MetaFilter posts tagged with bookburning

A story about a library on fire.

seanmpuckett — Tue, 05 Feb 2013 05:26:53 -0800

Saving the ancient manuscripts of Mali from Islamic extremists.

"I am very real"

the man of twists and turns — Thu, 05 Apr 2012 10:45:12 -0800

"In October of 1973, Bruce Severy — a 26-year-old English teacher at Drake High School, North Dakota — decided to use Kurt Vonnegut's novel, Slaughterhouse-Five, as a teaching aid in his classroom. The next month, on November 7th, the head of the school board, Charles McCarthy, demanded that all 32 copies be burned in the school's furnace as a result of its "obscene language." Other books soon met with the same fate. On the 16th of November, Kurt Vonnegut sent McCarthy the following letter. He didn't receive a reply."

It Was A Pleasure To Burn

Lovecraft In Brooklyn — Tue, 11 Oct 2011 17:30:54 -0800

6 Reasons We're In Another 'Book-Burning' Period in History isn't the usual Cracked list. S Peter Davis talks about his job walking through library warehouses and destroying tens of thousands of often old and irreplaceable books.

"But there is sometimes room to use painful language to reclaim our own history."

Fizz — Wed, 22 Jun 2011 07:00:03 -0800

Heated Debates, Burning Books [Via NewYorker.com] The Canadian writer Lawrence Hill recently received the unsettling news that a Dutch political group would be assembling on Wednesday in Amsterdam to burn copies of his novel, “The Book of Negroes” (published in the Netherlands under the title “Het Negerboek,” and in the U.S. as “Someone Knows My Name”). So what exactly does this historical novel have to do with the Dutch? Hill explains in an op-ed published in the Toronto Star that he was contacted by Roy Groenberg, who identified himself as the “Chairman, Foundation to Honour and Restore payments to Victims of Slavery in Suriname,” who wrote in a letter:

We, descendants of enslaved in the former Dutch colony Suriname, want to let you know that we do not accept a book with the title “The Book of Negroes.” We struggle for a long time to let the word “nigger” disappear from the Dutch language and now you set up your “Book of Negroes”! A real shame! That’s why we make the decision to burn this book on the 22nd of June 2011. Maybe you do not know, but June is the month before the 1st of July, the day that we remember the abolition from the Dutch, who put our ancestors in slavery.

Hill’s response, which should be read in full, is forceful and eloquent. He condemns the threat:

Burning books is designed to intimidate people. It underestimates the intelligence of readers, stifles dialogue and insults those who cherish the freedom to read and write. The leaders of the Spanish Inquisition burned books. Nazis burned books.

Book Burning: For Your Health!

Lentrohamsanin — Sun, 15 Mar 2009 08:57:11 -0800

Book Burning: For Your Health! "...under a law Congress passed last year aimed at regulating hazards in children’s products, the federal government has now advised that children’s books published before 1985 should not be considered safe and may in many cases be unlawful to sell or distribute." (via Neil Gaiman's twitter stream)

Down-to-Wire Deal Heads Off Book Burn

Blake — Sun, 17 Mar 2002 08:16:56 -0800

Down-to-Wire Deal Heads Off Book Burn
As a follow up on This Thread, Victor Kamkin Inc., the Rockville bookstore that became a mecca for those in search of materials on the Soviet Union during the Cold War, got a three-week reprieve so the Library of Congress can look through the bookseller's 1 million-piece collection to determine what should be saved.

Is it almost 2002....or 1802?

videodrome — Mon, 31 Dec 2001 12:53:23 -0800

Is it almost 2002....or 1802? Regardless, it's a good time for a book burning. And this isn't the first time a congregation has taken offence to Harry Potter, nor will it be the last, I'm sure. I don't even know what to say, other than....sigh.

The FDA burns books on herbal sweetner.

skallas — Sun, 05 Aug 2001 00:32:11 -0800

The FDA burns books on herbal sweetner. Starting with the 19th century's Comstock Act the US has had the power to confiscate and destroy "obscene" materials. The FDA used this power to destroy the works of Wilhelm Reich and now the herbal sweetner Stevia.

Book burning?

gdavis — Mon, 26 Mar 2001 10:32:17 -0800

Book burning? Are we doomed to stay in the dark ages forever?