Things never change. When I was a kid, the librarian at the public library in my little rural town with 23 churches tried to steer me away from Lord of the Rings (which I had already read) and towards Narnia (also read) because CS Lewis was such a good Christian. Ironically, she didn't know Lewis and Tolkien were best friends and that Tolkien had guided Lewis to go back to church after a youthful agnostic phase.
delichon · 1h ago
I had a similar experience with Kurt Vonnegut books when I was a kid in the seventies. I needed Mom's permission to read Breakfast of Champions. I love to hear stories of librarians fighting against book banning. But the other side of the story is when they act as gatekeepers, and books they don't like never make it on the shelves to begin with. That doesn't tend to make the news, and banned book lists don't mention them since a book has to be selected to be banned.
these books should be mined for phrases, attitudes/opinions, statements, that are the source of the inflammation, and compiled into an "antiscreed" perhaps for the invidious lolz, perhaps for the real potential to create social movement.
It would maybe be declared a criminal publication.
https://liblime.com/2024/11/25/the-impact-of-personal-politi...
It would maybe be declared a criminal publication.