10 science fiction novels that have been banned

[Elvalia]

http://io9.com/5653504/

These titles are among the most popular and beloved science fiction works of the last century. They've told us how bad the future might be before we get there, how free you can be if you don't follow blind belief, and that children are perfectly capable of digesting some pretty heavy concepts, actually. But they've all been banned or threatened with banning.

I was stumbling and found this. I couldn't believe it - most of these books can be found in my old high school's library, and I've read a couple of them. I don't see why people would get so upset about books. Heaven forbid we allow our youth to read what they want, enjoy reading, and possibly learn to think critically and form their own opinions.

[Edd]

#10 - Haven't read that one but I have read other books by Garth Nix.
#9 - Haven't read.
#8 - Haven't read; after my time.
#7 - Read and re-read many times.
#6 - Read it.
#5 - Read it.
#4 - Read it when I was eleven years old.
#3 - Read it.
#2 - Read it. Only one actually part of the curriculum at my school.
#1 - Haven't read. Haven't seen the movie either. I feel so uncouth.

I guess 6 out of 10 ain't bad.

[Ubi Dubius]

They couldn't find 10 great science fictions books that have actually been banned? They had to settle for "threatened with banning?"

I've read about half of them.

I tried to read "A Clockwork Orange" and couldn't get through the made up slang.

[PKMKII]

I've read #9, #4, #2 and #1. Only one on that list that truly surprises me is A Wrinkle in Time. I read that one in elementary school, and I don't remember it feeling even remotely controversial.

I think if there's one thing this lists proves, it's that school boards really shouldn't take these challenges seriously. The fact that 1984 and Brave New World are on that list just goes to show that these prudish busy bodies haven't bothered to read or research the books they're protesting.

[Rainswept]

I've read 9, 8, 6, 5, 4, and part of 7 (it bored me)

Several of those are outstanding books. I fell in love with A Wrinkle in Time @ 1986 and it had a big influence on what I read to this day. The Giver is absolutely wonderful, in fact I enjoyed every one of those that I actually finished lol.

Anthem needs to be on that list.

[PKMKII]

Anthem needs to be on that list.

Are you implying that you want Anthem banned?

Seriously though, if you notice, most of the books on the lists are not being protested over major thematic or symbolic issues (with the Pullman books as the exception, although I think that has more to do with what these prudes are being told by their right-wing media sources and less to do with any deeper understanding they have of the novels). The protests center around cosmetic details that offend the sensibilities (death, sex, violence, violations of traditional family structures, etc). Anthem, quite frankly, just doesn't get that deep into the details. It keeps it all rather abstract, which makes sense, as Rand was just trying to create an all-purpose story of individual freedom. In fact, if anything I think the fundies would enjoy the fact that the hero and his love interest end up restoring monogamous, lifelong heterosexual partnerships.

Also: You haven't read Brave New World!? Get ye to the library or bookstore and get it! Preferably the version that has Brave New World Revisited included.

[Rainswept]

Telling me about "must-read" books loses any semblance of credibility coming from someone who's never read 1984.


This list has made me want to scrounge around and see if I actually own a copy of The Giver. I'd enjoy a reread of that.

[Roy Hunter]

10: Never read it.
9: Read it, but didn't particularly like it. Not on ethical or moral grounds, it just didn't float my boat.
8: Read them to my nieces & nephews since my own brat was reading independently by then. Great books.
7: Read it at university when we were looking at the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis.
6: Read it at school, it was the book that was set for the class.
5: Read it at school, read it since then, will no doubt read it again.
4: Never read it.
3: Read it at school, read it since then, will no doubt read it again.
2: Read it at school, read it since then, will no doubt read it again.
1: Read it at school, read it since then, will no doubt read it again.

I find it hard to believe that you can seriously raise an objection to Brave New World: it is a brilliant allegory that was ahead of its time (published in the 1930s, but it describes a superficial and self-obsessed society that could easily have been the 1970s or 80s). John Savage is a rigidly moral character adrift in all of this, and he hates it. What is the problem with that? Unless it is the fact that, as a child he was raised by native Americans, and you can't have them being portrayed as morally superior to white people?

