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Brooklyn Public Library offers access to banned ebooks to teens across the U.S

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Re: Brooklyn Public Library offers access to banned ebooks to teens across the U.S

#141

Post by a1369209993 »

lambdaphagy wrote: post #97
slg wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think this is being disingenuous because a library deciding not to buy a book is different than the executive or legislature saying that the library cannot buy a book. You are implying what is happening across the country in conservative states is the former when it is more often the latter. Choice is being removed from the people who run the libraries. They are the people who best know what books their communities…

If your political tribe controls a given institution, then there is generally no need to do things by legislative fiat-- you simply do them, and your choices are status quo. Meanwhile the patrons of a library have essentially no say in who staffs their libraries or the schools where those librarians are trained, whereas the state legislature is at least theoretically democratically accountable. Not making any kind of…

> it's a little less clear than "selfless librarians vs meddlesome politicians".

It that were true - that is, if the politicians were in the right, and the librarians the wrong - the laws in question would mandate the presence of needed books (at least by request), not the absence of objectionable ones.

Re: Brooklyn Public Library offers access to banned ebooks to teens across the U.S

#142

Post by pksebben »

WalterBright wrote: post #140
pksebben wrote: post #131

Earlier quoted context omitted.

but you mentioned creationism, specifically. and religion. I meant specifically by those terms.

Yes, I did. The government banned them in the public schools. I didn't.

right, so, if we assume that the rule is "if pubic school cannot teach x subject, then books about x subject ought not to be in their library" (which is the inference in your comment) then you must mean that's for both books relating to gender non conformity and books like the bible.

The point here being that there appears to be a double standard. "not taught in the curriculum" and "banned from the library" are different standards.

Re: Brooklyn Public Library offers access to banned ebooks to teens across the U.S

#143

Post by jeffbee »

stolenmerch wrote: post #48

I think this project is great and I fully support it. However, it's only a list of books challenged by mostly christian conservatives dealing with race and gender. Left-leaning progressives challenge books ALL the time. This is bristling to hear, but it's true. Books that are deemed to contain racist or sexist words or images are challenged every year. Huckleberry Finn, Dr. Seuss books, books about Christopher Columb…

Which of the books on the ALA's list of the 100-most-challenged books of the 2010s do you believe was probably challenged by "left-leaning" busybodies?

https://www.ala.org/advocacy/bbooks/frequentlychallengedbook...

Re: Brooklyn Public Library offers access to banned ebooks to teens across the U.S

#144

Post by chiefalchemist »

magicalist wrote: post #138
chiefalchemist wrote: post #137

Not to get off topic but what seems to be lost in the HN discussion is that this is a coastal public library offering books to teens that are banned in their local school. It's not about all banned books. There's also the dynamic of a (left leaning?) coastal entity overriding right-leaning communities. This might play well in Brookyln, but it's also powerful political fodder for the more conservative areas being over…

> this is a coastal public library offering books to teens that are banned in their local school Is "coastal" a signifier like "latte drinking"? Texas and Florida also have very lengthy and populated coastlines.

Coastal is a common euphemism for East Coast and California. That is, known Left hot spots that the Right finds "high horse-y".

Re: Brooklyn Public Library offers access to banned ebooks to teens across the U.S

#145

Post by WalterBright »

pksebben wrote: post #142
WalterBright wrote: post #140

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, I did. The government banned them in the public schools. I didn't.

right, so, if we assume that the rule is "if pubic school cannot teach x subject, then books about x subject ought not to be in their library" (which is the inference in your comment) then you must mean that's for both books relating to gender non conformity and books like the bible. The point here being that there appears to be a double standard. "not taught in the curriculum" and "banned from the library" are diffe…

There's no double standard. The library is part of the public school. Therefore it is subject to the government's decision on what goes in it.

If you are inferring that I am advocating that government ban books on X and supply books on Y in the school libraries, that is a serious misreading.

