“Thou shalt not...”
April 12, 2016 12:50 PM   Subscribe

The Bible makes most challenged books list in US for first time. [The Guardian] Americans have objected to titles as diverse as the Bible and Fifty Shades of Grey over the last year, according to a list of the most challenged books which has just been released by the American Library Association.

Frequently Challenged Books [American Library Association]
The ALA's Office for Intellectual Freedom (OIF) receives reports from libraries, schools, and the media on attempts to ban books in communities across the country. We compile lists of challenged books in order to inform the public about censorship efforts that affect libraries and schools. The top ten most challenged books of 2015 include:

1. Looking for Alaska, by John Green
Reasons: Offensive language, sexually explicit, and unsuited for age group.
2. Fifty Shades of Grey, by E. L. James
Reasons: Sexually explicit, unsuited to age group, and other (“poorly written,” “concerns that a group of teenagers will want to try it”).
3. I Am Jazz, by Jessica Herthel and Jazz Jennings
Reasons: Inaccurate, homosexuality, sex education, religious viewpoint, and unsuited for age group.
4. Beyond Magenta: Transgender Teens Speak Out, by Susan Kuklin
Reasons: Anti-family, offensive language, homosexuality, sex education, political viewpoint, religious viewpoint, unsuited for age group, and other (“wants to remove from collection to ward off complaints”).
5. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, by Mark Haddon
Reasons: Offensive language, religious viewpoint, unsuited for age group, and other (“profanity and atheism”).
6. The Holy Bible
Reasons: Religious viewpoint.
7. Fun Home, by Alison Bechdel
Reasons: Violence and other (“graphic images”).
8. Habibi, by Craig Thompson
Reasons: Nudity, sexually explicit, and unsuited for age group.
9. Nasreen’s Secret School: A True Story from Afghanistan, by Jeanette Winter
Reasons: Religious viewpoint, unsuited to age group, and violence.
10. Two Boys Kissing, by David Levithan
Reasons: Homosexuality and other (“condones public displays of affection”).
posted by Fizz (59 comments total) 9 users marked this as a favorite
 
I must be sleep-deprived, because "poorly written" as a complaint against Fifty Shades of Grey is absolutely killing me.
posted by Etrigan at 12:52 PM on April 12, 2016 [15 favorites]


John Green responds.
posted by poe at 1:00 PM on April 12, 2016 [2 favorites]


It will be interesting to see the reaction to this. I wonder if there will be a lot of talk about this proving persecution of Christians, from people who would be more than happy to see the other nine books removed from libraries and school reading lists. Anybody found other reactions online?
posted by GhostintheMachine at 1:02 PM on April 12, 2016


“Prayer has no place in the public schools, just like facts have no place in organized religion.” - Superintendent Chalmers, The Simpsons
posted by Fizz at 1:02 PM on April 12, 2016 [21 favorites]


Man, forget all this stuff. My local music store keeps shelving Princess Mononoke in the kid's section and I swear I am going to start carrying stickers that read "WARNING: DISMEMBERMENT".
posted by selfnoise at 1:03 PM on April 12, 2016 [12 favorites]


6. The Holy Bible
Reasons: Religious viewpoint.


Okay, but we're also going to have to add "political viewpoint," "violence," "sexually explicit" and "unsuited to age group."
posted by Faint of Butt at 1:08 PM on April 12, 2016 [30 favorites]


I wonder if there will be a lot of talk about this proving persecution of Christians

If? They've turned opposition to NC's discrimination into alleged anti-Christian persecution, and the Bible isn't even mentioned.

It's so, so very depressing how many of the books listed are about nothing more than OMG PEOPLE LIKE TO TOUCH EACH OTHERS FUN BITS and OMG SOMETIMES THOSE ARE THE SAME FUN BITS. I ran out of spoons for this shit like a decade ago. I want to give up.
posted by feckless fecal fear mongering at 1:08 PM on April 12, 2016 [1 favorite]


Reasons: Nudity
From now on, I'm going to imagine every character in every book is naked.
posted by lmfsilva at 1:11 PM on April 12, 2016 [3 favorites]


condones public displays of affection

I will say that PDA, especially between teenagers, is pretty gross.
posted by OverlappingElvis at 1:19 PM on April 12, 2016 [4 favorites]


I like that Fun Home was cited for "graphic images."
posted by GenjiandProust at 1:19 PM on April 12, 2016 [8 favorites]


“condones public displays of affection”

That's a bad thing?!
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 1:19 PM on April 12, 2016


