Banned Books Week Archives - Page 7 of 8

#BannedBooksWeek: A full slate of events

6 Aug 2017 | Events

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Banned Books Week 2017 is being celebrated with multiple ways to get involved.

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Patrice Lawrence and Alex Wheatle in conversation

When: Friday 22 September, 5pm BST
Where: Archway Methodist Church Archway Close N19 3TD Map
Tickets: £5/£1 under 16s via ArchWay With Words

ArchWay With Words presents a thrilling event with two of Britain’s most exciting, prize-winning writers who tell stories about young people. Alex Wheatle talks about his trilogy of novels set in ‘Crongton’, a place rife with gang warfare and home to a cast of characters whose lives and loyalties are tested in gripping dramas. Patrice Lawrence talks about her dazzling debut ‘Orangeboy’, and the breathtaking follow up ‘Indigo Donut’, a story about tough choices and everyone’s need to belong.

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How far can you go in speaking the unspeakable?

When: Sunday 24 September 2017, 2-4pm BST
Where: Old Library, Pembroke College, Cambridge Map
Tickets: Free. Registration required via Eventbrite

What is the place of the satirist in our age of controversies? The irreverent cartoonist Martin Rowson, of The Guardian and Index on Censorship magazine, joins publisher Joanna Prior of Penguin Random House for what promises to be a coruscating conversation; feathers will no doubt be ruffled. This event is in association with Pembroke College as part of Banned Books Week and will be introduced by Index CEO Jodie Ginsberg. Full details[/vc_column_text][vc_row_inner equal_height=”yes”][vc_column_inner width=”1/3″][vc_single_image image=”89693″ img_size=”500×300″ alignment=”center”][vc_column_text]

Martin Rowson

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Joanna Prior

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Jodie Ginsberg

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Webinar on disinvited speakers and academic freedom

When: Tuesday 26 September 5-6pm
Where: Online at GoToWebinar
Tickets: Free. Registration required

Over the past few years, the news has been replete with stories about how authors, thought-leaders, and others have become disinvited or pressured to withdraw from university speaking engagements because they don’t promote prevailing ideology. What are the consequences of disallowing diverse viewpoints on campus and what can speakers, faculty, and librarians do to support intellectual freedom in academia?

Join the American Library Association’s Office for Intellectual Freedom, SAGE Publishing and Index on Censorship for a webinar on speaker disinvitation during Banned Books Week. It will include perspectives from Mark Osler, a professor who was disinvited from a campus speaking engagement, Glenn Geher, a professor of psychology who helped to bring a controversial speaker to campus, and Judith C. Russell, a dean of libraries who addresses issues relating to controversial speakers, academic freedom and campus safety on campus.

The event will be chaired by Jemimah Steinfeld, deputy editor of Index on Censorship magazine.

Full details

This event is presented by SAGE Publications[/vc_column_text][vc_row_inner equal_height=”yes”][vc_column_inner width=”1/3″][vc_single_image image=”95734″ img_size=”213×127″ alignment=”center”][vc_column_text]

Mark Osler

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Glenn Geher

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Judith C. Russell

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Jemimah Steinfeld

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Censored: A Literary History of Subversion and Control

The Standard newspaper carries a headline on the need for censorship

British Library

When: Tuesday 26 September 7:15-8:30pm
Where: Knowledge Centre British Library, 96 Euston Rd, Kings Cross, London NW1 2DB
Tickets: From £7 via British Library

Censorship. Whose morals and values does it seek to protect? Trace the blue pencil and its consequences through literary history, from Ulysses and Lolita to a book implicated in a murder case.

For some, such restrictions may seem sensible, while for others, they appear arbitrary at best, oppressive and dangerous at worst. The list of books suppressed in the English language features the sacred and profane, poetic and pornographic, famous and infamous. A history of the censorship of literary texts is also a history of the authorities that have attempted to prevent their circulation: sovereigns, politicians, judges, prison officers, slaveholders, school governors, librarians, teachers, parents, students, editors and publishers.

Katherine Inglis and Matthew Fellion, authors of a fascinating new book on suppressed literature, explore the methods and consequences of censorship and some of the most contentious and fascinating cases. Followed by a book signing. Full details

This event is presented by The British Library[/vc_column_text][vc_separator][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_custom_heading text=”27 September” font_container=”tag:h3|text_align:left” use_theme_fonts=”yes”][vc_column_text]

What happens when ideas are silenced?

