{"id":7859,"date":"2011-11-04T11:05:05","date_gmt":"2011-11-04T18:05:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/?p=7859"},"modified":"2011-11-04T11:05:05","modified_gmt":"2011-11-04T18:05:05","slug":"you-cant-read-that-8","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/?p=7859","title":{"rendered":"You Can’t Read That!"},"content":{"rendered":"

You Can\u2019t Read That! is a periodic post featuring news about banned and challenged books.<\/p>\n

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From Tintin in the Congo, 1931<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Apparently the problem some Americans have with Huckleberry Finn<\/em><\/a> affects Belgians as well.\u00a0 They were actually going to ban a Tintin book written in 1931 on grounds of racism … thankfully, a court has intervened<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The manager of a Michigan country club canceled a scheduled appearance by Richard Dawkins after discovering the famous atheist is, uh, an atheist<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Lucretius wrote On the Nature of Things<\/em> and changed the world<\/a> … in spite of the fact that his work has been banned at nearly every juncture of history.<\/p>\n

Sometime in the late 1950s or early 1960s, a policeman entered the Chelmsford Massachusetts public library and demanded the librarian hand over all books by Jack Kerouac on the grounds that they were “unfit.”\u00a0 Read the rest<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Hooray: the Glendale California school board okays the continued reading of Truman Capote’s In Cold Blood<\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n

Boo: the Brookfield Connecticut school board is considering banning Toni Morrison’s The Bluest Eye<\/em>.<\/a><\/p>\n

Hooray, boo, hiss: the Charlestown South Carolina school isn’t banning Bret Lott’s The Hunt Club<\/em><\/a> after all, but is considering a plan to make teachers notify parents whenever “adult-themed” books are to be taught. What do you think most teachers will do? I’ll take a guess … they won’t assign The Hunt Club<\/em>.<\/p>\n

I don’t usually include book banning news from outside the Americas, but since I led off with Belgium, here are two interesting stories from England:<\/p>\n