Banned books... The Dictionary???

Started by Neroon, January 27, 2010, 08:22:04 AM

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Neroon

I toyed with posting this link in the "Crimes Against the English Language" thread but decided it would be better to put it here.

http://www.care2.com/causes/education/blog/no-sex-please-were-just-kids/

This whole thing strikes me as being very a Orwellian attempt to control thought by controlling access to words.  It also strikes me as being futile.
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Oniya

I wonder what she'd do if she found a book with the following excerpt:

Quote1. How beautiful are thy feet with shoes, O prince's daughter! the joints of thy thighs are like jewels, the work of the hands of a cunning workman.
   2. Thy navel is like a round goblet, which wanteth not liquor: thy belly is like an heap of wheat set about with lilies.
   3. Thy two breasts are like two young roes that are twins.
   4. Thy neck is as a tower of ivory; thine eyes like the fishpools in Heshbon, by the gate of Bathrabbim: thy nose is as the tower of Lebanon which looketh toward Damascus.
   5. Thine head upon thee is like Carmel, and the hair of thine head like purple; the king is held in the galleries.
   6. How fair and how pleasant art thou, O love, for delights!
   7. This thy stature is like to a palm tree, and thy breasts to clusters of grapes.
   8. I said, I will go up to the palm tree, I will take hold of the boughs thereof: now also thy breasts shall be as clusters of the vine, and the smell of thy nose like apples;
   9. And the roof of thy mouth like the best wine for my beloved, that goeth down sweetly, causing the lips of those that are asleep to speak.
  10. I am my beloved's, and his desire is toward me.
  11. Come, my beloved, let us go forth into the field; let us lodge in the villages.
  12. Let us get up early to the vineyards; let us see if the vine flourish, whether the tender grape appear, and the pomegranates bud forth: there will I give thee my loves.
  13. The mandrakes give a smell, and at our gates are all manner of pleasant fruits, new and old, which I have laid up for thee, O my beloved.

"Language was invented for one reason, boys - to woo women.~*~*~Don't think it's all been done before
And in that endeavor, laziness will not do." ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~Don't think we're never gonna win this war
Robin Williams-Dead Poets Society ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~Don't think your world's gonna fall apart
I do have a cause, though.  It's obscenity.  I'm for it.  - Tom Lehrer~*~All you need is your beautiful heart
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Lilias

Oh surely, they were just planning to replace it with Roger's Profanisaurus, which is more accurate and up to date.

Well, one can hope...
To go in the dark with a light is to know the light.
To know the dark, go dark. Go without sight,
and find that the dark, too, blooms and sings,
and is traveled by dark feet and dark wings.
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Kotah

Man....

The dictionary is the evil!

But seriously, I admit when I was a kid... the only time I really messed with the dictionary was to look up dirty words. However, I already knew the freaking word. How else would I have known to look for it. :P

OH, and all my barbies and Ken dolls were having sex.

There is something wrong with parents these days. >.>
Finally in a rage we scream at the top of our lungs into this lonely night, begging and pleading they stop sucking up dry.There as guilty as sin, still as they always do when faced with an angry mob: they wipe the blood from their mouths and calm us down with their words of milk and honey. So the play begins, we the once angry mob are now pacified and sit quietly entertained. But the curtain exists far from now becasue their lies have been spoken. My dear, have you forgotten what comes next? This is the part where we change the world.

Serephino

I do remember looking up dirty words to see if they were there, but as Kotah said, I already knew the word.  Parents would be surprised what kids know.  Why is it when we grow up we forget about our childhoods and what is was like? 

Drake Valentine

Argh.. That article made my head spin.

Any who, the concept of pulling dictionaries from shelves because they may contain, ahem, naughty words or sexual lingo is ridiculous and stepping over the bounds of freedom of speech. I love how some people out there ends up freaking out over the smallest of things. The correct procedure would be further education with the various programs that I know they do in regards to safe-sex/sex-ed/whatever the proper term for it is.  If parents are really that concerned, than they should do their own duty in talking about the birds and the bees other than going "THEY HAVE WHAT WORDS IN BOOKS!? Honey! Prepare the lynch mobs!" And all that unnecessary 'rabble, rabble, rabble, waving torches in the air nonsense.'

*Shakes head.*

Now, if there were porn magazines or something in the library, that would be another story.

