The Angelica Library, in Rome, is a public library located next to the church of Sant’Agostino. Among its numerous shelves of original and fragile manuscripts dating back centuries exists a very important collection that the Catholic Church hid from public view since 1559- the Index Librorum Prohibitorum, or List...
Religion
Banned Books Awareness: Singapore’s Culture War
Singapore’s National Library Board has been busy as of late- stopping citizens from reading. Books and comics have been on their hit list because they contain same-sex issues in their content. The organization last week withdrew from libraries the books and Tango Makes Three, which has been covered previously,...
Banned Books Awareness: “East of Eden”
Published in 1952, East of Eden is often heralded as his most ambitious novel and was originally addressed to Steinbeck’s sons- 6 and 4 at the time- because he wanted to describe Salinas Valley in detail for them through the complex tale of two families. Steinbeck is the author...
Banned Books Awareness: “The Hindus: An Alternative History”
Academics, writers, and lawyers have voiced strong opposition to the withdrawal of American scholar Wendy Doniger’s book, The Hindus: An Alternative History, following a settlement between the publisher Penguin, a division of Random House, and a complainant group, Shiksha Bachao Andolan Samiti. Under the settlement, all copies of the...
Banned Books Awareness: Censorship at Guantánamo Bay (Part 2)
Aside from the complete lack of due process and blatant disregard for religious liberty, human rights and amnesty groups continue to be baffled by the random and apparently arbitrary reasoning behind what publications are and are not allowed to be read by detainees within the walls of the United...
Banned Books Awareness: “The House of Gold”
The Irish Censorship of Publications Board was established in 1929 by the newly-formed Irish Free State (boy, isn’t that a contradiction in terms) to examine and restrict ‘obscene’ publications. Liam O’Flaherty’s The House of Gold had coincidentally been released that same year and enjoyed a brief time in print...
Banned Books Awareness: “The Wonderful Wizard of Oz”
When someone mentions The Wizard of Oz many no doubt imagine families gathered around the television to share in the full-color glory of this timeless classic; but did you know that the book that the beloved movie is adapted from has been in the sights of censors since it...
Ditch the flowers this Valentine’s Day and plant a tree
On February 14 in many countries around the world candy, flowers, and gifts are exchanged between loved ones in the name of St. Valentine. Couples will dine and many a flower shop will be visited today while some people- as a good friend once put it- will sit back...
Banned Books Awareness: How Google’s Content Filters Amount to Censorship
I had heard stories over the years of how Google was just another evil internet empire, but it wasn’t until diving into research concerning those claims in the wake of a personal situation between Google’s Policy Police and myself that I fully understood just how evil this company is....
Google, Inc. can kiss my ass!
Well, folks, it has been brought to my personal attention that Google, Inc. has, as a company, a philosophy that is misogynist and offended by any talk of women’s reproductive issues. Their conservative philosophy is such that they have resorted to an authoritarian level of censorship on any websites...