So, bearing in mind the Bible has people in it worshipping a golden calf, men offering women for sexual violence (Lot's daughters), marital infidelity (Onan and his brother's wife), devils, witches, seven-headed monsters, etc, shouldn't we try to get the Bible banned? It's a genuinely nasty book. Far worse things have been done by people after reading the Bible than after reading A Clockwork Orange.

[DavidH]

I've read some of these, many are all-time classics.
Now I'm no prude and I'm not in favour of banning literature, but I must admit I found Stranger in a Strange Land a bit yukky. I love the early Heinlein novels, but for me Glory Road had too much sex of a somehow prurient, nasty nature and from Stranger in a Strange Land onwards I just can't read them. He's too obviously just a dirty old man - or so it seems to me. Not that I I see any reason for banning it.

[bacon]

for the reason 1984 was banned.

[TwistedSister]

I've only read #6,5 and 1.
Of course, I don't really care for Science Fiction but banning books is crazy talk.

[PKMKII]

Telling me about "must-read" books loses any semblance of credibility coming from someone who's never read 1984.

I have a very good reason for not reading 1984: It got it wrong. Wrong wrong wrong wrong wrong wrong wrong. First off, the dueling superpower motif has ended, and after a relatively short amount of time. What, 40-some years? Please, France and England had individual wars that lasted longer than that. Now what we've got is a bunch of nations primarily competing through economics, not ideology, with much more dynamism and fluctuating allegiances. The major conflict now is between the "West" and a radical religious movement that's not tied to any one nation, region, or ethnicity.

Second, technology has not empowered Big Brother. Rather, it's done the complete opposite. The internet, as a communications technology, has repeatedly undermined government regimes. It allowed the green movement dissidents to get their messages and video out, as well as allowing outsiders to hijack the Iranian firewall. It's how the photographs of American soldier's caskets got released. It's how Sarah Palin's e-mail got hacked. It's how the internal Diebold e-mails showing how insecure the voting machines were got leaked. Not to mention, countless politicians whose careers have been undermined by YouTube. Technology has become a thorn in Big Brother's side.

[TwistedSister]

Dude, it's called Science Fiction for a reason.......and if you've never read it, how did you come up with all of those conclusions?
Cliff notes?
Just wondering........here's a cookie.

[PKMKII]

if you've never read it, how did you come up with all of those conclusions?

Just because I haven't read it doesn't mean I'm not familiar with the themes of the novel. Plus, being such a popular book, I've heard FSM-knows how many opinions, interpretations, summaries, and analysises of the book.

[pieces o'nine]

#10 Shade's Children by Garth Nix
I am not familiar with this one.

#9 The Giver by Lois Lowry
This one is good.

#8 The His Dark Materials Trilogy by Philip Pullman
FWIW, my brother and sister in law made it crystal clear that I was not to undermine any part of the uber-traditional catholic upbringing my niece is receiving. During this directive, she was on the couch reading The Subtle Knife -- first edition, hard cover, bought with her own money, as follow-up to the first edition, hard cover, bought with her own money first book. [heh heh heh]

#7 Stranger in a Strange Land by Robert A. Heinlein
I liked it.

#6 Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell
Classic!

#5 Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
Classic!

#4 A Wrinkle In Time By Madeline L'Engle
I loved this when I was 8; it triggered an interest in language and in science. A couple years later, the English teacher at Catholic school read us a chapter each week as a break from the Dick & Jane-quality official text.

#3 Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut
I'm not surprised they repeatedly disapprove of this: it's not rabidly, flag-wavingly, pro-war.

#2 Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
Classic!

#1 A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess
I haven't read this -- watched the film in horrified chick-vision!* If it's better than the movie, I'll give it a trial.
* [through gaps in interlaced fingers held before the eyes]


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On a related note, I am pleased to have quite a few selections from the Index Librorum Prohibitorum in my personal library.