Censored! The new war on authors - "Until last week, Kate Clanchy was a hero in the publishing world... Then everything fell apart. The success that Clanchy, 56, had built up since publishing her debut poetry collection in 1995 was trashed. Perhaps even more painfully, so was the reputation she had acquired as a champion of migrant children... readers had accused Clanchy of racism in her memoir Some Kids I Taught and What they Taught Me. There was particular criticism for the description of one child’s “chocolate-coloured skin” and another’s “almond-shaped eyes”. She was charged with being “classist” and “fatphobic” and having “an outdated view on transgender young people”... Literary friends rallied to her defence, then backed away as the outrage became ever more ferocious. Pullman was disowned by the Society of Authors, of which he is president, for supporting Clanchy... a chastened Clanchy announced that she would be rewriting portions of the book and said: “I’m grateful. I know I got many things wrong, and welcome the chance to write better, more lovingly . . . You are right to blame me, and I blame myself.” It was a humiliating outcome for a book that had won the Orwell prize for political writing in 2020. Then, the judges had called it “moving, funny, full of love”. Now it faces the Orwellian fate of being retrospectively edited into line with contemporary sensibilities. For Kindle users, when the updated version is published, it will be as though the original never existed. The injury to Clanchy’s reputation, though, is permanent. In a column for the industry journal The Bookseller, Clanchy’s fellow author Pragya Agarwal condemned her for using her “power and privilege” to portray herself as a “saviour” while “benefiting from [her pupils’] stories”. As heartbreaking as this experience has presumably been for Clanchy, it’s just one more skirmish in the war of cancellation roiling through the publishing industry. While it’s arguable that Clanchy’s publisher could have forestalled this in the editing process, and certain that there are better ways to handle such a furore than accusing critics of lying, it’s also true that such outrages are increasingly common in the literary world, with a body count of ruined careers in their wake. Some of the biggest names in publishing have fallen foul of the censorious mood at large, and many smaller names stay quiet for fear of attracting negative attention. Most troublingly, much of the pressure to cancel authors over their views or attitudes — whether actual or attributed to them by critics — comes from inside publishing. An industry that might be assumed to have a foundational commitment to freedom of expression is increasingly setting its face against the very principle. That’s the environment that led the publisher Hachette to announce last year that staff could not refuse to work on a book simply because they disagreed with the author’s beliefs. Although the publisher supported its employees’ right to recuse themselves when directly opposed to a book’s contents, it stressed that this exemption did not apply when the disagreement was with an author’s views outside their work. In that case, a refusal would be “contrary to our belief in free speech”... she revealed that she was a survivor of domestic abuse and sexual assault. Under any other circumstances, such a disclosure would have made Rowling an object of sympathy. In this context, however, she was accused of using her experiences as a “shield to deflect criticism”. Appalled by Rowling’s failure to wholeheartedly embrace trans activism, staff at Hachette’s children’s division — reportedly mostly relatively junior and aged in their twenties — attempted to stall work on The Ickabog, despite that book’s wholesale irrelevance to the gender debate. Not every author receives the support that Rowling did, however. Just a few weeks earlier, Hachette’s American division had pulped Woody Allen’s memoir in the wake of a staff walkout... Even books that have already gone to print can fall foul of cancellation, as Blake Bailey learnt when his acclaimed biography of the novelist Philip Roth was withdrawn by the US publisher WW Norton... The decision, made in response to allegations of sexual assault against Bailey, had nothing to do with the content of the book (Bailey has called the allegations “false and libellous”). It shows the increasing pressure on publishers to avoid involvement with individuals whose lives — and not just work — are deemed problematic. The febrile atmosphere within publishing can make it difficult to support books once the staff has turned against them. Look, for example, at the reaction to Jordan Peterson’s Beyond Order: 12 More Rules for Life... a town hall meeting at its publisher, Penguin Random House Canada, left distraught employees in tears at the prospect of involvement with a book by Peterson, who, according to one attendee, is “an icon of hate speech and transphobia”. Another expressed fears about how the publication of the book would affect their non-binary friend... Publishing’s culture war threatens even books of certain historical value... more than 500 authors and literary professionals in America signed an open letter calling for a boycott of all memoirs by veterans of the Trump administration, including the former president. Such accounts could play a vital part in putting the events of the Trump era on record — political memoirs have a particular tendency to judge authors out of their own mouths — but, for some, purity is more valuable than history. And for all the high-profile examples that come to light, many less famous (or notorious) writers are stifled by an atmosphere of risk aversion in the industry. Agents report internal pressure from colleagues to drop clients who are seen as politically toxic. Editors will turn down proposals they are otherwise wholly positive about if a glance at the author’s social media reveals unfashionable political affiliations (one rejection along these lines that was shown to me included a strong hint that the agent who submitted the proposal should think about the harm done to their own reputation by association). In this environment it takes a particularly stalwart character to embrace a controversial book. Helen Joyce, the author of Trans: When Reality Meets Ideology, found support from the independent publisher OneWorld, but even after positive views and excellent word of mouth, the book is still reportedly up against resistance from booksellers. Prospective buyers have found high street booksellers reluctant to stock the bestselling book or secreting it in obscure locations when they do carry it. Publishing’s pursuit of social justice is laudable in many ways, but the extremity of its pursuit — and the highly specific set of values it involves — leaves it increasingly adrift from the book-buying public at large. It also leaves writers exposed, with even the Society of Authors liable to turn on them in the event of an outrage. The worrying conclusion is that, in the war between purity and literature, purity is winning."
