When Clay Jensen- a quiet, shy high school student- returns home from school one day to find a package from an anonymous person sitting on his doorstep, he opens it to discover a cassette tape recorded by a girl at his high school who had committed suicide and learns...
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...
It’s no secret that some serious and basic human rights are suspended, deferred, and outright denied for those caged at Guantánamo Bay, the United States’ military prison where it keeps its political prisoners. These violations also include the freedom to read. Clive Stafford Smith, the director of the charity...
This column has discussed book after book that has been banned and/or challenged for various reasons. Most incidents are the result of ignorance and intolerance, others may even be innocently well-intentioned; but what happens when entire libraries are threatened in order to serve the arrogant hatred of racism from...
William Golding’s debut novel follows a group of British schoolboys whose plane crashes on the shore of an uninhabited island. As well intentioned their attempt to cope with the situation and govern themselves may have been they instead regress to primal instincts and the mentality of humanity’s earliest hunter...
To join the elite group known as American Mensa a person must score among the top 2% of an “accepted standardized intelligence test”. To put it mildly, the members of Mensa are some of the smartest humans alive; so when it comes to all things academic they know what...
English author Neil Gaiman’s fan base spread worldwide with his critically acclaimed Sandman graphic novel series in the 1990s. Since then he has solidified his literary mark with equally-impressive and award-winning novels. Last week, however, his novel, Neverwhere, became the target of contention that has engulfed a New Mexico...
Another Banned Books Week has come and gone here in the “Land of the Free”. It comes with a mix of emotions for those at the center of the stand against censorship because this is an issue that exists 365 days a year, not just 7. While it is...
News Flash: It’s Banned Books Week here in the United States, you know: the land of the free- at least on paper. As usual, there is plenty of media attention on the American Library Association’s annual event to highlight censorship efforts and I take bittersweet pride in reporting on...
The Wild Party is the name of a novel-length poem written by Joseph Moncure March that was immediately banned across the nation, starting in Boston upon its publication in 1928, for its decadent content. In spite of- and perhaps due to- the controversy linked to the piece it was...