When: Wednesday 27 September 2017, 6:30-8:15pm
Where: Free Word Centre 60 Farringdon Road London EC1R 3GA
Tickets: From £5 via Free Word Centre

Who are the modern-day censors? And what ingenious evasions – both modern and ancient – have writers and publishers used to protect our right to read? Join award-winning journalist David Aaronovitch in conversation with Irish author Claire Hennessy and publisher Lynn Gaspard, as they explore what happens when ideas are silenced. With readings by Moris Farhi and Bidisha. Full details[/vc_column_text][vc_row_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1/3″][vc_single_image image=”95061″ img_size=”200×200″ alignment=”center”][vc_column_text]

David Aaronovitch

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Lynn Gaspard

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Claire Hennessy

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Moris Farhi

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Bidisha

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Censored at The Book Hive, Norwich

When: Wednesday 27 September, 7-8:30pm
Where: The Book Hive, 53 London St, Norwich NR2 1HL
Tickets: Free. More details.

Join Index on Censorship magazine Deputy Editor Jemimah Steinfeld in conversation with Matthew Fellion and Katherine Inglis, authors of the new book Censored: A Literary History of Subversion and Control.

In twenty-five chapters focusing on a wide range of texts, including the Bible, slave narratives, modernist classics, comic books, and Chicana/o literature, Fellion and Inglis chart the forces that have driven censorship for over six hundred years, from fears of civil unrest and corruptible youth to the oppression of various groups – religious and political dissidents, same-sex lovers, the working class, immigrants, women, racialized people, and those who have been incarcerated or enslaved. The authors also consider the weight of speech, and when restraints might be justified.[/vc_column_text][vc_row_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1/3″][vc_single_image image=”95334″ img_size=”full” alignment=”center”][vc_column_text]The Book Hive is Norwich’s only truly independent new bookshop[/vc_column_text][/vc_column_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1/3″][vc_single_image image=”95338″ img_size=”full” alignment=”center”][vc_column_text]

Censored: A Literary History of Subversion and Control by Matthew Fellion and Katherine Inglis

[/vc_column_text][/vc_column_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1/3″][vc_single_image image=”88892″ img_size=”full” alignment=”center”][vc_column_text]Jemimah Steinfeld, deputy editor Index on Censorship magazine[/vc_column_text][/vc_column_inner][/vc_row_inner][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_custom_heading text=”28 September” font_container=”tag:h3|text_align:left” use_theme_fonts=”yes”][vc_column_text]

Limerick Civic Trust: How censorship stifles debate

When: Thursday 28 September 8pm
Where: St Mary’s Cathedral, Bridge St, Limerick, V94 E068, Ireland Map
Tickets: From €8 via Eventbrite

The event is in conjunction with the Kemmy Business School and is a six-part series of public lectures to be delivered by internationally renowned commentators and thought leaders in their field. The third lecture in the series with Jodie Ginsberg will take place on 28 September. Ginsberg will speak about how censorship stifles debate and undermines the tenets of free and democratic societies. Full details[/vc_column_text][vc_row_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1/3″][vc_single_image image=”80210″ img_size=”full” alignment=”center”][vc_column_text]

Jodie Ginsberg

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Standing with Salman

When: Thursday 28 September, 7:00-8:30pm
Where: Knowledge Centre British Library, 96 Euston Rd, Kings Cross, London NW1 2DB
Tickets: From £7 via British Library

“In 1989 the death penalty was re-introduced in Britain. Not for terrorism. Not for murder. But for writing a book.” Nearly 20 years after Salman Rushdie was forced into hiding following the publication of The Satanic Verses, members of the Salman Rushdie Campaign Group re-unite to talk about their fight for freedom of expression. With archive recordings of Salman Rushdie reading from The Satanic Verses. With Lisa Appignanesi, Melvyn Bragg, Frances D’Souza, Sara Khan and Caroline Michel. Full details

Presented by The British Library in partnership with The Royal Society of Literature, Free Word and Islington Library and Heritage Services[/vc_column_text][vc_separator][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_custom_heading text=”30 September” font_container=”tag:h3|text_align:left” use_theme_fonts=”yes”][vc_column_text]

J G Ballard’s Crash: On Page and Screen

Will Self and Chris Beckett in conversation and a rare screening of David Cronenberg's film

British Library

When: Saturday 30 September, 2:30-6pm
Where: Regent Street Cinema 309 Regent Street London W1B 2UW
Tickets: From £16 via British Library

