Book
bans are
all
the
rage
these
days,
as
you
likely
well
know.
Far
too
many
people,
and
folks
in
government
more
importantly,
seem
to
have
read
Ray
Bradbury’s Fahrenheit
451 not
as
a
lesson
in
the
dangers
of
new
media,
but
as
some
sort
of
instruction
manual
for
how
to
treat
literature.
But
the
real
story
here
is
that
a
bunch
of
cowardly
state
and
federal
politicians
are
placating
the
desires
largely
of
the
religious
right,
who
are
seeking
to
tightly
control
the
books
that
children
have
access
to
in
public,
secular
schools.
And
if
you
can’t
manage
to
understand
how
plainly
that
is
the
antithesis
of
our
form
of
government,
then
you’re
beyond
help.
But
because
authoritarianism
makes
a
fool
of
itself
as
a
habit,
and
religiously-based
authoritarianism
all
the
moreso,
then
end
result
of
these
attempts
at
censorship
always
eventually
reveal
themselves
as
absurd.
And
if
you
need
an
example
of
that,
you
need only
look
at
the
state
of
Tennessee.
Magic
Tree
House author Mary
Pope
Osborne,
children’s
poet Shel
Silverstein and Calvin
and
Hobbes cartoonist Bill
Watterson have
joined Judy
Blume,
Sarah
J.
Maas,
Eric
Carle and Kurt
Vonnegut on
a
mind-boggling
list
of
hundreds
of
books
purged
from
some
Tennessee
school
libraries.
The
removals
are
the
result
of
a growing
political
movement to
control
information
through
book
banning.
In
2024,
the
state
legislature amended the
“Age-Appropriate
Materials
Act
of
2022”
to
specify
that
any
materials
that
“in
whole
or
in
part”
contain
any
“nudity,
or
descriptions
or
depictions
of
sexual
excitement,
sexual
conduct,
excess
violence,
or
sadomasochistic
abuse”
are
inappropriate
for
all
students
and
do
not
belong
in
a
school
library.
This
change
means
books
are
not
evaluated
as
a
whole,
and
excerpts
can
be
considered
without
context,
if
they
have
any
content
that
is
deemed
to
cross
these
lines.
This
leaves
no
room
for
educators
and
librarians
to
curate
collections
that
reflect
the
real
world
and
serve
the
educational
needs
of
today’s
students.
And
because
you
have
groups
of
far-right
activists
marching
around
looking
for
any
scintilla
of
material
over
which
they
can
manufacture
faux
outrage,
you
get
these
examples
of
books
being
banned
for
their
terrible,
awful,
smutty
content.
Such
as
a Magic
Tree
House,
book
that
was
banned
because
it
had
this
pornographical
image
on
its
cover:
Special
thanks
to
Mike
Masnick
for
briefly
allowing
me
to
post
porn
images
on
Techdirt.
And
for
all
of
you
whose
naughty
bits
are
currently
twitching
due
to
that
book
cover,
I
offer
you
my
sincerest
apologies.
But
if
you
thought that was
bad,
check
out
this
panel
image
from
a Calvin
&
Hobbes book
that
got
it
banned.
Here
we
have
the
nude
image
of
a
child
on
full
display.
Now,
I
sure
hope
everyone
realizes
that
the
above
is
a
dalliance
into
sarcasm,
because
I
was
laying
it
on
quite
thick.
I
grew
up
on Calvin
&
Hobbes,
not
to
mention
Shel
Silverstein’s A
Light
in
the
Attic,
which
was
also
banned.
Why?
More
butts,
that’s
why.
And,
because
the
universe
is
not
without
a
sense
of
irony,
one
school
even
had
to
ban
a
book
authored
by
an
alumnus.
Oak
Ridge
Schools,
where
a
significant
number
of
the
bans
target
art
history
books,
even
removed Richard
Jolley:
Sculptor
of
Glass,
a
collection
of
works
by
the
artist,
who
graduated
from
Oak
Ridge
High
School.
“Regarding
the
book
written
by
Mr.
Jolley,
we
were
thrilled
to
feature
a
book
written
by
an
ORHS
alumni
on
our
shelves
and
were
equally
disappointed
to
have
to
remove
it,”
Molly
Gallagher
Smith,
an
Oak
Ridge
Schools
spokeswoman, told
WBIR.
“Unfortunately,
as
an
artist,
Mr.
Jolley’s
book
features
depictions
of
the
human
body
that
are
in
direct
violation
of
the
law.”
There
are
more
and
the
bans
hit
all
the
notes
you
would
expect:
LGBTQ+
material,
books
about
the
Holocaust,
books
about
African
American
contributions
to
government
and
science,
and,
because
of
course, Fahrenheit
451 itself.
Now,
this
is
indeed
all
absurd,
but
it
isn’t
remotely
funny.
There
is
a
ton
of
literature,
hundreds
of
books,
that
are
being
banned
under
this
Tennessee
law.
Many
of
them
reportedly
without
going
through
any
review
process.
And
many
of
the
bans
are
coming
without
any
review
or
discussion.
The
Tennessee
Association
of
School
Libraries found
in
a
survey of
its
members
that
in
20%
of
school
districts,
books
were
removed
from
the
shelves
at
the
command
of
district
leaders
without
any
sort
of
review
process.
“Librarians
and
educators
are
concerned
that
we
will
end
up
pulling
a
massive
amount
of
books
without
looking
at
the
books
as
a
whole,”
one
member
said
in
the
survey.
“It’s
a
slippery
slope,”
said
another,
“and
I’m
fearful
of
the
next
topic
that
will
be
regulated.”
Open
up
book
bans
to
the
frothy-mouthed
mob.
What
could
possibly
go
wrong,
other
than
keeping
valuable
literature
out
of
the
hands
of
our
children?
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