The funny thing about this whole concept of "banned books," nowadays, is that the folks who seek to "ban" such book titles are usually simply trying to keep them out of a few school libraries in a single city or town somewhere, so as to prevent their underage children from reading them through the schools-- not that such book-banning activity isn't, generally speaking, an example of ill-advised, provincial, reactionary stupidity. In many cases, that is precisely what it is!
However, back in the 1930s and on up through the 1960s, the U.S. Federal Government was actually "banning" a fairly sizable number of particular books from being distributed ANYWHERE in the entire country. The customs officials were searching individuals, as well as bulk shipments, for such books at ports of entry into the U.S.A. and they were confiscating them as illegal contraband.
It was illegal to import such banned titles during those decades, either as a business enterprise hoping to offer them for resale, or privately for one's own personal collection. Moreover, I suspect that, in most situations, it was technically illegal for individuals to even possess such a book, if one of them happened to slip through the customs searches.
I wonder if there are any books that are currently "banned" from entry into the U.S.A. If there are, what would they contain? What would their subject matter be? Surely, such potential nationwide book banning couldn't be due, nowadays, to most examples of sexual explicitness. Although, I imagine, if it was an extreme "sexual explicitness" that involved photographic depictions of young children, either photographed with each other or with adults, then that would probably be currently banned.
Hmmm... Looking back at the history and at the momentum of this whole anti-book-banning movement, I suspect that someday, in the future, even this (highly disreputable) specialized area of publishing, involving its conflict between "freedom of the press" and censorship, may well become the next frontier to eventually be broken down and crossed through.
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The funny thing about this whole concept of "banned books," nowadays, is that the folks who seek to "ban" such book titles are usually simply trying to keep them out of a few school libraries in a single city or town somewhere, so as to prevent their underage children from reading them through the schools-- not that such book-banning activity isn't, generally speaking, an example of ill-advised, provincial, reactionary stupidity. In many cases, that is precisely what it is!
However, back in the 1930s and on up through the 1960s, the U.S. Federal Government was actually "banning" a fairly sizable number of particular books from being distributed ANYWHERE in the entire country. The customs officials were searching individuals, as well as bulk shipments, for such books at ports of entry into the U.S.A. and they were confiscating them as illegal contraband.
It was illegal to import such banned titles during those decades, either as a business enterprise hoping to offer them for resale, or privately for one's own personal collection. Moreover, I suspect that, in most situations, it was technically illegal for individuals to even possess such a book, if one of them happened to slip through the customs searches.
I wonder if there are any books that are currently "banned" from entry into the U.S.A. If there are, what would they contain? What would their subject matter be? Surely, such potential nationwide book banning couldn't be due, nowadays, to most examples of sexual explicitness. Although, I imagine, if it was an extreme "sexual explicitness" that involved photographic depictions of young children, either photographed with each other or with adults, then that would probably be currently banned.
Hmmm... Looking back at the history and at the momentum of this whole anti-book-banning movement, I suspect that someday, in the future, even this (highly disreputable) specialized area of publishing, involving its conflict between "freedom of the press" and censorship, may well become the next frontier to eventually be broken down and crossed through.
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