Idle Hands]

I'm sure charlie rose knows what a prolapsed anus is from one of his drug fueled hooker binges, As does his average viewer is an elderly women.

[SugarFree]

"Tread softly because you tread on my dreams"

[Jensen]

*Googles* Holy shit, Hugo Award Nominee for 2014 right there. Needs more Time Vikings though.

[SugarFree]

I enjoy people who read quickly.

[Jensen]

I was only on Chapter 5 when I wrote that. Admittedly the Steve Smith chapters were slightly disappointing but ULTRATOKYO made up for all that.

[Hyperion]

If only Harry Reid could push through that legislation to limit 'bad' free speech, then we wouldn't have to worry about these bad books warping the tender young minds of the childins.

Or even better, if the Dems could just repeal that pesky first admendment altogether, we'd almost be to the great utopia where no one could possibly ever be offended for the slightest of slights, ever again.

We could even do away with trigger warnings! Paradise!

[jmomls]

The stupid thing is, none of these books are "banned". Books can only be "banned" by the government, not by your local school or public library.

Tax payers can complain about books that are purchased using their money. They are the real 'patrons' behind library collections after all.

Don't like it when your local library won't stock "Heather Has Two Mommies"? Buy the dirty stupid rotten idiotic books yourself, which you can still do, BECAUSE THEY AREN'T BANNED.

[Spencer]

Tax payers can complain- but the thing about libraries is that just because they don't like it doesn't preclude someone else from liking it and finding value.

These are mostly challenged and removed from SCHOOL libraries, anyway- which is a different animal. HOWEVER, the conversation and point of banned books week is to make sure we don't have senate committee hearings on what books are acceptable and not. Just like Christmas isn't about the birth of the human son of an omnipotent creator- but about giving cool gifts to your kids.

[Jensen]

What if you purchase said books, bring them to school for reading material, and have them confiscated by asshole teachers who refuse to give them back until your parents complain to the school board?

...Ok, I might be a little bitter.

[Jensen]

The book in question, for the record, was Watchmen and this was in an Ontario Catholic public school.

[Spencer]

Cannot speak to things Canadian- but that sounds like theft to me.

[Rhywun]

But... but what about the outrage I'm supposed to feel when somebody, somewhere doesn't like something I've been told is hip?

[B.P.]

Nudity? Aren't these novels?

[UnCivilServant]

They also banned "The Emperor's New Clothes" for the same reason.

[Bardas Phocas]

Do they have a 'Banned Computer or Video Game' celebration?
Books are so two demensional and 20th century, Gandpa.

[Hyperion]

Just wait until truly immersive VR goes mainstream and then watch the ban boners go crazy.

[Jensen]

These direct neural interfaces are corrupting the childrens! Back in my day, we had a Gameboy and we liked it!

[Hyperion]

Why back in my day, we had that pong system, you know, just a pixelated ball bounding around the screen. And that was good enough for us!

[mad.casual]

Just wait until truly immersive VR goes mainstream

I'll hold my breath. Then, when I wake up, I'll head out to the Best Buy in my 2005 Pontiac Bonneville with the HUD that's all the rage, get one of the phenomenal AR headsets I've heard so much about and pick up a 3D TV if they have them in stock. Then, when I get home, strap the good ole Virtual Boy on to the dog's face and we can enjoy like, 7, completely immersive realities at once!

Do ban boners turn to ban blue balls?

[JWatts]

"Do they have a 'Banned Computer or Video Game' celebration?"

Yes, but it was banned in Germany until they agreed to replace all the humans with robots.

[Drake]

My boy used to laugh hysterically at Captain Underpants. It had a little bathroom humor, I'm surprised someone was offended enough to ban it.

Probably more offensive to the censors that the school principal was a dorky superhero who ran around in his undies. Nothing they hate more than being mocked.

[Mainer2]

I read Myra Breckenridge when I was 12, and I turned out OK.

[citation needed]

[Hyperion]

I read The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test, some Timothy Leary, The Naked Lunch, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, Everything by Ayn Rand, Brave New World and other questionable material, and I turned out ok too.

[Dances-with-Trolls]

Ha, you turned out a libertarian which is compelling evidence right there that these books are too disruptive for the children's minds.

[Mrs. Premise]

My devout Catholic grandfather told my family he was reading Myra Breckenridge. They were shocked until they found out he meant Erma Bombeck.

[Hyperion]

I remember the last time I was a little shocked by media.

I came home from work one day and my son and nephew were sitting on my sofa watching tv and laughing hysterically. I glanced at the tube and saw it was some sort of cartoon. Looked over and saw my 5 year old daughter sitting in my recliner, also watching (my 16 year old son was watching her for the one hour after she was dropped by the sitter until I arrived home).

I walked into the kitchen to grab a beer from the fridge and I hear 'fuck this, fuck that.. coming from the TV', and I'm thinking 'WTF?!'. So I hurried back in there, looked at the tube and saw this portly child like cartoon character cursing like a skid row drunk. I grabbed the remote, switched the channel and asked the boys 'what is that? my daughter can't watch that, are you crazy?!'. I was a little pissed.

So my son says 'dad, it's South Park!'. I said 'don't be watching that crap again with your sister in the room'.

Later that evening the boys talked me into watching South Park with them. I've been a fan ever since.

[Homple]

Libertarians are hard to figure out sometimes. It's ok for taxpayers to object to whatever the government spends their money on except for books in public schools and libraries.

[HazelMeade]

Also guns are awesome except when they are carried by the police.

[Fist of Etiquette]

Ban The Declaration of < i Independents!

[antisocial-ist]

Sounds like taxpayers objecting to buying books they disagree with. Ok, some of them have really stupid reasons, but it is their money. Since when is not giving a kid a free copy the same as banning a book?

[F. Stupidity, Jr.]

Since when is not giving a kid a free copy the same as banning a book?

Since asking women to pay for their own contraception is the same as denying access.

[Drake]

I was kind of disappointed I didn't get any blowback when my kid wrote a book report on Starship Troopers.

[Invisible Finger]

I think every politician read 1984 and none of them turned out OK.

Maybe they should have read It Can't Happen Here.

[JWatts]

"I think every politician read 1984 and none of them turned out OK."

Intent matters. Orwell wrote it as a warning, but some people consider it an instruction manual.

[cavalier973]

Bless Me Ultima, by Rudolfo Anaya
Reasons: Occult/Satanism, offensive language, religious viewpoint, sexually explicit

Wait, somebody wrote a book about Ultima? *Checks Wikipedia*. Oh, it's not about the game. Hated it!

[Sigivald]

... and this is why "Banned Books Week" is self-congratulatory library-association bullshit.

50 Shades of grey merely challenged, as age-inappropriate (presumably for minors at very least, possibly even for middle schoolers)?

I dunno, fanfic porn probably is age-inappropriate for minors.

Am I supposed to see this as a threat to civil liberties?

Call me back when it's being removed from a non-K-12 library, or someone's trying to block it from sale.

Hell, call me back when the challenges are successful, not when some irate too-much-time-on-her-hands mom is throwing a fit and being ignored.

[Rock Action]

I see nothing wrong with The Bluest Eye. Pecola and Cholly Breedlove will always stick in my mind simply for the characters. I don't remember anything else about the book other than that father/daughter incest is wrong, and completely damaging. I don't see how people took that message any differently than I did, though I guess I lack imagination. What's strange is that if you're seventeen or so, it's completely age-appropriate. Bizarre choice for a book to hate. Yes, there are political and social issues that run through the book, but that one for banning? What exactly are we afraid of?