Kevin's Watch

Holsety - never saw the wire...

i vote in every election i can - local to national - because i fear they may take it away some day.

i try to learn everything tptb don't want me to.

i read fahrenheit 451 as a kid and it has always stuck with me...

Welcome to Banned Books Week 2012.

Anyone planning to read a banned/challenged book this week?

We have a copy of Lady Chatterley's Lover, which was a banned book I think when I first read it in the 60s. It went the rounds at school and certain pages were falling out.

It's been on the telly since. Don't think I'll read it again though.

Oh, I forgot, there was also Peyton Place. My mum wouldn't let me watch it on the telly at first but I got round her. Oh Rodney!!!!!!!!! She had the books but wouldn't let me read them. I don't think these were banned.

I think the whole thing can get pointless unless you feel dirty after reading the book. You know, a lot of people will reread DaVinci Code or some other safe book that they know they like. I think one should read something like, say, Lolita, be completely appalled by it, but come to the realization that censorship is bad and if people want to read such books, they should be able to.

Orlion wrote: be completely appalled by it, but come to the realization that censorship is bad and if people want to read such books, they should be able to.

Guess I'm gonna have to read Harry Potter, then.

Vraith wrote:

Orlion wrote: be completely appalled by it, but come to the realization that censorship is bad and if people want to read such books, they should be able to.

Guess I'm gonna have to read Harry Potter, then.

Yes, Snark, just a little closer...

Orlion wrote:I think the whole thing can get pointless unless you feel dirty after reading the book. You know, a lot of people will reread DaVinci Code or some other safe book that they know they like. I think one should read something like, say, Lolita, be completely appalled by it, but come to the realization that censorship is bad and if people want to read such books, they should be able to.

How could anyone be appalled by Nabokov?

Actually I am going to be reading Lolita. I've had it on my shelves a while.

I think I'll pick up Tropic of Cancer. I've been meaning to read it for some time, this gives me an excuse.

I'm Murrin wrote: How could anyone be appalled by Nabokov?

Uh, yeah...

--A

I found Lolita to be dull...

I've been re-reading Stephen King. he is alwasy getting banned, so I am sure someone/somewhere/sometime banned his Bachman books.

Rage would be the big one with Stephen King/ Richard Bachman. It has been associated with most if not all school shootings and I think Stephen King himself pulled it out of publishing (he definitely supported it).

Funny how I found out about it from a bunch of friends in high school...

Really? I never knew that. I always loved that one. In the other thread I mentioned The Long Walk as one of my favourite Bachman books...Rage is the favourite.

--A

As promised I started Lolita, though a bit late for banned books week. It is excellent so far - Humbert Humbert is such an incredibly realised character, so obsessed, self-absorbed, rationalising... It is very clear he's incapable of portraying the other characters in his story in any way other than through the filter of his obsession, a very unreliable narrator. Brilliant, brilliant writing.

I'm Murrin wrote:As promised I started Lolita, though a bit late for banned books week. It is excellent so far - Humbert Humbert is such an incredibly realised character, so obsessed, self-absorbed, rationalising... It is very clear he's incapable of portraying the other characters in his story in any way other than through the filter of his obsession, a very unreliable narrator. Brilliant, brilliant writing.

Never did finish reading that, but I remember being impressed with the portrayal of Humbert's psyche. Very believable in how he rationalizes his obsessions.

I attempted Lolita at some point but decided I didn't want to read a book about some guy lusting after a kid. Also tried As I Lay Dying and couldn't get into Faulkner's style at all.

The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald
The Grapes of Wrath, by John Steinbeck
To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee
The Color Purple, by Alice Walker
The Lord of the Flies, by William Golding
1984, by George Orwell
Of Mice and Men, by John Steinbeck
Catch-22, by Joseph Heller
Brave New World, by Aldous Huxley
Animal Farm, by George Orwell
A Farewell to Arms, by Ernest Hemingway
Their Eyes Were Watching God, by Zora Neale Hurston
Invisible Man, by Ralph Ellison
Gone with the Wind, by Margaret Mitchell
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, by Ken Kesey
The Call of the Wild, by Jack London
The Lord of the Rings, by J.R.R. Tolkien
The Awakening, by Kate Chopin
In Cold Blood, by Truman Capote
A Separate Peace, by John Knowles
Women in Love, by DH Lawrence

I finished Lolita last night. I still think it's an excellent book. Yes, it's about an awful person, but it is an excellent study of that person, his internal conflicts, his self-justifications, the way he deliberately sees things a certain way so that he can gratify himself and ignore the pain he's causing. And the irony and humour in the novel, too, which might seem inappropriate so some but I think is used excellently.

It's heartbreaking at times when you read between the lines and see just what Lolita actually thinks of him (and at other points where you don't need to read between the lines at all, and he acknowledges that he was harmful to her).

Some more recently banned books
nerdalicious.com.au/books/banned-books-week-2013-the-humble-pig/

It's beyond me why Muslims are offended by 3 Little Pigs or Charlotte's Web. I mean, I can understand if the story was about pork chops or pork sausage but are they denying the existence of pigs as creatures? I think maybe it is just the overly politically correct overly reacting.

All I can say about any of these bannings is

We don't ban books in the UK {Spycatcher exepted} but that might be ebcause we don't much read them either

bumped 'cause it's that time of year. It should actually be called Challenged Book Week.

Myths and Realities
www.bannedbooksweek.org/node/8015