From 2021. Of course, this doesn't count as a "book ban" since the left support it
Jamie Sarkonak: Education activists need to leave the kids alone - "Some Ontario schools use a little program called Strong Start to help kids learn to read. For years, it’s done so by using games: its “Three Bears Alphabet” board game centres around a mother bear, a father bear and a child bear; its “Treasure Hunt” game takes place on a sandy beach with trading ships off the coast. And the “Race to the Castle” game has children move along the board doing just that. But in a 2024 update to the program, all of these games have been replaced for diversity, equity and inclusion reasons. It’s yet another area within Canadian education that has felt the sector-wide iconoclasm: widespread destruction of works and symbols newly deemed unacceptable by a handful of zealots. Instead of religious images being burned and trashed, as has historically been the case, it’s Canadian heritage and tradition. Strong Start’s castle game, according to the program’s explainer, was far too Eurocentric for Ontario schools. It was replaced with one about a playground. In other games, the image of a queen to teach the letter “Q” was replaced with a quill. The diversity-minded people behind the switch evidently weren’t aware that castles and queens aren’t exclusive to Europe — though, even if they were, there was no harm in showing them to kids. Medieval fortresses inspire wonder, and they’re part of this nation’s roots, after all. Similarly, the Treasure Hunt game “had a distinct colonial theme” because it included a depiction of generic 17th-century ocean-crossing galleons in what was likely the Caribbean, as if elementary students enrolled in Ontario have the capacity to be traumatized by something that happened 400 years ago. A game about walking on a nature trail has taken its place, ignoring, of course, that park trail systems in North America are also creations of colonialism. Most egregiously, the “Three Bears” game “portrayed (a) narrow concept of family, stereotypical gender roles and the attribution of human characteristics to animals.” The classic mom-dad-child depiction of a family, which has propelled western civilization for ages, was problematic. They were too heterosexual, and that they were animals made it even worse: on the frontier of oppressor-oppressed thinking, it’s considered wrong to show children images of anthropomorphic animals while also feeding them real-life animals. Thus, this game was replaced with one about making an alphabet soup... “Equity-informed weeding” to cull books from school shelves — an ongoing phenomenon that shocked students in Ontario schools last fall upon finding their libraries half-empty — continues to be a recommended practice at Canadian School Libraries, a school library professional group. The group insists that equity-informed reading should never amount to censorship, even though its criteria for book removal is censorious: “classics” are overrated, it says, and removing “cultural appropriation” is of greater importance. Its recommendations have been taken into consideration all over the place. Waterloo’s public schools implemented them with a massive book audit in 2021 — to root out “harmful” content. New literature had been added to diversify collections, but that wasn’t enough, according to one staffer. The board’s policy even recommends that the books not be given away because they could harm the minds of children — instead, they’re to be trashed. At the Peel District School Board, a similar audit was carried out, resulting in one school losing all its books published prior to 2008. Later, this was attributed to an on-the-ground misinterpretation of board policy — a pretty big misinterpretation, if you ask me. The board denies that it has banned any books, and says it’s replenishing its collection. Unfortunately, the board didn’t make a list of resources to trash because it wanted teachers and librarians to apply the weeding principles themselves — to develop “critical consciousness” and train them to “recognize harm,” according to a district library administrator. Hints as to what the condemned titles might be can be gleaned from elsewhere: To Kill a Mockingbird and Of Mice and Men were removed from a Surrey, B.C. school’s recommended list, and they were outright banned at Toronto’s Catholic school board. Aside from the books, it’s all the other little things. Even Mother’s Day is too traditional and non-inclusive for certain fragile school administrators. One Toronto school took down its student-created Mother’s Day sign last year which read, “Life does not come with a manual. It comes with a mom,” because it “does not reflect the inclusivity of our community.” And one province over, a Quebec school gender-neutralized Mother’s Day entirely. Celebration of normal parenthood, Three Bears or real-life, is slowly becoming off-limits. Like a proper iconoclasm, this movement in schools has reached some of our deepest, religion-sourced celebrations, too. Christmas concerts were cancelled at a number of Nova Scotia schools last year “In the spirit of fostering a sense of inclusivity, belonging and respect for diverse backgrounds and traditions.”... If students can’t even interact with boats and ships — and even the concept of heterosexual, monogamous, stable families — because today’s educational experts have determined that these are harmful ideas, we can’t expect them to learn anything. Instead, we’re priming them for a life of perpetual curiosity-killing shame: for their mystical identity-based privileges, for their country and for their collective history."
