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News & ArtsWednesday, August 19, 2009
Books This Is Maybe Not Freedom of Speech
Posted by Paul Constant on Wed, Aug 19, 2009 at 2:15 PM
- Image of a book vault from SpyYard.
“It’s not for the public,” a librarian in the children’s room said this month when a patron asked to see it.The book, published 79 years ago, was moved in 2007 from the public area of the library to a back room where it is held under lock and key.
The story feeds out further into an interesting conversation about why (and how) books are censored at libraries. The thought of putting a book in a vault seems antithetical to the idea of a library to me. I was heartened by the librarian quoted in the article who held her ground on Alan Moore's Lost Girls, though.
2
When they say "not for the public," is it a safe assumption that they are doing this for the protection of the public?
I suspect, at times, actions like this may be for the protection of the work FROM the public.
I mean... have you MET the public before? They can be some judgmental assholes who will gladly deface a borrowed book for some perceived greater good.
I suspect, at times, actions like this may be for the protection of the work FROM the public.
I mean... have you MET the public before? They can be some judgmental assholes who will gladly deface a borrowed book for some perceived greater good.
3
I bought a copy of this book in Spain a few years ago- I found nothing exactly racists other than perhaps exaggerations of African features... The interesting thing is that these”African Features” are typical of a lot of people of African descent. I think blacks
were pissed because they were not portrayed as looking like Lena Horn or Harry Bellefonte. Maybe the facts that at the end the book the Congolese people worship Snowy as their god is what ticked them off…. Snowy is the little white terrier Tintin owns.
were pissed because they were not portrayed as looking like Lena Horn or Harry Bellefonte. Maybe the facts that at the end the book the Congolese people worship Snowy as their god is what ticked them off…. Snowy is the little white terrier Tintin owns.
4
I used to enjoy reading Tintin's voyages to Africa as a kid. Think I read the French one first.
The attitudes of today aren't the attitudes back then.
The attitudes of today aren't the attitudes back then.
5
Re: possible defacement of books by the public, a university library I used had "Die Fags AIDS" scrawled on multiple pages of several works by William S. Burroughs.
6
i dunno...mildly racist charactertures in an 80 year old book versus very sexually explicit contemporary art/porn...Alan Moore's twistedness is probably a lot more dangerous...
and literary white-washing is bullshit.
and literary white-washing is bullshit.
8
It's difficult for us, with all of history at our command via the tubes of the Internets, to understand how things must have felt for people back then - were they doing what they thought was right, based on what they knew, or were they aware even then?
Even my field is founded in these incorrect concepts - genetics cam from eugenics, and many of the things we now realize are bad we used to think were good.
The past is what it is/was. We aren't there, and our view of it is but motes of dust dancing from a reflected image bounced many times before it reaches our eyes, full of distortions and lacking details our minds fill in with our own prejudices and desires.
Even my field is founded in these incorrect concepts - genetics cam from eugenics, and many of the things we now realize are bad we used to think were good.
The past is what it is/was. We aren't there, and our view of it is but motes of dust dancing from a reflected image bounced many times before it reaches our eyes, full of distortions and lacking details our minds fill in with our own prejudices and desires.
10
If the book is no longer in print, and has provacative content, it belongs in a special collection. Someone will steal or deface it otherwise.
11
That's not to say it shouldn't be available to the public - it just means it needs more supervision.
12
It's not being kept from the public, it's just not in the browsing collection. It's still in the catalog, so the public can find it.
At MIT they used to have all the art books in a special room and nobody could check them out. All the naked lady pictures were getting razored out and it was costing a fortune.
At MIT they used to have all the art books in a special room and nobody could check them out. All the naked lady pictures were getting razored out and it was costing a fortune.
13
I just bought a re-issued "Congo" a couple months ago. The portrayal of Africans is pretty bad by today's standards, but seems not to differ from early comic book/newspaper comic representations. Herge' was a great story teller, and I definitely did NOT put it down thinking, "What a racist asshole THIS guy was!"
14
If someone were offended by a book with sexist content, I doubt it would generate the same reaction by the library.
16
@3 & @5 i used to live in worcester, mass. butthole of the country, or at least new england. a group of "christians" took it upon themselves to black out and/or tear out every nude photograph/artwork in every art book i looked at in the city library. don't know how many other sections they got to. ugh.
19
@14 News flash: Human history is sexist. Blame the species.
News flash @15: Human history is racist. Blame the species.
News flash @15: Human history is racist. Blame the species.
21
Blacks have committed at least 85% (eighty-five percent) of the murders in the Seattle area in the last few years, while only constituting about 8% (eight percent) of the area's population.
Everyone knows that the Congo is the pinnacle of civilization and gentility!
Everyone knows that the Congo is the pinnacle of civilization and gentility!
22
SPL has 6 copies:
https://catalog.spl.org/ipac20/ipac.jsp?…
You'll have to wait in line, there are 9 holds.
https://catalog.spl.org/ipac20/ipac.jsp?…
You'll have to wait in line, there are 9 holds.
23
This is a really interesting conversation. A lot of dialog about what is and isn't offensive.
I do believe that Tin Tin should be kept within the children's books cannon, but only if the parent of the child reads the book with them and explains to them that this is the way people thought back then and we have learned and know what to think now.
When I was in the fourth grade my teacher read us Babar . In the original books the elephant was rescued from the savages-- that's how it referred to Africans, and married his cousin. My teacher was quick to explain how people have changed their thoughts on race and... well incest and to only focus on the over all story. The adventure.
I do believe that Tin Tin should be kept within the children's books cannon, but only if the parent of the child reads the book with them and explains to them that this is the way people thought back then and we have learned and know what to think now.
When I was in the fourth grade my teacher read us Babar . In the original books the elephant was rescued from the savages-- that's how it referred to Africans, and married his cousin. My teacher was quick to explain how people have changed their thoughts on race and... well incest and to only focus on the over all story. The adventure.
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