Internet Site Censorship in France

Sarkozy's latest plan for "civilizing" the Internet: a Great Firewall of France that government agencies to add URLs to without judicial oversight or public scrutiny on the basis of broad, nebulous criteria.

Well, that's pretty troubling.

Lesbrarians, Censorship, and Equality

An article at Bitch Magazine that I thought was wonderful: Revenge of the Feminerd: Libraries, Lesbrarians, Censorship, and Equality. A good general post about some of the issues surrounding the profession and gays; I especially liked the bit about cataloguing:

Even today, “male nurses” and “women engineers” exist as subject headings. This is obviously problematic and an example of how classification systems sometimes lag way behind the times. The words we use are powerful, and the words that are used to define and locate people are often problematic and offensive.

Sandy Berman is a radical cataloger who was responsible for introducing subject headings like: two-spirit people (to replace berdache), intersexuality (to replace hermaphrodite), and transgender people. He also advocated for subject headings were less archaic: toilet (instead of water closet) and light bulb (electric light, incandescent). Until last year if you were looking for a book on how to make an Indian curry, the correct subject heading was Cookery--Indic.

Subject headings that Berman suggested that haven’t been adopted include: anal fisting, drag queens, feminist zines, erotic graphic novels, butch femme (lesbianism) and genderqueers.

Gender and sexuality often get mixed up by catalogers. I reckon this is partly because for many people these concepts are not different and partly because good subject headings don’t exist. The subject heading of "lesbian--identity" isn’t really appropriate for the new book Persistence: All Ways Butch and Femme, but currently there isn’t a better option. Catalogers need to create one.

This is an especially conspicuous blind spot, because I have searched the Library of Congress Subject Heading books (five very thick, heavy volumes) and there is some strangely specific stuff in there. I wish I had written some of them down. It was not unusual for us to find something odd and immediately share it with others in our immediate vicinity. Huge oversight, glaring omission, things we need to change, pronto.

I Return With Porn

...Not really. I mean I don't personally have porn, but I do have an article about libraries deciding not to filter out pornography that I figured was a perfect way to get back into the groove.

I have been neglecting the blog, which is sad, but I have been doing so because I have been finishing up my first year of my library technician program. My last presentation (French, about kung fu) was yesterday and I am now free as a bird, or at least until my security clearance for my summer job goes through.

The thing about the porn is probably less exciting than you think, but hey, let's get some search results from sensationalism, shall we? From the Salon article:

If you found this article while searching for porn that fetishizes bookish bespectacled women, you're going to be sorely disappointed. In this rare case, we're talking about porn in libraries, not librarians in porn. That's because earlier this week, the Los Angeles City Council voted against filtering out all porn on library computers. Just the day before, the Brooklyn Public Library publicly defended patrons' right to watch any legal adult content of their choosing. The first case was prompted by an incident in which kids were exposed to pornography being watched by an adult on a library computer; and the second followed a physical altercation between a man watching porn on a library computer and another man waiting to use said computer.

Bad Book Review Leads to Libel Case

Why do I keep coming back to book reviews? And how did I manage to fall behind in posting during Reading Week, which required no reading at all? So it's another three posts on one day, bam bam bam, thank you.

The author of a book about law has charged a reviewer with libel. In France! The author is French but lives in Israel; the reviewer is German but reviewed the book in English. Supposedly the French view of defamation includes 'views attacks on honor as a form of assault.'

Note to self: don't tell 'your mama' jokes in France.

Ms. Calvo-Goller did not respond to two e-mails seeking comment. In her correspondence with Professor Weiler, she said the review he published “may cause harm to my professional reputation and academic promotion.”

So may the prosecution she started.

Brian Leiter, a law professor at the University of Chicago, assessed Ms. Calvo-Goller’s case on his blog on philosophy and academic freedom. “The author has obviously done more damage to her reputation by making this criminal complaint than would have been possible by any book review, let alone the one in question,” he wrote.

Ta mere est si grosse que...

Self-Censorship

If you backdate a post, it's like you didn't miss a day on your daily blog! No one will notice. Right?

I think I snagged this from Only Connect again. I used it as a reference in a censorship paper for school and I quite like it. (The article, not the censorship paper. I'm pretty tired of writing about censorship. Sorry!)

Anyway! A Dirty Little Secret: Self-Censorship by Debra Lau Whelan for School Library Journal.

