Censorship  Think of a book or movie that has influenced you in some way  What would be lost if no one could ever read the book or see the movie again?

What is Censorship?

Types of censorship  Challenges to material  Banning of material  Destroying material

Where does censorship take place?  Schools: textbooks, reading material  Libraries  ?

Reasons for Censorship  Family values  Religion  Political views

General Principles for the Compilation of Blacklists  Literature that undermines way of thinking & living  Predominantly Jewish authors  “Cleansing” should be done in stages  Materials categorized in 3 groups: Group 1 to be destroyed Group 2 to be put into Poison Cabinet Group 3 requires future assessment to be put into 1 or 2  Replacement with new literature

Evaluation Guidelines 1935  Works of traitors, emigrants, anyone who attacks the “new” Germany  Marxism, Communism, Bolshevism  Liberal, democratic tendencies and attitudes  All historical works denigrating German culture or racial and structural order of Germany  Philosophical and social works dealing with false science of Darwinism or Monism

Evaluation Guidelines, cont.  Decadent, bloodless, or constructivist art  Writings on sexuality or sex education  Decadent writings of middle class urban society  All literature by Jewish authors  All entertainment literature that depicts life in superficial, unrealistic manner based on upper class view of life  All literature that ridicules, belittles Christianity “When Books Burn”, Univ. of Arizona

Germany,  By 1934 over 40 agencies involved with banning of books  Those agencies compiled lists of 4100 publications to be banned

Top 10 Challenged Books in U.S Scary Stories (Series) by Alvin Schwartz 2.Daddy’s Roommate by Michael Willhoite 3.I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou 4.The Chocolate War by Robert Cormier 5.The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain

Challenged books, cont. 6.Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck 7.Harry Potter (Series) by J.K. Rowling 8.Forever by Judy Blume 9.Bridge to Terabithia by Katherine Paterson 10.Alice (Series) by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor ALA Office of Intellectual Freedom (based on 6,364 reported challenges)

Reasons for Challenges  Sexually explicit challenges (1,607)  Offensive language (1,427)  Unsuitable for age group (1,256)  Occult theme or promoting Satanism (842)  Violent (737)  Homosexual theme/promoting homosexuality (515)  Promoting a religious viewpoint (419)

Reasons, cont.  Nudity (317)  Racism (267)  Sex education (224)  Anti-family (202)

Penn Township, PA

What was burned?  Disney videos: Hercules, Pinocchio, Aladdin  Ace Ventura  The Lost World  The Complete Short Stories of Ernest Hemingway  Bruce Springsteen CD’s  Harry Potter

When is censorship justified?

Additional Reading  American Library Association Office of Intellectual Freedom:  The Censorship Pages:  Book Burning:  When Books Burn (Germany, ): /documents.htm /documents.htm