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Tuesday, September 27, 2005

Banned Books Week

"Censorship is telling a man he can't have a steak just because a baby can't chew it."
- Mark Twain
This week is Banned Books Week (BBW). The American Library Association describes BBW on its website thusly:
Banned Books Week (BBW) celebrates the freedom to choose or the freedom to express one’s opinion even if that opinion might be considered unorthodox or unpopular and stresses the importance of ensuring the availability of those unorthodox or unpopular viewpoints to all who wish to read them. After all, intellectual freedom can exist only where these two essential conditions are met.
For more information please visit the ALA's Banned Books Week website.

2 comments:

existentialist said...

Thank you for allowing me to express mine. I just had to let an Orthodox friend go. I just do not fit in!

Anne-Marie said...

Interesting blog!

One of my favourite books, The Chocolate War, always seems to land on the banned book list in America, apparently because it is subversive to suggest that teachers can behave with evil intent.

As a Canadian, it is at once amusing and disconcerting that people in power, especially in dealing with the education of children, are afraid of the ideas found in books.

-AM

The background image on this page is a Hebrew translation of the verse from Bob Dylan's song  It's Alright, Ma (I'm Only Bleeding), from which the title of this blog is taken. Translation courtesy of Yoram Aharon of Hod-HaSharon's page--found via YudelLine-- which has many Dylan lyrics in Hebrew.