I was reading the Book of Mormons and the Satanical Verses...both very interesting books . The 4 main sections of the Banned Books- List is comprised of - sex, religion, politics and social.

A good example of a social book that was banned -is "Clockwork Orange" . A truly grosteque vision of the future, which may be upon us already.

A banned book of a sexual nature- would be : An American Tragedy, Lolita, Decameron, Fanny Hill, and Ovid. I think these books comprise my all-time favorites. Even the "Arabian Nights" is found here, how astonishing.

And there are the books of a political twist: from Orwell to Karl Marx, Machiavelli to Harriet Beecher Stowe...In retrospect , these books seem so innocuous, it is difficult to re-set the context of the time and the mental state of mind that aroused such hatred and anger.

The last section of banned books deals with religion. Can someone tell me how "Harry Potter and the Sorcer(o)r's Stone" was banned?
The most interesting books in this category are "The Last Temptation of Jesus Christ" by Kazantzakis and "Religion within the Limits of Reason" by Immanuel Kant... and the "Popol Vuh"- now that last book is a must for everyone's winter reading.

Harry Potter was banned because it was "witchcraft." Bull. But, anyway, those people that had way too much time on their hands and decided that their kids' minds would be warped because they read an innocent book won. It's banned from public/school libraries.

Was To Kill A Mockingbird banned? If it was, it's my favorite. I can sort of see why, but then (pardon this coming word,) they only used 'niggers' to show what the time was like. It's a terrible term, but I can see why she used it. It proved a point.

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Yep. Harper Lee's "To Kill a Mockingbird" is in the so called social list of banned books.... Perhaps, "nigger'" is a terrible word to call a black person because of the historical baggage it carries...

- but the question is why, and what is its etymological history that makes this word so unappealing ?

By using "nigger" she was proving a point. I don't see why the people that ban books can't see that. All they see is an offensive word.

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Prof,

Have you by any chance been looking at a book called "100 Banned Books: Censorship Histories of World Literature"? I got a copy of this book recently and found it interesting but repetitive. It includes most of the books that you mention.

I think it's important to be clear about what we mean by "banning". Most of the "bans" mentioned in the book seem to be decisions by American school boards to remove books from their libraries. We've had similar cases in the UK, where local council committees have decided not to stock certain books in their public libraries, for very similar reasons.

I don't think these "bans" are important. Of course, it's distressing that the purchasing policies of libraries should be decided by people who are probably barely literate. But if a book is available in the bookshops (bookstores), I imagine that most Americans and Brits can afford to buy it if they want it badly enough. "Banning" by school boards or library committees will probably only arouse public interest and demand. And after all, few libraries can stock everything.

Real banning is a more serious matter. I would rate as my top two genuinely banned books The Rights of Man and The Age of Reason, both of course by Thomas Paine. For the first, Paine was convicted in his absence of high treason by "twelve good men and true" and condemned to death. Fortunately, he was safely out of the country by then. The second led to convictions against publishers for "blasphemous libel". Members from more civilized countries may find it hard to believe that blasphemy is still, in 2002, a criminal offence in England, and that a successful prosecution (involving the newspaper Gay News) was brought as recently as 1977.

When I was in my late teens I loved to read Henry Miller's "Tropic of Cancer" and "Tropic of Capricorn" because they were scandalous and I heard that they had previously been banned, but I learned to admire Henry Miller's "stream of consciousness" style of writing.

Yes, I do believe it was a list of 100-banned books....

Henry Miller and James Joyce....I can only visualize people smuggling these books to America....and the Marquis de Sade...banned books seem to whet the appetite...surely this is a good marketing ploy, i.e. get your book banned with very liberal writing to insure a high volume sale. Of course, many of these writers do not think in that venal fashion, but it seems that banning books do have the counter-effect of censorship.

Oriana Fallaci's Anger and Pride was banned as being inflammatory against Islam recently. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/world/europe/2058520.stm

The decision to let it be released in various countries was controversial. Consequently its sales have gone sky high.

I've read several of those books, Lolita, Fanny Hill, To Kill a Mockingbird and others.
I'm sure that they benefitted from the reputation of being banned. Fanny Hill is actually a good description of how women fell into prostitution at the time. I found it very instructive. It's just like Charles Dickens with more details, or Emile Zola's work on how people actually lived.

I'm afraid I've never been able to read anything by Rushdie without falling asleep, I've tried on numerous occasions..I have a few at home purchased at second hand shops as I wanted to see what the fuss was about...they just bored me. Perhaps it's just me.

I'm stunned to think that someone somewhere has been so ignorant as to ban "To Kill a Mockingbird"! There are plenty of books on the shelves with the word "nigger" in them, but precious few with the truly valuable message this book contains. I throw up my hands in disgust!

If Banned Books may include the Vatican's Index Librorum Prohibitorum, then few of the major European writers will have escaped such censorship. My fav would be " Le Rouge et le Noir" by Stendhal, but Goethe, Freud, and Nietzsche will definitely be in the shortlist as well.
As reading the Bible in the mothertongue was anathema, Tyndale paid with his life for translating the Divine Book into English and was burned at the stake in Antwerp.
Guess that Index-list must read like the Gotha of modern literature.
Anyone who remembers songs that were forbidden?
Heard about a Beatle-song that was not for sale in Belgium because British government did not like it (" Give Ireland back to the Irish"???) and if I am not mistaken the Belgian government once banned a Jacques Brel song from the national territory because it was felt by some as "insulting" for Flemish women. (Les Flamandes).
It was not books and songs only that were forbidden. Strangely enough in nineteenth century it was forbidden to Flemish students in Flemish schools ..to talk Flemish.
There must be quite a few movies that have been "banned" as well. Sculptures that were banned from public places.
Belgian sculptor Grard had been asked to create a nude statue
for a bridge across the Scheldt at Tournai.
After a few days some 'authorities' were so shocked by the
sculpture they had paid for themselves, that they decided to
move it from its position on top of the bridge , to a place in a hidden corner UNDER the bridge where nobody noticed it anymore.

In the former Soviet Union a great amount of books written by foreign (especially Western European and American) authors and/or with a religios theme were banned, so it is quite difficult for me to decide which one of these was my favourite. A pretty good one was Hermann Hesse's "Steppenwolf", for example.