Revisit the shock of symphorophilia with Will Self and Chris Beckett, editor of a new edition of Crash. Their discussion is followed by a rare chance to see the uncut version of David Cronenberg’s 1996 film adaptation on the big screen. Cronenberg’s film of Crash (1996), which Ballard greatly admired, was awarded a Special Jury Prize at its premiere at the Cannes Film Festival. The film introduced a second generation to Ballard’s unsettling vision, and sparked a censorship controversy that led to the film being banned by Westminster City Council. The film will be introduced by its producer, Jeremy Thomas. Full details

This event is presented by The British Library[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]

#BannedBooksWeek2016: Banned books webinar

21 Sep 2016 | Events, mobile

What’s it like to be an author of a banned or challenged book? How can librarians support authors who find themselves in this situation? To mark Banned Books Week, Vicky Baker, deputy editor of Index on Censorship magazine, will chair an online discussion with three authors on 29 September, followed by a Q&A.

It is free to join, although attendees must register in advance.

The contributors are:

Christine Baldacchino, author of Morris Micklewhite and the Tangerine Dress, a children’s book about a boy who likes to wear a dress, which “highly concerned” some parents when it was read in US schools.
Wendy Doniger, a professor of religious history at the University of Chicago and author of numerous academic works. Her 2009 book The Hindus: An Alternative History was recalled, and destroyed, by the publisher Penguin India in 2014, after a lawsuit was filed, claiming the work denigrated Hinduism
Jessica Herthel, a graduate of Harvard Law School, who co-wrote the children’s picture book I Am Jazz, with Jazz Jennings, a transgender activist and YouTube/television star. In 2015, an elementary school in Wisconsin cancelled a reading of the book after a group threatened to sue.

The webinar has been arranged by Sage Publications, in conjunction with the American Library Association.

When: Thursday 29 September, 4pm GMT / 11 EST
Where: Online
Tickets: Free, registration required.

Parents petition to remove Ariel Dorfman’s Death and the Maiden from school reading lists

1 Oct 2015 | Academic Freedom, mobile, News and features, United States

Death and the Maiden, Ariel Dorfman’s play, was first published in English in the June 1991 issue of Index on Censorship magazine.

Parents and students at a high school in New Jersey have launched a petition to have books, including the play Death and the Maiden by Chilean playwright Ariel Dorfman, removed from mandatory reading lists and be “replaced with material that uses age appropriate language and situations”.

The petition, directed to Rumson Fair Haven high school, has gathered 222 signatures and asks “the administration institute a policy, whereby parents must sign a permission slip if assigned reading material, films or any media contains profanities, explicit sexual passages or vulgar language”. It has prompted a counter-petition, stating that “banning books will only educate students to be more ignorant and dismiss ideas that are ‘not appropriate’ or disagree with one group’s ideas”, which has already overtaken the original petition with 753 signatories.

The calls to remove the book have coincided with Banned Books Week (September 27 – October 3), which celebrates freedom to read and aims to draw attention to censorship of books.

Death and the Maiden was published in English for the first time in the summer 1991 issue of Index on Censorship magazine, and Dorfman’s short story Casting Away was published in the magazine’s September 2014 issue. The writer was forced to leave Chile in 1973 after the coup by General Augusto Pinochet. His life in exile has been very influential in his work as a novelist, playwright, academic and human rights campaigner.

Dorfman told Index: “For someone who has seen his books burnt on television by Chilean military, it is disturbing to witness the attempt in the United States to suppress the views of an author who explores the aftermath of what those military and their allies wrought, the way in which they burnt more than books, the way in which they seared the bodies and the minds of anyone who opposed their overthrow of Chile’s democratically elected government. One of the central issues in my play is the fear and silence that the protagonist, Paulina, has to deal with after she was imprisoned, raped and tortured. To silence the play in which she appears is to be an accomplice of that fear and to spread that fear to those readers and spectators who are trying to understand victimhood and how to survive it, how to heal both individually and as a society. Something that the United States must face, just as Chileans have.”

He added: “The government of General Augusto Pinochet deemed many books, many words, many thoughts, to be ‘inappropriate’. I am saddened by the attempt of some in America to be accomplices, however unwittingly, of that persecution of what they deem profane. And I am encouraged and gladdened to see so many comments to the petitions that stand up for freedom from censorship and the opening of young minds, helping the youth of tomorrow to create a world where the Paulinas – and so many others – will not be subjected to violence because of their beliefs. A world where my wife Angelica and I and our children would not be forced into exile or hear from afar news about the death of our friends in concentration camps.”

