MADreads

Don’t read (or look at) these!

September 28th, 2009 Dennis - Central

There was a post on a librarian’s blog about a recent New York Times article dealing with the Brooklyn Public Library’s decision to remove a Tintin book from open shelves because it was racially offensive.  The librarian blogger was equally concerned about an online companion piece in the Times that showed ten different challenges to books over the years that had gotten published online with the names of those who had challenged the books clearly presented, although their addresses were redacted (blacked out) from the online posting.  The public library is supposed to protect patron confidentiality so that last bit does tend to make one uneasy.

Anyway, the article does list ten different items that were challenged over the years, and the library’s response to the challenges.  Call me curious, but I wondered how many of those books were held by us or one of the other libraries in our system.  Lo and behold, we are eight for ten!  Here’s a list of the ten Brooklyn Public Library challenges, and the (condensed) reason they were challenged.

• Beloved / by Toni Morrison. Inappropriate for children (something about cows on page 13)
• Mighty Aphrodite [DVD] / by Woody Allen. “porn” inappropriate for library and children’s distribution.
• Anti-Einstein / by Vladimir Boiarintsev (written in Russian). Anti-Semitic. [We don't own it.]
• Killing Johnny Fry : A Sexistential Novel / by Walter Mosley. Totally pornographic!
• Hard Candy [DVD] / by David Slade. Shows how to castrate a man.
• Tintin au Congo / by Herge. [Original edition] racially offensive to black people.
• Dr. Feelgood / by Marissa Monteilh. “porno” very explicit sex. [We don't own it.]
• Borat / by Ant Hines. Book is extremely vulgar, offensive and perverted.
• Looking for Alaska / by John Green. Obscene and obnoxious words.
• Daddy’s Girl / by Debbie Dreschler. view pg. 2: pornography!
• Breakdowns / by Art Spiegelman. Sexual images.

I’d like to say that none of this is intended to make light of people’s concerns about the appropriateness of library materials.  We’re a public institution funded primarily by local tax dollars, and we’re always dealing with a too-small budget.  That doesn’t leave us a lot of room for making choices that are so far out of the mainstream that they won’t find an audience.  However, we do have a fairly diverse audience.  I’m not one of the people who selects books, so I really don’t have any insights into the selector’s thinking processes.  I’d like to think that I wouldn’t reject a good book just because I was afraid someone might complain that it was inappropriate but I just don’t know for sure.

And if you read any of the challenges filed with the Brooklyn Public Library, you’ll see that people often challenge materials because they don’t want [their] children exposed to it.  Not being a parent myself, I can still imagine why someone would have a hard time trying to explain sex, let alone incest and child abuse, to a young reader who inadvertently picked up a copy of Daddy’s Girl.  (FYI, I’ve read the book Daddy’s Girl and parts of it were very upsetting).  And if any of you parents have insights on how to answer those tough questions young children can pose, feel free to share in the comments section.

Entry Filed under: General