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Dua Lipa opens library for banned and censored books in Portugal

euronews.com

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Re: Dua Lipa opens library for banned and censored books in Portugal

#21

Post by buellerbueller »

caseysoftware wrote: post #10
tokai wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No non of them are censored in the EU. They are all censored in the US, maybe with the exception of Salman Rushdie. US book banning is mainly schools and parent groups strong arming libraries and educators to forgo specific books.

"libraries and educators to forgo specific books" is neither "banning" nor "censoring" In the name of literacy, we need to use words properly.

Yes, this is colloquially referred to as "banning." Sorry, you don't get to decide how others use language.

Re: Dua Lipa opens library for banned and censored books in Portugal

#22

Post by embedding-shape »

seydor wrote: post #13

They are not banned in portugal. Appreciate the gesture but it s very inconsequential.

At least one of those were literally banned back when Portugal was a dictatorship though, which wasn't all that long time ago.

I think though the library is supposed to be a general, worldwide collection of books that were censored/banned anywhere in the world, the physical location of the library just happens to be in Portugal. That's how I understood the article at least.

Re: Dua Lipa opens library for banned and censored books in Portugal

#23

Post by Aurornis »

caseysoftware wrote: post #5

Are those just banned and censored in Portugal specifically or the EU as a whole? A quick check here in the States showed all of them available on Amazon for under $25 each.

> A quick check here in the States showed all of them available on Amazon for under $25 each.

The term “banned books” has become a pop culture meme. In this context it doesn’t literally mean banned, it means the book wasn’t allowed somewhere. In extreme cases a government in a controlling country may have forbidden the book.

However in a lot of cases the “banned books” were just not allowed in some school’s library for kids somewhere.

That’s why all of the books aren’t actually banned in the US and are readily available, unless maybe you’re a 3rd grader looking for them at some school library that probably wasn’t going to order the book for kids anyway before it became “banned”

Re: Dua Lipa opens library for banned and censored books in Portugal

#24

Post by llm_nerd »

caseysoftware wrote: post #5

Are those just banned and censored in Portugal specifically or the EU as a whole? A quick check here in the States showed all of them available on Amazon for under $25 each.

The "in Portugal" is, I presume, a statement on where the library is.

Further, when people talk about banned books, they usually mean at some sub-country level, even down to a school board. Like if you look at -

https://pen.org/banned-books-list-2025/

- these books weren't banned from the United States, but they're controversial enough that individual school boards or library systems removed them.

Re: Dua Lipa opens library for banned and censored books in Portugal

#25

Post by nottorp »

everdrive wrote: post #12

Lists of banned books are often quite disappointing, and I think they fall into a few categories: - Books that are simply bad books and in addition to being bad take an aggressive, political bent. (eg: the handmaid's tale) - Books that seem relatively anodyne, and it's not clear why they were banned. (eg: the perks of being a wallflower) - Books that governments might have feared in the old days, but are now much les…

> Books that are simply bad books and in addition to being bad take an aggressive, political bent. (eg: the handmaid's tale)

Handmaid's Tale is actually a pretty decently written book for a dystopia. You just need to like dystopias.

Re: Dua Lipa opens library for banned and censored books in Portugal

#26

Post by dijit »

seydor wrote: post #13

They are not banned in portugal. Appreciate the gesture but it s very inconsequential.

They are banned somewhere and the library is open in Portugal.

If they were banned in Portugal it would run afoul of the legal system, and probably be closed down, obviously.

But if the criteria of being in the library - that the book be banned somewhere in the world; that's a reason to visit the library in of itself.

Though I think there's going to be a lot of garbage, one need only remember that Life of Brian (the Monty Python movie) is banned in the Vatican. (along with a bunch more).

Sometimes just seeing what is banned and where is a sort of art in of itself.

Re: Dua Lipa opens library for banned and censored books in Portugal

#27

Post by buellerbueller »

jnovek wrote: post #20
caseysoftware wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"libraries and educators to forgo specific books" is neither "banning" nor "censoring" In the name of literacy, we need to use words properly.

It is censorship if those books are not included for a specific reason. “We aren’t including this book in the library because we don’t have space for every book.” “We aren’t including this book because we don’t think it’s appropriate for kids to learn about trans people.” <—- censorship

Since there are no libraries with space for every book (ever), then there is no censorship?

Re: Dua Lipa opens library for banned and censored books in Portugal

#28

Post by the_af »

everdrive wrote: post #12

Lists of banned books are often quite disappointing, and I think they fall into a few categories: - Books that are simply bad books and in addition to being bad take an aggressive, political bent. (eg: the handmaid's tale) - Books that seem relatively anodyne, and it's not clear why they were banned. (eg: the perks of being a wallflower) - Books that governments might have feared in the old days, but are now much les…

> Books that are simply bad books and in addition to being bad take an aggressive, political bent. (eg: the handmaid's tale)

Weird example. The Handmaid's Tale is quite good.

Edit: wow, downvotes for stating a book is quite good. HN at its worst.

Edit 2: in fact it's so bizarre, also seeing other commenters here downvoted for saying Handmaid is a good book, that I struggled to see the reason for the ire. I'm not from the US, mind you, so it took me a while to add 2 and 2 and remember Atwood and Handmaid are in the current political climate of the US an anti-Trump stance. So that has to be the reason. Saying Handmaid is a good book implies you're anti-Trump and therefore invites downvotes (but also upvotes from the other camp, I'd guess). Wow.

Re: Dua Lipa opens library for banned and censored books in Portugal

#29

Post by suddenlybananas »

Guthwine wrote: post #15
suddenlybananas wrote: post #2

Wow, Margaret Atwood how dangerous and subversive.

Not sure if your sarcasm is directed at Dua Lipa for including Atwood, or at the states that actually removed it from their public schools (Texas, Florida, Missouri, among others), but it was actually banned in Portugal during the Salazar regime. Either way, I agree with your comment that there is nothing dangerous about Atwood unless you are a fan of authoritarian religious governments.

That's strange that a book that was published in 1985 was banned by a regime which fell in 1974.

Re: Dua Lipa opens library for banned and censored books in Portugal

#30

Post by smith7018 »

nottorp wrote: post #18
seydor wrote: post #13

They are not banned in portugal. Appreciate the gesture but it s very inconsequential.

Actually the article title is shit clickbait because it IMPLIES those books are banned in Portugal. The museum is in Portugal. It is not specified where those books are banned.

I think it's just a poorly written title. I doubt millions of people will click on the link specifically to learn which books Portugal banned vs to learn about that Dua Lipa is doing. A better title would be "Dua Lipa opens library in Portugal for banned and censored books."
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