Banned: Books. The start of a series of blogs about Censorship

I'd first like to state my position concerning censorship, I believe in self censorship on the whole but also believe that there is a need for classification so that the material is age appropriate. There is of course a need to ban illegal material, that's a given, but only the illegal stuff.

I'm going to start with books, the written word has been around for millennia, and since it was first used people have tried to stop other people reading it!

Where possible I have attached a link to each book below so you can judge for yourselves.

Here is some famous books that have been or are still banned in one place or another, and the reasons for their ban:

 Alice in Wonderland was banned in China in 1931 because they didn't think that animals and humans should be put of the same level, the animals speak!

All Quiet on the Western Front was, not surprisingly, banned and burned in Germany between 1933-1945.

American Psycho, due to it's extreme, graphic violence throughout, is effectively still banned in Queensland Australia, it is age restricted in the rest of Australia and New Zealand, it is bagged with a R18 sticker, it's sale is also severely restricted in Germany. Just as an aside this book was nearly banned outright in the UK, upon hearing this I went straight out and brought a copy, found it quite boring in place, but it is very, very violent in places as well!

and Tango make three, this is a children's book, based on the true story of gay penguins in a New York zoo, as you can imagine this book is banned in some areas of America, you know know where, it has been cited as being "anti-ethnic", "anti-family" and "unsuited to age group", the oh so tolerant Americans.

Lady Chatterley's Lover was banned in the UK on ground of obscenity for over 30 years, it was finally given publishing rights in 1968 after Penguin won a landmark court case.

Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov was published in 1955 and was subsequently banned in the UK , France Belgium and Argentina, it eventually became available in the UK in 1959.

The Famous Five, yep the Enid Blyton books, so who do you think banned it for 30 years, some religious groups? a political group? an oppressive regime? yep it is the latter, the BBC! They were quote as being produced by "a second rater" and lacking "literary value" also "sexist", The BBC also wasn't too keen on Noddy for it's "racist" portrayal of Gollywogs.

Ulysses by James Joyce was banned in both the UK and USA for being radical and obscene in the 20s and 30s.

Lord Horror has the distinction of being the last book to have been banned in the UK under the obscene publications act, it was publish in 1989 and has never returned to print, it's author David Britton even spent a month in jail!

This is but a small proportion of the books that have been banned around the world, of all the "First World" countries the USA is the least tolerant, they seem to find offence in most things, some States and Districts have even banned Harry Potter because it promotes witchcraft!