Further reading

Free thinking: Reading list for the Cambridge Festival of Ideas 2015

Judy Blume and her battle against the bans

Student reading lists: Threats to academic freedom

Some of our favourite banned books

24 Sep 2014 | News and features, Politics and Society, Religion and Culture

Monday was the beginning of Banned Books Week, the annual celebration of the freedom to read and have access to information. Since the launch of Banned Books Week in 1982, over 11,300 books have been challenged, according to the American Library Association. To mark the occasion, Index on Censorship staff posed with their favourite banned books, and tell why it’s important that they are freely accessible.

David Sewell (Photo by Dave Coscia)

David Sewell – Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka

“Banned by the Soviet Union for being decadent and despairing and although they’re right in their analysis, the action to ban the book clearly is ludicrous. It’s a Freudian tale of Gregor Samsa who awakes one morning to find he has turned into a human sized bug and how his family react to this turn of events and treat him with revulsion and yes despair, since their main breadwinner is now out of commission. For a book about an insect grubbing about in filth, Kafka’s writing evinces some great beauty as did all his work despite the seam of despair underpinning many of them. Maybe this beauty through despair is what the Soviets meant by ‘decadent’. Kafka was a vital link between the end of the Victorian novel and the literary modernists and the influence of Freud’s ideas increasingly being used in characterisation. That is why ‘Metamorphosis’ is a significant book in the literary canon.”

Aimée Hamilton (Photo by Dave Coscia)

Aimée Hamilton – To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee

“Because of its use of profanities, racial slurs and graphically described scenes surrounding sensitive issues like rape, Harper Lee’s award winning novel has been banned in many libraries and schools in the United States over its 54 year history. Having read this beautifully written book at school, I think it should be a freely accessible curriculum staple, to be both enjoyed and admired by all.”

Dave Coscia (Photo by Aimée Hamilton)

David Coscia – Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury

“Failing to or not choosing to see the irony, many schools in the United States banned Fahrenheit 451 based on its offensive language and graphic content. Bradbury’s grim view of a future where firemen are not people who put out fires, but instead set them in an attempt to burn books outlawed by the government, acts as a warning against state sponsored censorship, even if it’s not what he intended. Bradbury himself talks about Fahrenheit as a warning that technology would replace literature and cause humanity to become a “quick reading people.” What resonates with me about the novel is how prophetic that turned out to be. In the age of social media and instant information, humans, myself included, have gotten lazy and spend less time enjoying literature.”

Vicky Baker (Photo by Dave Coscia)

Vicky Baker – Memories of My Melancholy Whores by Gabriel García Márquez:

“I picked this after reading how it was banned in Iran in 2007. Initially, it slipped through the censors’ net, as the Persian title had been changed to Memories of My Melancholy Sweethearts. It was on its way to becoming a bestseller before the ‘mistake’ was realised and it was whipped from shelves, accused of promoting prostitution. It’s classic tale of censors judging a book by its title.”

Sean Gallagher (Photo by Dave Coscia)

Sean Gallagher – American Psycho by Bret Easton Ellis

“No book, no matter how vilified or disliked, should be out of reach for anyone who wants to read it.”

Jodie Ginsberg (Photo by Dave Coscia)

Jodie Ginsberg – Forever by Judy Blume

“I was one of the first girls in my class to own Judy Blume’s Forever and it was passed clandestinely from classmate to classmate until it finally fell apart, dog-eared (and highlighted in certain places…). It is a book that is powerfully linked in my mind – as for so many young kids – to the transition from childhood into the tricky years of teenage life. Reading it felt shocking, even dangerous. But also liberating.”

David Heinemann’s choice – Animal Farm

David Heinemann – Animal Farm by George Orwell

“It seems to have upset people from all ends of the political spectrum in one way or another at different times but what I love is that the story is actually quite ambiguous if you read it carefully, tearing pieces out of everyone and all angles. For its extraordinary imaginative power, the sheer audacity of its metaphors and it’s sharp alertness to the truths of life I treasure this book, having read it and been reminded of it so many times. I even adapted and staged the thing once, banning it is like depriving life of liquor.”

Fiona Bradley (Photo by Dave Coscia)

Fiona Bradley – Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov

“I have chosen Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov because I think it is so deeply disturbing that it deserves to be read. It manages to convey some of the darkest human desires and emotions and these are exactly the kind of things that literature and art should explore. By banning it you are not protecting people but patronising them by refusing their right to judge it for themselves.”

This article was posted on 24 Sept 2014 at indexoncensorship.org

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