Maybe we can convince all these teens that the school library is FOR PDA, and then they will go there and leave us alone.
posted by selfnoise at 1:22 PM on April 12, 2016 [1 favorite]


MetaFilter: Reasons: Nudity
posted by Fizz at 1:27 PM on April 12, 2016


The people complaining Fifty Shades of Grey is 'poorly written' --- for cryin' out loud, does this mean they'd find it less offensive simply if it was written better?!?
posted by easily confused at 1:32 PM on April 12, 2016 [2 favorites]


"Profanity and Atheism" sounds like a war-cry.
posted by griphus at 1:32 PM on April 12, 2016 [23 favorites]


The arguments against books are shopworn and embarrassing.
The arguments for books should be unnecessary.

I guess there's a part of me that thinks this is ridiculous and that the only thing that can come of it is MORE people reading these books (and other dangerous ones).

In fact, maybe getting the Bible on the list is some sneaky-st. pete's way of getting kids to read the damned thing.

And hey, at least people are talking (and caring) about books .... you know, that archaic delivery method for stories and information that is supposedly dying every day as attacked by TV, radio, the internet, video games, virtual reality yadda yadda yaddo.

To conclude, I was kind of hoping John Green's response was going to be a Nelson laugh, a middle finger to the man, or just a lusty raspberry. Was sort of disappointed that he felt the need to try so hard to defend what only a very few have the energy and lack of imagination to attack.
posted by chavenet at 1:33 PM on April 12, 2016


Man, forget all this stuff. My local music store keeps shelving Princess Mononoke in the kid's section and I swear I am going to start carrying stickers that read "WARNING: DISMEMBERMENT".

*removes from list of Ghibi movies to watch with kids*
posted by leotrotsky at 1:40 PM on April 12, 2016


(They used to sell with very different Miramax branding on the DVD box but it now has the same blue Disney branding as, say, My Neighbor Totoro. One of these films contains blood shooting out of severed limbs!)
posted by selfnoise at 1:46 PM on April 12, 2016 [1 favorite]


Challenging the Bible, even if you're going for being insufferably angsty but ironic about it somehow, is still pretty ridiculous. There are few libraries that could be considered well stocked without at least one translation if only so it can be available as a reference document for understanding how Christian theology and scripture impacts basically everything in the humanities and much of the sciences.
posted by Blasdelb at 1:58 PM on April 12, 2016 [5 favorites]


I suppose it's progress of a sort that the Bible now makes this list.
posted by Lyme Drop at 1:59 PM on April 12, 2016 [2 favorites]


Unfortunately, having been on the receiving end of book complaints, the Bible complaints are mostly liberal-leaning parents with the same censorship impulses as the conservative-leaning parents who demand "Fun Home" be removed from the curriculum or library. They don't want their children exposed to others' values or lifestyles, and find others' life-choices threatening. They want books that talk about things that offend them to cease to exist, sometimes regardless of the book's viewpoint. (For example, we had a parent who objected to racism, and therefore objected to her child being taught that racism exists or historically existed in any form, and protested the inclusion of basically any book in the curriculum with any racial component whatsoever, even when those books were "racism is super-bad and here's why!" She felt we were corrupting her child by letting her know racism was even a possibility. Both hilarious and terrifying.)

Sadly these impulses to protect children by putting them into a viewpoint-limited bubble where they will not be exposed to other values or ideals appear all over the political spectrum.
posted by Eyebrows McGee at 2:02 PM on April 12, 2016 [26 favorites]


I really like banned books lists, because they are predicated on the idea that the things we write and think about could be threatening and thus powerful. I worry more that books would be inert and innocent and no one would care what they say. (I worry that the real argument against banning books is that they never really do open or change minds, and so those who would ban them are merely being superstitious.)

That said, I want these challenges to fail except in places like elementary school libraries.
posted by anotherpanacea at 2:09 PM on April 12, 2016 [1 favorite]


As an agnostic, challenging the Bible because of "religious content" seems ironic to me, because studying the Bible as a piece of literature in my high school Literature of the Western World class was how the cracks in the stories appeared. Hey, we just studied all these Greek myths... isn't it strange that we take some stories as irrelevant myths and others as truth, literally or symbolically? Wait, these Gospels were written way after Jesus died? Huh... I guess we really *don't* know that the historical Jesus said all those things. And this passage contradicts that passage, doesn't it?