Re: Brooklyn Public Library offers access to banned ebooks to teens across the U.S

#146

Post by stevenicr »

ajross wrote: post #22
newbamboo wrote: post #6

How silly. As though there are gangs of teenagers throughout the country that can’t get “banned” books, whatever that means, despite having the freaking internet, and books being basically free. As though they’re living in communist China or something! Kids can buy these books, and get all sorts of other vile pornographic material online well before their teenage years. Local school boards are not the CCP and they ha…

The books in question aren't about sexual content (which was never available to schoolkids anyway). It's a bunch of stuff about racial discrimination and alternative gender presentations and orientations that's being censored. The attempt to liken books about "two mommies" or "it's hard to be black in the USA" to porn is exactly the kind of disinformation that led to this travesty.

Well, a huge chunk of them are/were.

Some months ago when reading stories about banned books in TX - I started comparing articles written about it from left-wing / main stream news - and other places.

Then I ordered several of the books listed as being banned.

I must say that I don't think the graphic-novel version of the handmaids tale should be on the shelf at the local under 18 school (imho).

The teen's underground guide to sexual.. something like that. I think parts of it are great for high schoolers who want to learn, and/if their parents are cool with that knowledge being sought after - I like the way it's worded.. but then the chapters on abortion and gay stuff.. I can understand why there is a movement to keep it off the shelves of school libraries. (which further research I found that those things were added in to the book after it had been in print for a number of years )

The linked story links to a page which highlights race/gay/historical percentages / numbers.. which links to a pen america study (https://pen.org/banned-in-the-usa/) for it's gist..

which states: Health-related and/or Sexual Content

A subset of 283 titles (25%) deal with sexual or health-related content.

After doing to small amount of research I did, I would say there is much more overlap on these things than is being shown in the raw numbers - and I could see that even if a group of parents in town X were okay with a gay black two mommies living hard in the USA story - if it had graphic illustrations like the ones in the hand maids tale I got - I would expect that many would say no - that should not be there for unfettered access to the kids.

Re: Brooklyn Public Library offers access to banned ebooks to teens across the U.S

#147

Post by [deleted] »

ALittleLight wrote: post #87
jeffbee wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think this choice of litmus test say a great deal about you, and basically nothing about the phenomenon of banned books.

If it says a "great deal" then surely you could elaborate beyond a single vague sentence.

[deleted]

Re: Brooklyn Public Library offers access to banned ebooks to teens across the U.S

#148

Post by dredmorbius »

jasonlotito wrote: post #75
ALittleLight wrote: post #39

I like to use "The Turner Diaries" as a kind of litmus test for people who don't want to ban books. I notice that, while all of the books this article calls out specifically are available at the Brooklyn Public Library - per their online catalog, "The Turner Diaries" is not and neither are any books by its author - either his real name or pseudonym. The Turner Diaries, for reference, is a white supremacist novel that…

And your qualifications to make this call as opposed to a professional like a librarian are?

Numerous libraries will take recommendations for book purchases.

Acting on those tends to scale with the reputation of author and/or publisher, but there are reasonably good odds.

Re: Brooklyn Public Library offers access to banned ebooks to teens across the U.S

#149

Post by dredmorbius »

narrator wrote: post #79
Adraghast wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I just checked the NYPL catalog and found The Turner Diaries , Camp of the Saints and Mein Kampf to be available. Just three examples, but I find it hard to imagine what else they’d refuse to carry if those are fine. Is there a particular book you have in mind that “Park Slope progressives” would find too objectionable for libraries to loan out?

Can you check if they have The Transgender-Industrial Complex [1]? It's one of the few books Amazon refuses to sell. You can only get it from the publisher or Barnes and Nobles. [1] https://antelopehillpublishing.com/product/the-transgender-i...

You can of course search for that yourself at Worldcat. DuckDuckGo !bang search !worldcat.

Or https://worldcat.org/

There appear to be three listed copies worldwide.

https://www.worldcat.org/title/transgender-industrial-comple...

Re: Brooklyn Public Library offers access to banned ebooks to teens across the U.S

#150

Post by dredmorbius »

One of the peculiar characteristics of one groups ban list is that they seem to become another's read list.

That said, I've casually searched for some years to find a canonical listing of the Index Librorum Prohibitorum, the Catholic Inquisition's list of banned books. I've found several partial listings of works contained ON the list, but none, so far, of the full listing.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Index_Librorum_Prohibitorum

And ... backstopping myself as I post this comment, there does seem to be a possible copy at the Internet Archive:

https://archive.org/details/indexofprohibite00mendiala/page/...

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