The big idea: what if censoring books only makes them more popular?

[Davie]

The big idea: what if censoring books only makes them more popular?  From Lady Chatterley’s Lover to novels about trans children, attempts to suppress works of literature tend to have the opposite effect.

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2023/may/01/the-big-idea-what-if-censoring-books-only-makes-them-more-popular

[VickySGV]

Yes, book banning is a cash-cow for the hard copy, and now some E-copy book sellers as well for stuff that cannot be borrowed from public sources. 

[GlitchedSalvation]

That's likely true. People are proven to want what they can't have, and probably thinking: "Captain Underpants? What could possibly ban that?"

[awkward-yet-sweet]

Its the cookie jar principle.  Tell a kid they can't have a cookie, and it will be the first thing they reach for. 

 

So when those in power ban books, ban talkshows, censor social media, or prohibit any number of things from alcohol to guns to gas stoves.... those items end up seeing an increase in consumption and lots more people looking for a taste of what all the fuss is about. 

[Russ Fenrisson]

I find banned and challenged materials very interesting. Whether it be exploring a controversial topic or putting a new idea out there, such books broaden the horizon of literature and expand the ways books can be written. Though some people may not be comfortable with some messages or themes, lessons are embedded within the pages somewhere. And sometimes, books need not lessons to be entertaining.

[Davie]

PEN America and Penguin Random House sue Florida school district over book bans
https://thehill.com/changing-america/respect/equality/4009012-penguin-random-house-pen-america-sue-florida-school-district-over-book-bans/

[Carolyn Marie]

I've been reading "subversive" books all my life, and as far as I can tell, it hasn't done me any harm.  I'm a huge sci-fi fan, and there are all kinds of R-rated sci fi out there, including a couple involving gender change themes.  It's all grist for the mill in my skull.  And Captain Underpants?  It was one of my son's favorites, and I let him read all that he wanted.  😁

 

Carolyn Marie

[VickySGV]

I am a Robert Heinlein fan, and one novel, I Will Fear No Evil involves a sex change that was involuntary on the part of two people.  Then of course, one of his core characters who lives a documented 4k years has twin "daughters" who are his own clones with the absence of the SRY gene which makes them female.  I had to buy about 3 copies of all those books because my kids kept grabbing them and reading them to tatters.  One of the kids now is a U.S. Naval Commander who went to the Naval Academy which Heinlein graduated from. LOL!!!!