The book "Maus" has been banned in a Tennessee school district. Should any books be banned?

[smahala1991]

I do not believe in banning any books. And a lot of times they are banned over trivial reasons.

[demonics]

Amazing how fast BS can spread with little to no curiosity or skepticism. Oh its not banned, it was removed from the reading list as the Karen's *cough* school board thought it was too graphic for children. Wasn't banned from the library, or banned from checking out. The Fcking JOO just HAS to keep that grift going. 3000 years from now after dozens more massacres and democides will have occurred, the JOO descendants will STILL shake you down to let you know about the big H.

Maus
“I also understand that Tennessee is obviously demented,” said Spiegelman. “There’s something going on very, very haywire there.”
Tennessee has been won by every Republican presidential nominee since 2000. Then-President Donald Trump in 2020 won McMinn County with nearly 80% of the votes cast.

To Kill A Mocking Bird
After parent complaints about the use of racist epithets in To Kill a Mockingbird; Adventures of Huckleberry Finn; The Cay; Of Mice and Men; and Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry, the Burbank (CA) Unified School District superintendent issued a statement removing the books from the district’s required reading lists for its English curriculum and banned the use of the N-word in all school classes. The books will be allowed in classroom libraries, but no student can be required to read them. At a board meeting, the superintendent stated, “This is not about censorship, this is about righting the wrongs of the past.”

Notice the framing surrounding the removal of these two books? They're "demented" he says? Fcking sick of these propagandists!

[MAC1983]

I have some views on this.

1 - owning and having read Maus multiple Times, I'd like to start by pointing out Art Spiegelman shows the censoring and banning of books in Maus itself. That's not really funny, but it is ironic. You can read what he himself thinks about here:
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/jan/27/tennessee-school-board-bans-pulitzer-prize-winning-holocaust-novel-maus
2 - in Maus there is no human nudity. Every character is an animal. By that standard should we also ban books with drawings of cats and dogs? Where is the threat there?
3 - "The Diary of Anne Frank" is often read at that age around the World
4 - should you really protect teenagers from a Pulitzer award-winning graphic novel that shows empathy, hope, despair, suicide, yes, the best and worst humankind has to offer... when they can already see PG-13 films like "The Ring", or just for a recent example "Venom 2: Let there be Carnage!" legally on a cinema. (Not saying anything about TV or the Internet)
5 - not giving a good platform to talk about the subjects that seem to scare the school's lawyer by picking and choosing sanitized versions of works of Art is a slippery slope... And has only lead to increased sales of the book. Teenagers are curious and growingly intolerant to hipocrisy, and check out fast on such dumbing down of subjects.
6 - the board can choose whatever books it likes. I have yet to find what work they want to replace it with.

But the question remains: if they approved it in the past are they just now baffled by finally skimming the book and seeing what was there? Or is this another sad example of political corretness?

I leave that question to you, GaG!

[MAC1983]

Thanks for the MHO. Is there any update on this news?

[SaoirseS]

The school board did not ban anything, they merely removed the book from the 8th grade curriculum as it thought the rough language and graphic sketches of nudity were inappropriate for 13 year olds. Communities can decide these things themselves. Parents can still buy the book for their kids, all is right with the world. Some media outlets’ publicity did nothing but boost sales enough to put it on the bestseller list lol. Got to love free market:
https://www.insideedition.com/maus-graphic-novel-on-holocaust-makes-amazons-best-seller-list-after-tennessee-school-board-bans?amp

[loveslongnails]

So is it available for the 9th grade curriculum, or beyond? I don't know.

[SaoirseS]

@loveslongnails I don't really know either, other than the point of the meeting was to discuss having it as part of the 8th grade curriculum. Key point is it's not a ban. It's available in the libraries and bookstores, as well as through online sales. And all this brouhaha did was drive demand for it up lol - I'd love to have just a small slice of the royalties!

[loveslongnails]

Right, and that was my very first comment. LOL I said the board just made that book the most sought after 9th grade read in the school. haha

[loveslongnails]

@fjb2021 And you're 14, and probably up past your bedtime.

[loveslongnails]

@fjb2021 I correct myself, you're not 14, but you are a troll.

[SaoirseS]

How did this all go downhill?

[SaoirseS]

Thanks for MHG!

[loveslongnails]

My friend brought up a couple of good points. If they banned the book, that means it's out of the library completely. Its not available to any student from the school library itself. If they removed it from the required 8th grade reading curriculum but did NOT ban the book, it would still be available in the library. It's also possible to "not allow " the book to be checked out by all grades below 9, for example, by keeping it secured and checking names/grade levels for check-out.