Book bans are good when they push the left wing agenda
Another example of how the War on Christmas is a right wing conspiracy theory and misinformation
Meme - Woman with "Read banned books" T-shirt: "WHOA NOW, LETS UH... PUMP THE BRAKES A BIT..."
*Woman with "2A" coffee mug reading "Expedient Homemade Firearms" by P. A. Luty*
Meme - Andrea Junker @Strandjunker: "Dear American citizens, whatever you wish more German citizens would have done in 1933, do that now."
Common Sense Extremists: "Burn even more books with child sexuality and communist themes?"
School System Pulls 2 Books With Graphic Sex From Libraries - "A northern Virginia school system said it is removing two books from school libraries, including an illustrated memoir that contains explicit illustrations of sexual encounters involving children, after a parent expressed concern about them at a school board meeting. Stacy Langton, a parent in the Fairfax County school system, questioned the school board at a public meeting Thursday about the books' availability in high school libraries. As she quoted from explicit passages in the book, a school board member interrupted her and chastised her for using explicit language... it said it was pulling “Gender Queer” by Maia Kobabe and “Lawn Boy” by Jonathan Evison from circulation pending a more detailed review... “Gender Queer" publisher Oni Press issued a statement Friday saying that limiting the book's availability is “short-sighted and reactionary.”... “Gender Queer," an illustrated memoir, contains explicit illustrations of oral sex and masturbation. The novel “Lawn Boy” contains graphic descriptions of sex between men and children. Both books were previous winners of the American Library Association’s Alex Awards, which each year recognize “ten books written for adults that have special appeal to young adults ages 12 through 18.” Langton said the fact that school board members felt compelled to interrupt her when she read graphic passages aloud illustrates her point about the books' inappropriate nature."
What an ignorant board member. Why does he want to engage in homophobic censorship? Just because adults are too fragile to hear depictions of adult-underaged sex doesn't mean children are too
Georgia parent reading sexual content from library at school board meeting is cut off: 'Inappropriate' - "A Georgia school board member cut off a mother reading sexually explicit content from a book available to high school students in the district, saying the passage was "inappropriate" for any children to potentially hear. "Excuse me, we have children at home," Cherokee County school board member identified as Patsy Jordan told the angry mother after she read a sexually-charged passage from the book "Homegoing." The school board member pointed out that the meeting was being livestreamed and said reading the passage was "inappropriate." "Don’t you find the irony in that?" the parent responded. "You’re exactly saying exactly what I’m telling you! You’re giving it to our children! I would never give this to my children!"... "All this happened under your watch," the parent told the board. "Maybe if you spent more time reading these books instead of calculating the statistical demographics of those submitting the books, you wouldn't grooming our children. You're saying that we're embarrassing you? Well, you're embarrassing us and our kids. It's not OK! You are supposed to be giving them a safe space in school. These books? If I can't email them to you, if I can't say them, they shouldn't be in the school!" The board then told the mother her time was up... The unidentified mother at the meeting told PJ Media that parents have been bringing explicit books to the attention of the school board since about November of last year. The mother circled back with other concerned parents in January, only to find the books in question were still available to students"
Weird. We keep being told that "book bans" (though you can still buy the books in any bookstore) are homophobic and transphobic, and only crazy right wingers think that the books are obscene or sexualise children
Of course, if she had refused to shut up and been dragged from the room, left wingers would've been cheering that - even as they claim to be outraged when left wing protesters refuse to leave premises and need to be forcibly kicked out
'If I gave a child one of these books I'd go to jail': Georgia mom speaks out about school libraries - "Brown began reading from the award-winning novel in a bid to illustrate why it should be banned from the 42,000-student district. 'Excited now, he pushed into her as she squeezed her eyes as tightly as she could,' she read. 'Her tongue circled her lips. He pushed harder, his breath heavy and labored. She scratched his back and he cried out. She bit his ear and pulled his hair.' She added: 'There's lot more to it. It's Fifty Shades of Grey in CCSD [Cherokee County School District].'... Brown added that 'this is not about book-banning.' She said that instead it was a question of ensuring 'obscene' material does not end up in the hands of children."