I suppose it depends on the manner of instruction, but it seems to me if a parent wants their child to resist dogma, it would be better to examine the dogma in context than pretend it doesn't exist.
posted by Meghamora at 2:17 PM on April 12, 2016 [5 favorites]


They don't want their children exposed to others' values or lifestyles, and find others' life-choices threatening.

Wait are the lifestyles and life-choices being complained about those of people who want to keep the Bible in circulation, or of the people in the Bible?
posted by griphus at 2:21 PM on April 12, 2016 [2 favorites]


Both. There's a certain amount of "these stories are horrible and offensive!" and a certain amount of "Christians are horrible and offensive!"
posted by Eyebrows McGee at 2:24 PM on April 12, 2016 [3 favorites]


> The people complaining Fifty Shades of Grey is 'poorly written' --- for cryin' out loud, does this mean they'd find it less offensive simply if it was written better?!?

I know I sure would. :p
posted by insert.witticism.here at 2:24 PM on April 12, 2016 [2 favorites]


Err, I would absolutely find Fifty Shades less offensive if it was better written. Not that I'm advocating banning it or anything but surely that's the least bad objection of all the ones listed?

(Though I guess I'm equating "better written" with "making the central relationship less abusive and more believable" and maybe that's not what everyone would mean?)
posted by Wretch729 at 2:25 PM on April 12, 2016 [4 favorites]


Happily, despite these events, I am fairly confident that each of quark and I will read whatever we want to, and think whatever thoughts we want to.
posted by the quidnunc kid at 2:27 PM on April 12, 2016


(Though I guess I'm equating "better written" with "making the central relationship less abusive and more believable" and maybe that's not what everyone would mean?)

For me, there's that, and then there's also improving the prose.
posted by nubs at 2:33 PM on April 12, 2016 [1 favorite]


I wonder what the response would be from both the non-religious and the religious if they were presented with an excerpt of the Song of Songs, and asked if it was appropriate for high schoolers. It's about 50 times sexier than 50SOG, plus it's beautifully written.

I'm sympathetic to the impulse of the agnostic to not want the Bible in schools, but it's a matter of cultural literacy at this point. It'd be nice if all religious texts got equal attention as literary and historical texts, but it really comes down to the fact that the Western literature taught in schools is reliant on a certain baseline knowledge of the Bible, and a knowledge of the Quran or the Mahabharata or whatever is not foundational to Western literary traditions in the same way.
posted by yasaman at 2:42 PM on April 12, 2016 [2 favorites]


And He said, "Who told you that you were naked? Genises 3:10

-God to Adam
posted by inconsequentialist at 2:44 PM on April 12, 2016 [1 favorite]


"Yet she increased her whorings, remembering the days of her youth, when she played the whore in the land of Egypt and lusted after her paramours there, whose members were like those of donkeys, and whose emission was like that of stallions." -Ezekiel 23:19-20

(Guys I'm super-good at this game)
posted by Eyebrows McGee at 2:49 PM on April 12, 2016 [22 favorites]


Surely "poorly written" is the only valid objection justifying a request to remove a book from a public or school library. It’s disappointing to see it pop up only once.

And yes, god, what’s wrong with people objecting to all those book, but not De Sade? When time machines are invented, someone needs to go back and warn him that in a couple centuries he’d be completely uncontroversial, but the Bible and teen books with people kissing would make people mad. And then come back to us and report what he said, and post it here.
posted by bitteschoen at 2:56 PM on April 12, 2016 [2 favorites]


FiveThirtyEight article about banned books and the ALA list, and the various problems with it (or at least, a better explanation of what the list actually represents). For example: "The American Library Association is saying that its challenge database isn’t statistically valid and that despite the hundreds of news articles about its list, the database is not meant for public consumption."

(Includes quote from a certain former MeFi mod)

(None of which is to say it doesn't have its interesting aspect, but the definition of "challenged" is so broad its hard to know too much, and the reporting seems to vary wildly so some areas/types of challenges may be less represented than others).
posted by thefoxgod at 2:57 PM on April 12, 2016 [1 favorite]


Holy Bible, New International Version, I challenge thee! To a duel! At dawn! To the death! You may choose the weapon, King James or Vulgate.
posted by sfenders at 2:58 PM on April 12, 2016


I don't understand this. Who would want to put Fifty Shades of Grey or any adult erotica in a school library? I don't imagine even the author would be in favor of that. And frankly, I think the FSoG source material--the Twilight books--are problematic too because of how they treat tolerance of abuse in romantic relationships.
posted by fuse theorem at 3:00 PM on April 12, 2016


Who would want to put Fifty Shades of Grey or any adult erotica in a school library?