Self-censorship. It’s a dirty secret that no one in the profession wants to talk about or admit practicing. Yet everyone knows some librarians bypass good books—those with literary merit or that fill a need in their collections. The reasons range from a book’s sexual content and gay themes to its language and violence—and it happens in more public and K–12 libraries than you think.

It's true. Not just for censorship, but there are a lot of times in daily life when I just don't get into an argument simply because I don't want to deal with it.

I wouldn't say all self-censorship is cowardly or that not fighting it is cowardly; I think you need to choose your battles wisely. There are times when tactical retreats are necessary, at least if you want to keep putting food on the table.

More About Huck Finn

Huffington Post contributor Trey Ellis has written an article explaining why censoring Huckleberry Finn is complicated.

Look, I write grown-up novels and movies and pack them with as much challenging material as possible. I'm a proud progressive, but my entire career has been spent poking the incurably PC in the eye. There's nothing I like better than calling a spade a spade whenever some well-intentioned person has a niggardly attitude toward the freedom of artistic expression.

And yet... this summer when I read Huck Finn aloud to my then eight- and eleven-year-olds before tucking them in for the night, I too made the exact same edits. This fall I read them Ernest Gaines' classic, The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pitman and censored that text as well.

While I in no way condone publicly censoring anyone's work for any reason whatsoever, in my home, before putting my kids to bed, I make the rules. At the time, even my oldest wasn't quite ready to appreciate either book on her own. Nevertheless, I wanted to share those two great pieces of literature with them without having to try to explain the confusion and pain and nuance surrounding the repeated use of the "n-word."

Not that he lets Gribben off the hook:

Professor Gribben is a respected Twain scholar; however, this is not a respectable version of perhaps the single most important American book ever. If your intended reader isn't mature enough to understand the context of the entirety of this magnificent work then searching and replacing a few nouns won't enlighten them. A truly child-friendly version should probably clock in at under a hundred pages and be clearly marked as only a tool to whet young literary appetites for the complicated wonders that lie ahead.

The Adventures of Huck Fixed

It is not often I get to steal an entire post from a webcomic, but here it is:

so in case you haven’t heard, there’s a new edition of the adventures of huckleberry finn that removes the n-word and the word “injun” and replaces them with “slave” and “indigenous, valuable american we will always honor” respectively

a lot of people are mad that this totally guts a lot of the punch of the original; after all that’s what the language was and it’s a painful reminder of how we used to think about other cultures

but what does mark twain care, he’s dead and no longer with us, his opinion has every little impact on today’s america oh wait what’s this

Publisher's Weekly also has an article. Them and just about every other book-related site out there.

All That is Forbidden is Desired

A bookstore in Jordan specializes in banned books. It is very civil.

Censoring books in the age of the Internet may seem like a quaint idea. Even the government official in charge of restricting them recently announced in a newspaper article that "stopping books from reaching the people is a page we've turned."

The censor, Abdullah Abu Roman, occasionally stops by the bookstore to hobnob with Abu Hossein. So do plainclothes security officials. Abu Hossein serves them his Turkish coffee. They very politely ask him for the copies of the forbidden books. He hands them over. It's all very civilized.

"Allah maakon," he bids them farewell. God be with you.

Pedophilia Guide on Amazon

I thought for a while about whether to make a post about this issue or not; it very much relates to books, but I didn't want to give it any further attention, like by linking it I was somehow doing what whoever decided to put that book on Amazon wanted. In any case, here goes:

Some asshat* decided to sell a guide to pedophilia on Amazon. They stopped selling it. Amazon has had issues with 'offensive material' before:

This isn't the first time Amazon has sold material that promotes illegal activity. It is currently accepting pre-orders for the hardcover version of I Am the Market: How to Smuggle Cocaine by the Ton, in Five Easy Lessons by Luca Rastello.

Nor is it the first time Amazon has come under attack for selling objectionable content in its store. In 2002, the United States Justice Foundation, a conservative group, threatened to sue Amazon for selling Understanding Loved Boys and Boylovers. That title is still available through Amazon.

In 2009, Amazon stopped selling RapeLay, a first-person video game in which the protagonist stalks and then rapes a mother and her daughters, after it was widely condemned in the media and by various interest groups.

I guess this is one of those 'buts' regarding censorship. Censorship is wrong, but I don't want anyone making money off a how-to guide to pedophilia. Is this a valid argument because of money changing hands, or am I just making excuses?


* Pardon my French.

Risha Mullins - Censorship at its Finest: Remembering

A long, moving story about one English teacher's struggle against censorship.