It's too obscene to be read aloud by adults in public, but is available to kids
School board members object to parent reading from graphic book available to students - "The chair of the Osseo school board warned a parent reading from a sexually-explicit book available in the district’s libraries that there may be children in the room. “Last month we had some kids in the audience and some of the language was offensive to some,” said Chair Jacquelene Mosqueda-Jones during Tuesday night’s meeting. The room of parents erupted in laughter. “That’s exactly it,” responded Natalie Sonic, a parent of two children at Maple Grove High School. “I think we should continue, Jackie, because that’s exactly my point.” Sonic then attempted to continue reading, only to be stopped again. “Hold on, I would like decorum in the audience as well,” Mosqueda-Jones said. “I just want to warn you about who may be in the audience.”... Another member of the board then appeared to interrupt, saying the content wasn’t “appropriate for a school board meeting.” After Sonic finished speaking, parents in the room applauded her speech and were chided again by the board chair who threatened to throw people out of the room for clapping."
'This is for kids': Father cut off from reading sexually explicit library book to Alaskan school board - "An Alaskan father has pulled his children from a public school district after he was prohibited from sharing concerns over a sexually explicit book found in its library catalog. Jay McDonald... read a passage from "Let's Talk About It: The Teen's Guide to Sex, Relationships, and Being a Human," a graphic novel he claims was recently purchased for ASD libraries. The book has previously been criticized by parents for its sexually explicit imagery and commentary, and it was pulled from a Florida school district this week after Governor Ron DeSantis's administration called it "pornography." McDonald alleges an entire chapter of the book is devoted to tips on sexting, which the authors refer to as "sending your naughty masterpieces around the world."... McDonald was quickly cut off by board vice president Carl Jacobs, who asked the father to cease his reading and defer all book-related concerns to the ASD superintendent."
The fact that school board members don't want excerpts from these books read aloud shows that they know that claims about "book bans" are sophistry and that if most people knew the kind of s e x related content that was in these books, they would agree with the "book bans"
'Let's Talk About It: The Teen's Guide to Sex, Relationships and Being a Human' outrage: Sex book sparks backlash with Australian libraries loaning publication to teenagers - "A graphic book about sex that advises young readers on how to look up porn and send naked selfies has sparked outrage in Australia. The book 'Let's Talk About It: The Teen's Guide to Sex, Relationships and Being a Human' by US cartoonists and comic book creators Erika Moen and Matthew Nolan says it is aimed at teens from 14 to 17 or 'whoever needs it, whatever your age'. While it contains a disclaimer there are serious 'serious legal consequences' of sharing naked photographs of children younger than 18, the book goes onto to give its young readers advice on how to take them. 'Before you start sending your naughty masterpieces around the world, take some time to get friendly with photo-editing software or apps,' the book says. The book has sparked outrage in the US with several schools having already banned it - but it is currently available to be borrowed from several libraries in Australia. The book also encourages its readers to experience pornography, calling it a 'fun, sugary treat' and it also suggests experimenting with sex toys, including butt plugs. 'Just make sure any objects you put up there have a flared base; otherwise, your hungry heinie can gobble it up and the only way to get it back out is a trip to the hospital,' the authors say. The book contains graphic images of sexual intercourse and genitals, as well as chapters on masturbation and kinks. While the book has largely flown under the radar in Australia, it has been banned by several US schools. In Florida the administration of Governor Ron DeSantis, who is a Republican presidential candidate, classed the work as 'pornographic'. Teacher and children's author Amelia Donnelly argued that along with 'Welcome to Sex', the US book threatens to 'traumatise' children... When mother-of-three Angela Rojas raised her objections about the book at a Playford Council meeting in Adelaide's northern suburbs in February, the images had to be blurred for video streaming. 'This book should be in a restricted area and treated like a restricted adult publication,' Ms Rojas told Sky News. 'If it's too sensitive for YouTube, too sensitive even to film and put on the news, because I'm sure you'd have to censor these images, why should it be unrestricted?'... Sky News Australia found the book is available in 36 public libraries across Australia, some holding multiple copies, and can be found at major booksellers such as Dymocks, Angus & Roberts and QBD Books."