So the real point is - is the book still available in the library, or not?

[Blonde401]

I don’t think any book should be banned. Including any offensive material on both sides. Banning books stunts education and critical thinking. I think banning Maus implies a lot about the school district as well.

[Curmudgeon]

For Art Spiegelman's brilliant adult graphic cartoon "Maus", the issue boils down to two words: age appropriate. Obviously, terrorizing very small children who are still learning the basic phonics and simple reading with the horrors of the Holocaust is a bit too soon. But also obviously, older children can and should read the brilliant work. Now this TN school district is K-8, and I think they were wrong in thinking only of the lower grades and not the higher. But it's wrong to say they meant harm.

See also sex education. We should encourage minors to abstain because, well, they're *minors*.

[Oigit]

The nazi party was really into banning and burning books. I think the people wanting to ban books and everything else need to take a world history calls. Because cancel culture and book banning are a slippery slope.

[NamerOfStars]

I'm more concerned about the apparent ban on dictionaries. What the school did was remove it from the eighth grade reading list. They didn't take it off the library shelves or keep people from checking it out; it's still there and available.

"Banning" something does not "not forcing it". Has the specter of Covid madness not illustrated this to you yet?

[ShadezMcgee]

No, books shouldn't be banned. I remember reading this back in 8th grade.

[MAC1983]

I'm curious to read what you remember about that experience. I only read it much later.

[Snakeyes7]

I'm not sure if something as gruesome as the Holocaust should be made into a picture book especially one marketed towards small children. I don't think it's some conspiracy to deny the Holocaust.

You can just as easily have the children read Number the Stars and it would be easier on the children as it tells what it is like to live under Nazi occupation with the perspective of a child with a Jewish friend.

[DarkCarousel]

I’m 100% more likely to read a banned book. Everyone should get their hands on banned books, read them, and then consider who decided they should be banned.

[DeeDeeDeVour]

Well, that Tennessee school district might have valid/legitimate reasons for banning that particular book but we don't have the details behind their decision.

[goaded]

You do, if you read about it. For example:

"In a McMinn County Schools board meeting in January, members said they felt the inclusion of swear words in the graphic novel were inappropriate for the eighth grade curriculum.

They also objected to the depictions of graphic violence and suicide, saying it did not represent the "values" of the local community.

Members also objected to a cartoon that featured "nakedness".

After a social media backlash, the board members said in a statement that the book's "unnecessary use of profanity and nudity its depiction of violence and suicide" were too much for a class composed of 13- and 14-year-olds."
www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-60164442

[Justneedtokno]

Book should not be banned from school especially history. And there’s always something to learn from it may be mistakes but sometimes it could be insightful especially for what you are dealing with now

[DCooper]

How is a book banned if anyone who wishes can buy a copy and read it?

[Citizenkirk]

I am opposed to any form of censorship, regardless of how offensive some publications may or may not be.

[loveslongnails]

Banned? Probably not overall, but age appropriation is a consideration. I wouldn't want my 4th grader reading "The Satanic Bible" or "Lolita", but I wouldn't ban either book entirely.

[Curmudgeon]

Exactly. By the way, did you know "Loilita" can be read as an allegory about the evils of Communism, from which the author, Vladimir Nabokov, fled? And how the Soviet system corrupted and perverted people. But too young a student would just read about the lecherous perv and not get the allegory.

[loveslongnails]

@Curmudgeon Right, which is why you need age-appropriate guidance. Good point.

[RealMarek]

It wasn’t banned, they swapped it out of the school library for a different book about the holocaust.

[NathanDavis]

was that an elementary school, middle-school... high-school? or all schools at once?

[GoodGuyBreakingBad]

No books should be banned unless they mention how one should self-harm or anything involving hurting children

[adidas0169]

No books should be banned but certain books and topics should be up to the parents to allow not the schools.

[Anonymous]

They shouldn’t ban nothing. Nothing should be shut down or censored or silenced.

[awkward_author]

I'm 100% against banning any kind of book, regardless of the content.

[Tanhoaon]

Should we not ban books with flaws of information and lack of educational knowledge in school?

[OddBeMe]

No. Science books have pictures of penises and vaginas. Holocaust books will have pictures of horror.

[NorthwestRider]

Nope only little stupid triggered snowflakes supports this

[Deserter]

We're not babies, we can think for ourselves and be exposed to different ideas

[cloud9vortex1234]

Why now? I never read it, but if it was bad enough then wouldn't they have done it sooner?

[DaveToo]

Banning books is a form of censorship.

[msc545]

No book should EVER be banned.

[Gwenhwyfar]

Me either