Censorship lives!

July 8, 2009 7:13 PM

This sitedeserves to rank with this site and this one.

Given the blatant ideology and the questionable aesthetics, it resembles a parody, but in the post-Palin era, it's become impossible to tell.

posted by bad grammar (18 comments total)

Ahh, my Summer reading list just became longer.
posted by captainsohler at 7:22 PM on July 8

Among the sponsors of the site: Sara Palin - Governor of Georgia (2006)

Parody or not, it's a hilarious send-up of the rightwing fringe.
posted by DU at 7:29 PM on July 8

I can't stop staring at the Jesus on the righthand side of the Landover Baptist page..

"Jesus is watching you bust a nut."
"Jesus is watching you take a poop."
"Jesus is watching you fornicate!"

O.O
posted by The Biggest Dreamer at 7:29 PM on July 8

It's pretty fucking sloppy, parody or not. It thanks "Sara Palin - Governor of Georgia (2006)" and "Sixty Minutes, CBS News Program Feature Story on Internet " Uh-huh.

Landover at least has a competent web designer.
posted by mr_roboto at 7:30 PM on July 8

I vote for lazy parody: the bolding is mine.

As I Lay Dying (1932)
by William Faulkner
In 1986, Graves County, Kentucky, the school board banned this book about a poor white family in the midst of crisis, from its high school English reading list because of 7 passages which made reference to God or abortion and used curse words such as "bastard," "goddam," and "son of a bitch." None of the board members had actually read the book.

Googling that phrase brings up the same list in a number of other places.
posted by Fiasco da Gama at 7:34 PM on July 8

Great reading list, thanks guys!
posted by turgid dahlia at 7:52 PM on July 8

I like the screengrab of the book burning in Second Life.
posted by youarenothere at 7:53 PM on July 8

This leans me towards it being Palin-oriented parody.
posted by WCityMike at 8:13 PM on July 8

Parody or not, that list seems kind of accurate, but wow..

1. Scary Stories (Series) by Alvin Schwartz

Those books really did get banned that often? I could see why, though.. jibbly jibbly.
(previously...)
posted by Askiba at 8:26 PM on July 8

This seems like a really ridiculous post. It's certainly not the best of the web, and the site is either a dumb parody or what it appears to be at face value--a stupid website run by ignorant people. I don't see how either of them is worthy of an FPP.
posted by Autarky at 8:31 PM on July 8 [1 favorite]

It's certainly not the best of the web, and the site is either a dumb parody or what it appears to be at face value--a stupid website run by ignorant people.

it's the razor thin line between dumb parody and stupid website that makes it so darned best
posted by philip-random at 8:34 PM on July 8

I think that it's satire because of the type of information provided. Lists of banned books, lists of people who try to ban or censor books, but no list of books that they think should be banned. If they were really trying to ban books, it seems likely to me that their site would be making some sort of attempt to get particular books banned as opposed to this, which seems to just say "hey, banning books is awesome!"
posted by ErWenn at 8:39 PM on July 8

Who is this "William Pynchon" they speak of? And Naom Chomsky? I must find their books, stat!
posted by jokeefe at 8:43 PM on July 8

Parody or not, great reading list!

But of all the books, my favorite is "Women on Top" by Nancy Friday. I'd totally forgotten about it until I saw it on the list. Now I remember! I'd sneak that book out of my mom's bookshelf all the time in my early teens.
posted by HabeasCorpus at 8:50 PM on July 8

Banned Books Week 2008
"Fight against immoral books."
September 27 - October 4, 2008

Celebrate Banned Books 2008 by helping us censor immoral and indecent books. Lets keep bad books out of our schools, libraries, and Bookstores - WWJD

They might want to change their celebration name to "Ban Books Week" because I think "Banned Books Week" is already taken by anyone wanting to fight censorship by READING banned books and not by banning more. Just trying to help.
posted by tushfestival at 6:46 AM on July 9

Given the blatant ideology and the questionable aesthetics, it resembles a parody, but in the post-Palin era, it's become impossible to tell.

Poe's Law
posted by Mr. Anthropomorphism at 7:37 AM on July 9

Thanks. For those who claim it's a stupid post, I put it up because some people I know had thought the site was the real thing (featured in a class presentation on censorship) and I wanted to see how Mefites, with more finely honed bullshit detectors, would respond.

I agree, "Sara Palin, Governor of Georgia" is probably the tip-off, as are the garbled authors, but sufficiently advanced far-right stupidity is indistinguishable from parody.
posted by bad grammar at 5:02 PM on July 9 [1 favorite]

sufficiently advanced far-right stupidity is indistinguishable from parody.

thanks for that.
posted by philip-random at 6:07 PM on July 9