After that email, my curriculum coach told me—in the principal’s office, with him present—that she had to beg the superintendent not to shut down the Moo Moo Book Club, and that she quoted him when she said, “one more problem with books and the club is gone.” I remember asking if he could do that. And I remember her laughing. Then on October 10, 2008, I received the edict—on signed letterhead: “After investigating the situation and discussing it with Ms. X, I have decided that all books in question in your classroom library and on the Moo Moo Club reading list will be pulled and reviewed…” Every book. Class and club. And yet not a single official challenge had been filed, as board policy required for a book to be suspended.

Update: You will no longer find the post mentioned above on Risha Mullins' blog, for reasons she explains in this post. She will eventually put the story back up. (February 5, 2011)

The Oompa-Loompas Were Black?

Apparently the Oompa-Loompas in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory used to be black pygmies but got turned white in later editions. That is not actually the point of the article linked.

The point of the article is to ask whether censoring a children's book can remove its prejudices and if it's right to do so.

In the case of Willy Wonka's slavery being shifted, I'm going to say I'd side with the changed version. As I understood it when my sister read it to me many, many years ago, Oompa-Loompas liked living in the factory and came from Loompaland in big boxes with holes so they could breathe. And that was okay; that made sense to me as a kid and was still entertaining. I went through most of my life thinking Willy Wonka was, if somewhat callous, at least at the core a decent guy. (It probably helped that I never saw the film version with the psychedelic boat trip, which was downright scary and there was a dead guy, what the heck was with that trauma?) I had plenty of time to learn about racism and slavery when I'd aged up a little more.

See also bowdlerising, named for Thomas Bowdler, 'to expurgate (a written work) by removing or modifying passages considered vulgar or objectionable.'

Stockton Upholds Book Ban on Sherman Alexie Book

The Stockton schoolboard in Springfield, Missouri, voted to continue to ban Sherman Alexie's "The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian", stating the book had too much profanity to be of value. While the complaint was originally filed by an upset elementary school parent, the suggestion to move it to the high school library with restrictions.

"The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian" is about a young resident of an Indian reservation who decides to attend a white high school.

There are descriptions of masturbation, sexual language and foul jokes, along with themes encompassing racism, alcoholism and violence. There are also descriptions of how the protagonist, Junior, tries to realize his dreams while surviving both life on the reservation and at a new school.

Elementary school? Alright, I can see where that might ruffle a few feathers. On the other hand, who says younger kids can't benefit from a book acknowledging racism, alcoholism, and violence? Kids don't get the benefit of not dealing with these issues just because they're 'too young'; bad things happen and sometimes feeling like nobody else in the world has the same problems makes kids feel they're alone with their troubles.

High school, though, that's a different story. The profanity's nothing they haven't heard before. Ken Spurgeon, a board member, stated the book's reading level is low for high school students and that keeping it to encourage teenage boys to read was "dumbing down [their] educational standards".

Not everyone is a strong reader, even at high school level. I'd imagine that the older someone who reads poorly gets, the less likely they're going to pick up a book to read. Any reading is good, and so what if a teenager works his way up from low reading levels? He's working his way up. He has to start somewhere. He apparently can't start at the elementary level.

GLBT Book Removed, Deemed 'Child Pornography'

From School Library Journal:

A New Jersey public library has removed Revolutionary Voices: A Multicultural Queer Youth Anthology (Alyson, 2000) from its collection. Nobody challenged the book; library director Gail Sweet pulled it regardless.

Edited by Amy Sonnie of the Banned Librarian, Revolutionary Voices was named by School Library Journal in 2001 as one of the best adult books for high school students and was celebrated by the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network (GLSEN) as "the first creative resource by and for queer and questioning youth of every color, class, religion, gender and ability."

Way to make the gay kids feel unwelcome and ostracized, Burlington County Library System. As if it isn't hard enough for teens; now a good resource gets taken away. And it's not just gay kids, either; it's kids with a gay parent or a gay friend who want to understand more. There is not nearly enough good literature on this subject, and by pulling this book the library is doing a disservice to its patrons.

Julian Assange and WikiLeaks.org

Snaked from Wired, who in turn link to the New Yorker website - No Secrets: Julian Assange’s Mission for Total Transparency.

Assange is an international trafficker, of sorts. He and his colleagues collect documents and imagery that governments and other institutions regard as confidential and publish them on a Web site called WikiLeaks.org.