The list includes all libraries, not just school ones.
posted by thefoxgod at 3:02 PM on April 12, 2016 [2 favorites]


Holy Bible, New International Version, I challenge thee! To a duel! At dawn! To the death! You may choose the weapon, King James or Vulgate

Wouldn't the NIV be dueling against the KJ, and not using it as a weapon?
posted by Thorzdad at 3:29 PM on April 12, 2016


The woman who teachs the Yale youtube Old Testament class says she forbids her children from reading the Bible because it is not age-appropriate content. That is a little too fanatic for my taste but her course is mostly very good. The only bad parts are where she tries to squeeze in way too much--if I recall right she did Psalms and Proverbs and Ecclesiastes all in one lecture. Something like that. Her Psalms lecture sucks. Almost all the others are very good.
posted by bukvich at 3:38 PM on April 12, 2016


because studying the Bible as a piece of literature in my high school Literature of the Western World class was how the cracks in the stories appeared

I think a problem with interpreting the Bible's presence on this list is that the Bible can be treated as literature (educational) or treated as doctrine (unconstitutional)--depending on the school.

I went to a school where there were school prayers and children were showed religious videos during visits to the school library. In that school, teaching the Bible as "literature" would just be a way to smuggle in Christian proselytizing.

So I'd view the Bible being removed from a class like that as a good thing, but it being removed from a class where it actually was being treated as literature as a bad thing.
posted by Kutsuwamushi at 3:49 PM on April 12, 2016 [1 favorite]


Okay, hold up. Everyone needs to read that 538 post because it suggests that this list is bullshit and indeed that publishers self-promote some works onto the list to generate publicity.
posted by anotherpanacea at 3:59 PM on April 12, 2016 [2 favorites]


Yeah, I was thinking as soon as I saw the list: "recommended reading!".
posted by telstar at 4:07 PM on April 12, 2016


Man, forget all this stuff. My local music store keeps shelving Princess Mononoke in the kid's section and I swear I am going to start carrying stickers that read "WARNING: DISMEMBERMENT".

Yeah, I recently chose this to watch with my 7-year-old son and completely forgot how this is the one (?) Ghibli movie that is NOT a kid's movie. It's serious and somber, with even no comic relief; the plot is complicated; it's long; and it's violent as hell--lots of death and, yes, dismemberment, and putrefying animal flesh...my son was alternately bored and horrified for an hour before we called it quits.

Having said all that, this ADULT thinks it's the best Ghibili movie!
posted by zardoz at 4:18 PM on April 12, 2016 [1 favorite]


Meanwhile, there's a bill in Tennesse to make the bible the state book.
posted by joeyh at 4:21 PM on April 12, 2016


I'm interested in the context surrounding the "unsuited for age group" complaint. Obviously, I feel like any library serving patrons above the age of, say, 11, shouldn't really be censoring for content. But Habibi opens with the main character being sold as a child bride and raped on her wedding night. I could see challenging that as "unsuited for age group" if it ended up in a children's library. (while at the same time, of course, wanting it to be available in more general libraries for parents/teachers to be able to give to kids who they know are ready for the content).

But, at the same time, I trust librarians to be the ones to make those kinds of judgments, so I doubt that anyone was stocking it in with the kid's books just because it's a graphic novel.

So what age group are we talking about?
posted by sparklemotion at 4:24 PM on April 12, 2016


Oh, and it wasn't loading for me earlier for some reason but here is a direct link to jessamyn's post about the list. (hopefully she'll stop by this thread!)
posted by thefoxgod at 4:31 PM on April 12, 2016 [1 favorite]


I'm just pleasantly surprised The Koran isn't listed, and even more highly ranked than The Bible. Probably because there are a lot of libraries whose management decides "nah, not worth even TRYING to put on the shelf". Anyway, I see not enough people are complaining about Mein Kampf. I'm wondering if some of Drumpf's books make the list next year (and his next book: "Mein Drumpf"?)

Personally, I recommend reading The Bible from cover to cover. It was doing that which was pivotal in my spiritual development... into an Atheist.

Anyway, my personal book bag is the limited-edition totebag version of this. Which is why I'm not allowed in many libraries.
posted by oneswellfoop at 4:32 PM on April 12, 2016 [2 favorites]


I feel like reading the Bible would lead at least some of today's kids to say hey, isn't the New Testament just Old Testament fanfiction?
posted by emjaybee at 4:47 PM on April 12, 2016 [5 favorites]


I wonder what the response would be from both the non-religious and the religious if they were presented with an excerpt of the Song of Songs, and asked if it was appropriate for high schoolers. It's about 50 times sexier than 50SOG, plus it's beautifully written.

