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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region Forums'It's a culture war that's totally out of control': the authors whose books are being banned in US
Its a culture war thats totally out of control: the authors whose books are being banned in US schools
There has been an unprecedented rise in attempts in the US to have books removed from shelves.
From Art Spiegelman to Margaret Atwood, books are disappearing from the shelves of American schools. Whats behind the rise in censorship?
Claire Armitstead
Claire Armitstead
@carmitstead
Tue 22 Mar 2022 02.00 EDT
Last modified on Tue 22 Mar 2022 04.45 EDT
When the owners of a Tennessee comics shop learned that a local school board had voted to remove Art Spiegelmans Holocaust classic Maus from its curriculum, they sprang into action with an appeal calling for donations to fund free copies for schoolchildren. Within hours, money started pouring in from all over the world. We had donations from Israel, the UK and Canada as well as from the US, says Richard Davis, co-owner of Nirvana Comics.
Ten days later, they closed the appeal, after raising $110,000 (£84,000) from 3,500 donors. We bought up all the copies the publisher had in its warehouse and were now in the process of shipping 3,000 copies of Maus to students all over the country, along with a study guide written by a local schoolteacher, says Davis, who has relied on volunteers to help with the distribution.
For Spiegelman, it has meant an exponential sales boost for a 30-year-old book the only graphic novel to win a Pulitzer prize, in 1992 and a flurry of speaking engagements across the country. It just shows, he says, you cant ban books unless youre willing to burn them and you cant burn them all unless youre willing to burn the writers and the readers too.
Thats just as well, adds the 74-year-old cartoonist, because this is the most Orwellian version of society Ive ever lived in. Its not as simple as left v right. Its a culture war thats totally out of control. As a first-amendment fundamentalist, I believe in the right of anyone to read anything, provided they are properly supported. If a kid wants to read Mein Kampf, its better to do it in a library or school environment than to discover it on Daddys shelves and be traumatised.
snip//
Its definitely getting worse, says Suzanne Nossel, the CEO of the free-speech organisation PEN America, which has led the resistance against book banning for more than a decade. We used to hear about a book challenge or ban a few times a year. Now its every week or every day. We also see proposed legislative bans, as opposed to just school districts taking action. It is part of a concerted effort to try to hold back the consequences of demographic and social change by controlling the narratives available to young people.
more...
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2022/mar/22/its-a-culture-war-thats-totally-out-of-control-the-authors-whose-books-are-being-banned-in-us-schools
RKP5637
(67,112 posts)Thomas Hurt
(13,903 posts)Not sure if it worse but it seems we see this crap more whenever a Democrat is in the WH.
gab13by13
(21,405 posts)these people want to kill our democracy. Can't have minority rule in a democracy.
Thomas Hurt
(13,903 posts)The christofascists have been angling for this since the Reagan admin. The Pig emboldened them further.
gab13by13
(21,405 posts)The Heritage Foundation, The Federalist Society, and many other less well known anti-democratic American oligarch funded groups.
The Federalist Society even wrote the anti- voter bills that have been passed in the states.
We have an FBI director who is a member of the Federalist Society. He didn't vet his law school acquaintance Brett Kavanaugh even though there were 4,500 Kavanaugh complaints on the FBI tip line.
RAB910
(3,511 posts)call it what is really is, another step toward a GOP police state.
You call it cancel culture you are creating a "both sides" false argument
You talk about once again the GOP robbing Americans of their rights and freedoms, you have a winning point
Wednesdays
(17,412 posts)I read "culture war" in the OP, and that's a whole different thing.
sarisataka
(18,774 posts)From more than a few voices the the First Amendment is too broad and should be limited...
*snark on*
Where was it I heard that... 🤔
*snark off*