Virginia school bans Arthur Conan Doyle's "Study in Scarlet"

http://centeredlibrarian.blogspot.com/2011/08/study-in-scarlet-banned-in-virginia.html


What the hell? Some parent decides a book that's over a hundred years old is not fit for a reading list because it doesn't say nice things about Mormons? Do they also want Huckleberry Finn removed given the contents dealing with blacks? I'm more surprised people dont' move to have Sherlock Holmes mysteries banned from schools due to the fact that Sherlock was a coke-head, but there you go.

Any thoughts on this?

Supernova wrote:http://centeredlibrarian.blogspot.com/2011/08/study-in-scarlet-banned-in-virginia.html
Any thoughts on this?

Yes. People who want to ban books are assholes.

"According to a 1994 Salt Lake City newspaper article, when Conan Doyle was asked about his depiction of the Latter-day Saints' organization as being steeped in kidnapping, murder and enslavement, he said: 'all I said about the Danite Band and the murders is historical so I cannot withdraw that, though it is likely that in a work of fiction it is stated more luridly than in a work of history. It's best to let the matter rest'".

Well, seems Conan Doyle was just reflecting the crimes of the Mormon church in the 19th Century. I'm sure they were more outrageous then than the Mormons in the 21st Century

"Brian David Mitchell a former street preacher convicted in United States Federal District Court in Utah for the Elizabeth Smart kidnapping following six years in psychiatric custody. He was sentenced to life in prison on May 25, 2011."

"Warren Steed Jeffs is the president of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (FLDS Church). In 2011 Jeffs was convicted of two felony counts of child sexual assault.

"Jeffs gained international notoriety in May 2006 when he was placed on the FBI's Ten Most Wanted List for unlawful flight to avoid prosecution on Utah state charges related to his alleged arrangement of illegal marriages between his adult male followers and underage girls. He was arrested in August 2006 in Nevada, and agreed to be taken to Utah for trial. In May and July 2007 the State of Arizona charged him with eight additional counts, including sexual conduct with minors and incest, in two separate cases."

Kral wrote:IMO there's never any reason to ban a book. No matter how objectionable or offensive or ugly it is, it's still just a book that has to be OPENED in order to express itself. Most of the books that I heard of being banned didn't need to be IMO.

That's for sure, how about in 1931 China banned the Alice books because animals shouldn't speak the same language as humans and should not be elevated to humans, what the hell?