Current Events > Would you go out of your way to read a banned book?

(+) Yeah! (+)

If a book was banned by a governing body, would you go out of your way to subvert that governing body to read the banned material?

For example, Operation Dark Heart was a 2010 memoir which was blocked by the Department of Defence for allegedly containing classified information. The DoD bought all 9,500 first edition books and destroyed them, and the author released a second censored version with parts of the book blacked out including index entries.

In Australia, there's a book called The Peaceful Pill Handbook about voluntary euthanasia and assisted suicide. According to Wikipedia, "the book is primarily intended for seniors, people who are seriously ill and their families and friends. It is also a resource guide for those working in public health and aged care. The book rates over 15 approaches to euthanasia according to reliability and peacefulness scales."

Personally, I'm pro-euthanasia - and the subject of a banned manual in regards to assisted suicide is interesting to me. What makes it even juicier is that it's been banned in Australia to the point where the only place online to purchase the book without restriction has been blocked out by the Australian government. The subject matter might be a bit too sensitive for me at the moment, considering it's literally a suicide manual and that makes me uncomfortable, but the fact that it's been banned so thoroughly in my country makes me interested in subverting that ban. That, or further researching the people who've authored this manual to understand their approach to euthanasia.

Alternatively, what's your take on the banning/censoring of literature in schools? The US has a bonkers amount of books that are challenged or banned every year, from Where the Wild Things Are to Fahrenheit 451 to The Hate U Give - the latter being banned due to being "anti-cop".

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Yes, I would. I'm also very strongly anti-censorship.

Depends on why it was banned and if it seems interesting.

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Was the anarchists cookbook banned?

I don't recall.

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When something is censored, I just want to see it more. Hell, I might not have cared for it if I didn't know it to be censored in the first place.

I have files full of nothing but shit that people tried to get taken down. Mostly porn.

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"Forbidden knowledge" shouldn't exist, as a concept.

MrMallard posted...

Alternatively, what's your take on the banning/censoring of literature in schools?

Public schools have to deal with busybodies and whiners of all sorts of ideologies. Still, it doesn't make those books "forbidden" at all.

reading never wins. don't read gang checking in

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How banned?

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I've read banned books before but nothing that contained classified information.
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Hype based on controversy often leads to dissapointment.

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Not only would I go out of my way, I'd masturbate and bust a nut between the pages so the next person who reads it has to deal with that.

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SubtletyRefuge posted...

Thatd be illegal in the UK.

Aren't spoons technically illegal in the UK?
https://www.foxnews.com/world/british-police-station-mocked-for-tweeting-photo-of-dangerous-knife-collection-that-includes-a-spoon

SubtletyRefuge posted...

As much as Id love to make fun of that, no, thats just a single out of place object.

That old tarnished silver spoon is probably worth more than the rest of that "contraband" combined, give or take the rapier.