‘Magic Tree House’ Author, ‘Calvin and Hobbes’ among hundreds of Tennessee book bans - PEN America
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The removals in Tennessee are the result of a growing political movement to control information through book banning.

Magic Tree House author Mary Pope Osborne, children’s poet Shel Silverstein and Calvin and Hobbes cartoonist Bill Watterson have joined Judy Blume, Sarah J. Maas, Eric Carle and Kurt Vonnegut on a mind-boggling list of hundreds of books purged from some Tennessee school libraries.

    • tnarg42@lemmy.worldEnglish
      1·
      8 days ago

      I have the “Complete Collection” box set, and I broke my 10 year-old son’s heart when, after he finished the whole thing, I had to tell him that there were no more. I think they made him a better kid.

    • Airowird@lemm.eeEnglish
      1·
      8 days ago

      Can’t have cartoons about questioning authority,those 8y olds might get ideas!

    • dhork@lemmy.worldEnglish
      1·
      8 days ago

      These people are going after anything that might imply nudity at all. I seem to remember Calvin had an immense hatred of baths. So once his mom finally got him in, poof, that now has to go, because he’s naked under all that water.

      I’m surprised they don’t just ban all visual art that depicts humans, since everyone is naked under their clothes.

      • I Cast Fist@programming.devEnglish
        1·
        8 days ago

        A small kid asking for a porn movie??? BAN THAT SHIT!!!

        Calling satanic powers?? JESUS FUCKING CHRIST BAN THIS HERETICAL SHIT!!!

      • pelespirit@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
        0·
        8 days ago

        I don’t think that’s it. It’s named after philosophers, the people banning aren’t always stupid. I bet Calvin seems like a left wing propagandist to them too.

        • dhork@lemmy.worldEnglish
          1·
          8 days ago

          You’re not wrong, in general. But in this specific case, in Tennessee, it’s specifically about the nudity.

          Any materials that “in whole or in part” contain any “nudity, or descriptions or depictions of sexual excitement, sexual conduct, excess violence, or sadomasochistic abuse” are inappropriate for all students and do not belong in a school library.

          It’s “nudity” of any type, which puts the Venus de Milo in the same category as Brazzers.

          • ouRKaoS@lemmy.todayEnglish
            1·
            7 days ago

            So the Bible is inappropriate for all students and there’s several parents I need to report…

            • Hazor@lemmy.worldEnglish
              1·
              7 days ago

              They were raised to be terrified of it, and so they raise their kids to be terrified of it, and the cycle perpetuates. It’s hard to break. The reasoning is usually that seeing nudity will tempt them to sin. As someone who abandoned his puritanical upbringing nearly 20 years ago, I still have a hard time just being ok with human bodies - even after being a nurse for some years, I’m still not entirely desensitized to nudity.