I discovered (and shared with my Catholic school classmates) Song of Songs aged around 10. IIRC the teacher's reaction was a resigned sigh and "well, at least they're reading it".
posted by Pink Frost at 6:24 PM on April 12, 2016 [2 favorites]


The ALA had a response to the 538 piece.
posted by box at 6:43 PM on April 12, 2016 [1 favorite]


If "poorly written" is indeed a criteria I look forward to seeing all copies of Christopher Paolini's "work" banished from all school libraries.
posted by Ber at 7:44 PM on April 12, 2016


Unfortunately, having been on the receiving end of book complaints, the Bible complaints are mostly liberal-leaning parents with the same censorship impulses as the conservative-leaning parents who demand "Fun Home" be removed from the curriculum or library.

My daughter isn't yet old enough for me to have skin in this game, but as a habitual shit-stirrer who 100% intends to make complaints against both 50 Shades and the King James Bible, I can tell you that my motivations come from a totally different place.

I'm starting from the observation that the type of person who formally protests books explaining LGBTQ issues has a baseline level out outrage-wattage. It can spike when provoked by the conservative demagogue of the week, but it never dips below a certain level. Rudderless, that outrage will go toward things like insisting that books be removed from the library--actions that stand a chance of making a tangible impact on kids' lives. But, by registering formal complaints against things I know will never be removed, I can cause that outrage to be directed toward me as an agent of immorality, rather than toward things that they have a chance of actually doing.

Since venting religiously-inspired outrage toward me is the very essence of tilting at windmills, I'd like to hope I can make the library a more inclusive place by making apparently-contrary complaints.
posted by Mayor West at 5:23 AM on April 13, 2016 [1 favorite]


Please don't troll the librarians.
posted by Daily Alice at 5:27 AM on April 13, 2016 [3 favorites]


(For example, we had a parent who objected to racism, and therefore objected to her child being taught that racism exists or historically existed in any form ...

I think I saw this sketch on W/ Bob and Dave.

The people complaining Fifty Shades of Grey is 'poorly written' --- for cryin' out loud, does this mean they'd find it less offensive simply if it was written better?!?

It might be just as stupid if it were better written, but it would be much less offensive.
posted by octobersurprise at 6:08 AM on April 13, 2016 [1 favorite]


When people challenge the Bible, perhaps they are just challenging the Wicked Bible? And given all the different translations and revisions out there, there seem to be a lot of folks who think the Bible is poorly written too.
posted by TedW at 7:38 AM on April 13, 2016


Please don't troll the librarians.

Why anyone would want to agitate such dangerous creatures is beyond me.
posted by Drinky Die at 9:01 AM on April 13, 2016 [2 favorites]


oneswellfoop: Personally, I recommend reading The Bible from cover to cover. It was doing that which was pivotal in my spiritual development... into an Atheist.

I totally agree, everyone should read it once and make their own decision. Caveat emptor when you are young and forming your view of the world, and also caveat lector. The fact that it is an underpinning to so many works in the Western cultural canon is just a cherry on top.

Mind you, I like to re-read parts of the New Testament to remind me to be better to others, and I don't often go back to the OT, but I am still glad that we covered it (and the Koran, and the Torah, and other faiths' scriptures & holy texts) in religion class when I was a kid.
posted by wenestvedt at 9:02 AM on April 13, 2016 [1 favorite]


Our kid wanted to know bible stories along with other myths and legends, and we wanted to read them to him, but did not want to have to discuss with our 9-year-old what exactly Lot's daughters got up to with him in that tent, or why it was a-ok to kill entire tribes because Yahweh was having a pout. So we read from an expurgated kid's version just so he would know what "Noah's ark" and "Adam and Eve" and other stories referred to.

Frankly, he preferred the Osiris legends and some of the more obscure Polynesian ones (involving eggs and brothers fighting and I don't remember all of it). I'm sure there were details left out of those too.

(and even expurgated, Noah's ark is a horrific story if you think it out, which he did. He was not a fan).
posted by emjaybee at 10:38 AM on April 13, 2016 [1 favorite]


> "Fun Home, by Alison Bechdel. Reasons: Violence ..."

?????
posted by kyrademon at 11:05 AM on April 13, 2016


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