I don't know about you, but I kind of feel like a secret agent just reading about it.

China Cracks Down on Writers in Tibet

Some scary stuff about Tibet, written by Kate Saunders for the Huffington Post. People disappearing, that sort of thing.

Despite opinions on how crappily written popular books can be, at least we can write them freely.

Is Filtering Internet in Libraries Censorship?

Ooh, the slippery slope.

Treating the Internet as if it were a part of the printed collection does indeed have a draconian feel to it, as it disregards the general real-time nature of information in modern society. Though the ruling decides that the filtering does not constitute a form of prior restraint, it acknowledges that filter removal can, at times, take until the next day if not longer. While this may seem reasonable, should one person have less access to information than another, simply because they rely on the public library as a point of information rather than purchasing it on their own?

Even More on the League of Extraordinary Porn

More on the censorship of graphic novels:

At the recent Chicago Comic and Entertainment Expo, a librarian from Jessamine County, Kentucky, spoke firsthand about dealing with calls for censorship in his library, and an expert from the American Library Association discussed how to handle challenges to graphic novels at the panel titled "Burn It, Hide It, Misshelve It, Steal It, Ban It! Dealing with Graphic Novel Censorship in Your Library."

Good ol' Jessamine County! Back in October 2009, two librarians in the county were fired for keeping 'The Black Dossier', a graphic novel by Alan Moore, off the shelves. Good to see it's still making news.

Human-Flesh Search Engine

It's about as creepy as it sounds: the human-flesh search engine. Vigilantes in China hunt down people with unpopular opinions and find their offline identities, including addresses, details about their personal lives, where they are employed, and where they go to school. The people they have tracked down seem to be forced to make apologies or harassed by phone or by email; there are cases where people have been fired or detained by police.

In one infamous case in 2006, a woman now dubbed “the kitten killer of Hangzhou” posted a video of herself stomping a kitten to death with her stiletto heels. China’s netizens erupted with rage and hundreds of amateur sleuths traced the video to Hangzhou, a city south of Shanghai. They discovered the woman’s name and that she had recently purchased a pair of high-heeled shoes on eBay. They attacked her until she apologized on a local government website and lost her job.

I can't say I have much sympathy for the kitten-killer, but schoolkids being detained for being insensitive jerks? Too far.

The New York Times has written a longer article on this subject.

Memory Hole

The Memory Hole is a site that keeps track of changes to official government pages and other things procured by the Freedom of Information Act, like images of the coffins of dead US soldiers from Afghanistan.

The memory hole is a reference to George Orwell's 1984:

In the walls of the cubicle there were three orifices. To the right of the speakwrite, a small pneumatic tube for written messages, to the left, a larger one for newspapers; and in the side wall, within easy reach of Winston's arm, a large oblong slit protected by a wire grating. This last was for the disposal of waste paper. Similar slits existed in thousands or tens of thousands throughout the building, not only in every room but at short intervals in every corridor. For some reason they were nicknamed memory holes. When one knew that any document was due for destruction, or even when one saw a scrap of waste paper lying about, it was an automatic action to lift the flap of the nearest memory hole and drop it in, whereupon it would be whirled away on a current of warm air to the enormous furnaces which were hidden somewhere in the recesses of the building.

Harry Potter, Freedom of Speech, and Failure

JK Rowling gave a commencement speech at Harvard University about the fringe benefits of failure. You can also watch it here:

J.K. Rowling Speaks at Harvard Commencement from Harvard Magazine on Vimeo.

I thought one of the most interesting parts was when Rowling spoke of the time she worked at Amnesty International's headquarters in London:

Every day, I saw more evidence about the evils humankind will inflict on their fellow humans, to gain or maintain power. I began to have nightmares, literal nightmares, about some of the things I saw, heard, and read.

And yet I also learned more about human goodness at Amnesty International than I had ever known before.

Amnesty mobilises thousands of people who have never been tortured or imprisoned for their beliefs to act on behalf of those who have. The power of human empathy, leading to collective action, saves lives, and frees prisoners. Ordinary people, whose personal well-being and security are assured, join together in huge numbers to save people they do not know, and will never meet. My small participation in that process was one of the most humbling and inspiring experiences of my life.

Unlike any other creature on this planet, humans can learn and understand, without having experienced. They can think themselves into other people’s places.

Of course, this is a power, like my brand of fictional magic, that is morally neutral. One might use such an ability to manipulate, or control, just as much as to understand or sympathise.