Circe on X - "Anything the left considers to be a “banned book” has its own neat section at the front of every mainstream bookstore meanwhile anything the right considers to be a “banned book” costs upwards of $1K at some online retailer with user interface that hasn’t been updated since 1998"
Meme - Heath Taws @HeathTaws: "Tried to buy these books but the guy behind the counter said, "sorry, these are all banned.""
"BANNED BOOKS. TRENDING IN DYSTOPIAN FICTION"
Julianne Moore ‘stunned’ after Trump bans her children’s book Freckleface Strawberry - "Julianne Moore’s children’s book “Freckleface Strawberry” has been banned from military schools by the Trump administration, the actress has said... “As part of the review, books potentially related to gender ideology or discriminatory equity ideology topics as defined in the executive orders will be relocated to the professional staff collection for evaluation,” a department of defence education activity spokesman told CNN. “During this period, access will be limited to professional staff.” The Pentagon agency said that some books have been removed on a temporary basis as part of the review but none have been banned so far."
Left wing logic - a book being under review means it's banned. I guess this means that anyone who is charged with a crime has been found guilty
Wiretap Media on X - "REPORT: The Canadian Civil Liberties Association (CCLA) is preparing to sue the Alberta Government for removing books in school libraries that depict child molestation and kids performing oral sex, calling it textbook censorship."
Alberta’s Book Ban Is a Blatant Act of Cultural Vandalism : r/canada - "Okay so, kids may see pornography on the internet, therefore we have to allow this book in school? Why not allow pornography since they see it anyways? Why can't a kid bring a bunch of porn print outs too school to show his friends at lunch?"
"Yes, easy access to porn is a good reason to have books like this in junior high and high schools. Adolescents need to learn that most porn is just as fake as a car chase sequence in an action movie, and that requires access to educational materials that deal with sex in more realistic contexts."
"So you're saying that, yes, kids should be allowed to bring pornography to school and share it with friends?"
"This literally already happens."
Left wingers want to expose kids to pornography
Alberta’s Book Ban Is a Blatant Act of Cultural Vandalism : r/canada - "Your kids will access things without your knowledge. Were you ever a teenager before? Somehow you’re Making me Feel like you weren’t. Your teenage kids are allowed a degree of autonomy free from your influence. Seeing a picture of oral sex isn’t going to turn them into some Kind of deviant. I want my kids to be able to talk to me about anything. You’re just trying to control what everyone else is doing because you’re uncomfortable with homosexuality. "
"My kids will access things without my knowledge, therfore the school should provide them with a book where oral sex is depicted with a visible penis? I'm not understanding the logic here. Should schools provides my children with everything they may want to access without my knowledge? What's the limit?"
ABC7 News on X - "A San Francisco bookstore will no longer carry the "Harry Potter" series due to author J.K. Rowling's political actions toward excluding transgender women from gendered spaces."
WindTalker on X - "Wasn’t banning books bad like 5 minutes ago?"
Meme "Uh-oh, looks like I got caught reading BANNED BOOKS!" *Gender Queer. White Fragility. How to be an Antiracist*
"Oh, you're a fan of banned books too? Here's a couple that I can recommend!" *Camp of the Saints. Unintended Consequences. The Poor Man's JAMES BOND*
"OH MY GOD, I AM LITERALLY SHAKING! THIS DISGUSTING FAR-RIGHT PROPAGANDA NEEDS TO BE BANNED IMMEDIATELY!!"
"I AM ON FIFTEEN DIFFERENT TERROR WATCHLISTS"
Meme - "somebody told me my kids needed to read banned books. thought it was odd, but I went ahead and got them this"
"THE HOMOSEXUAL THREAT TO CIVILIZATION. A SPEECH BY HEINRICH HIMMLER. WITH SEVEN APPENDICES ROM OFFICIAL SOURCES REVEALING THE EXTENT OF THE HOMOSEXUAL PROBLEM IN MODERN SOCIETY. NEW TRANSLATION. ANNOTATION AND APPENDICES BY DR HERMANN HITZINGER"
60 Minutes on X - "Margaret Atwood, author of 64 books including “The Handmaid’s Tale,” has seen her work banned for content deemed overly sexual, morally corrupt, and anti-Christian."
Matt Walsh on X - "If by "banned" you mean "the book is available everywhere that books are sold and has been obsessively promoted by every major media outlet for decades and adapted into six seasons of a streaming show on Hulu and not actually banned anywhere in any form at all" then yeah the book has definitely been banned"