"When I'm Done With You, You'll Be a:
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Oniya

Quote from: Drake Valentine on February 01, 2010, 05:26:11 PM
"THEY HAVE WHAT WORDS IN BOOKS!? Honey! Prepare the lynch mobs!" And all that unnecessary 'rabble, rabble, rabble, waving torches in the air nonsense.'

Actually, most book bannings are more like ^ that.  Seriously - try reading with your kids.  Discuss what you read.  I've already shared books with my third grader that would make many of these parents turn purple.  (The Hobbit, about half of the existing Redwall books, The Neverending Story, want to start the Susan Cooper books eventually...)
"Language was invented for one reason, boys - to woo women.~*~*~Don't think it's all been done before
And in that endeavor, laziness will not do." ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~Don't think we're never gonna win this war
Robin Williams-Dead Poets Society ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~Don't think your world's gonna fall apart
I do have a cause, though.  It's obscenity.  I'm for it.  - Tom Lehrer~*~All you need is your beautiful heart
O/O's Updated 5/11/21 - A/A's - Current Status! - Writing a novel - all draws for Fool of Fire up!
Requests updated March 17

Wahots

QuoteI've already shared books with my third grader that would make many of these parents turn purple.

That's funny. My mum read to me as a kid. And not just kids books. I remember her reading an adult Christian book "This Present Darkness". It has angels and demons battling it out. I loved the book, but everyone tried to say it was too advanced for a child. Rubbish! I was able to carry on an adult level conversation by the time I was 8. My mum didn't read kids stories to me, I didn't hear baby talk when I was younger.

As for banning books - that is a parent's responsibility. Watch what your kids are reading, watching on tv and doing on the net. That is a parents job - to protect their own kids. If you don't want your kid reading something - take it away from them. Don't ban the book, making it d@mn near impossible for anyone else to read it too.
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Oniya

Not to mention that a banned book, especially to a kid who already likes reading, is twenty times more interesting.  My mother tried to keep me from reading The Omen and The Exorcist - didn't work.  The school system where I grew up banned Huck Finn - I found it downstairs and read it.

Couldn't really see what all the kerfuffle was about at the time either.
"Language was invented for one reason, boys - to woo women.~*~*~Don't think it's all been done before
And in that endeavor, laziness will not do." ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~Don't think we're never gonna win this war
Robin Williams-Dead Poets Society ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~Don't think your world's gonna fall apart
I do have a cause, though.  It's obscenity.  I'm for it.  - Tom Lehrer~*~All you need is your beautiful heart
O/O's Updated 5/11/21 - A/A's - Current Status! - Writing a novel - all draws for Fool of Fire up!
Requests updated March 17

consortium11

Quote from: Oniya on February 01, 2010, 05:32:16 PM
Actually, most book bannings are more like ^ that.  Seriously - try reading with your kids.  Discuss what you read.  I've already shared books with my third grader that would make many of these parents turn purple.  (The Hobbit, about half of the existing Redwall books, The Neverending Story, want to start the Susan Cooper books eventually...)

Slightly off-topic.

One of my favourite series of books ever. I doubt I'd go back and read them now... partly because I'm not sure they'll be as good as I remember them being and I don't want to shade any memories until I share them with a future Little Consortium, but it was this series more than anything else that made me the reader I am today. Salamanderstrom and Martin the Bellmaker (I think I've got the titles right...) would still make the list of books I've most enjoyed.

I think, honestly, that series (or at least, up until I stopped... no idea as to quality of newer releases) may be the most perfect series ever written for children.

Oniya

#10
I personally enjoyed them quite a bit.  We had a few episodes of the Nelvana animated series of Martin the Warrior on tape, which sparked her interest in them.  The reason that I think that the 'ban books' parents would get upset is that Jacques doesn't sugar-coat the fact that life in the forest is dangerous and characters actually die 'on stage'.
"Language was invented for one reason, boys - to woo women.~*~*~Don't think it's all been done before
And in that endeavor, laziness will not do." ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~Don't think we're never gonna win this war
Robin Williams-Dead Poets Society ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~Don't think your world's gonna fall apart
I do have a cause, though.  It's obscenity.  I'm for it.  - Tom Lehrer~*~All you need is your beautiful heart
O/O's Updated 5/11/21 - A/A's - Current Status! - Writing a novel - all draws for Fool of Fire up!
Requests updated March 17