From Twitter 09-24-2010

( Tweets. Scintillating, innit. )

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Freedom to speak, to write, to listen, to read.

When I think about censorship these days, I think about a lost Monty Python sketch known as “The Wee-Wee Wine Tasting.” In it, a man is sampling from a selection of glasses that appear to contain white wine. Each time he tries one and guesses (based on its traits) what it is, the French-accented vintner responds that no, it “wee-wee.” Urine.

It’s funny. It’s a joke about the extremes of wine snobbery, it’s absurd in that the taster keeps trying over and over, misidentifying what he’s drinking.

The problem was that one of the glasses looked like it had a pink tinge to it. Once the censors saw that, they lost it. “Menstrual urine” was too obscene. The sketch didn’t air.

The fascinating thing is that apparently it hadn’t even occurred to the Pythons that one of the glasses appeared to have a tinge. That wasn’t part of the sketch. The whole issue of the obscene glass had arisen entirely in the minds of the observing censors.

It’s a worthy thing to consider today, which marks the beginning of Banned Books Week.

According to the American Library Association:

Over the past nine years, American libraries were faced with 4,312 challenges.

* 1,413 challenges due to “sexually explicit” material;
* 1,125 challenges due to “offensive language”;
* 897challenges due to material deemed “unsuited to age group”;
* 514 challenges due to “violence”
* 344 challenges due to “homosexuality”; and

Further, 109 materials were challenged because they were “anti-family,” and an additional 269 were challenged because of their “religious viewpoints.”

1,502 of these challenges (approximately 34%) were in classrooms; 33% were in school libraries; 23% (or 1,032) took place in public libraries. There were 100 challenges to college classes; and only 29 to academic libraries. There are isolated cases of challenges to materials made available in or by prisons, special libraries, community groups, and student groups. The majority of challenges were initiated by parents (almost exactly 48%), while patrons and administrators followed behind (10% each).

(Source)

Between now and October 2nd I’m going to try and post about a different banned book that I’m reading/have read, or a current book challenge. I’ve got about 70 pages left on The Catcher in the Rye. I’ve also challenged myself to purchase at least one banned or challenged book this week to support an author who’s under fire for his or her speech.

This is a great week to think about freedom of speech, free access to information, censorship, and most of all to support your local libraries and bookstores.

More later/tomorrow…

This post has been mirrored from Christian A. Young's Dimlight Archive. To see it in its original format, visit dimlightarchive.com