10 great science fiction novels that have been banned

[Swede]

In honor of Banned Books Week, Geekosystem's Susana Polo looks at 10 great science fiction novels that have been banned, or at least threatened with removal from libraries and schools. Including some major classics of the genre!

These titles are among the most popular and beloved science fiction works of the last century. They've told us how bad the future might be before we get there, how free you can be if you don't follow blind belief, and that children are perfectly capable of digesting some pretty heavy concepts, actually. But they've all been banned or threatened with banning.

http://io9.com/5653504/10-great-science-fiction-novels-that-have-been-banned?skyline=true&s=i

[phasma ex machina]

1. Fahrenheit 451, Those Who Don’t Build Must Burn

Ray Bradbury wrote his dystopian novel Fahrenheit 451 in 1950. Most kids were required to read this book when they were seventeen years old. Having just re-read the novel at the age of forty-seven makes you realize how little you knew at seventeen. It is 165 pages of keen insights into today’s American society. Bradbury’s hedonistic dark future has come to pass. His worst fears have been realized. The American public has willingly chosen to be distracted and entertained by electronic gadgets 24 hours per day. Today, reading books is for old fogies. Most people think Bradbury’s novel was a warning about censorship. It was not. It was a warning about TV and radio turning the minds of Americans to mush.



It is now sixty years later and his warning went unheeded. A self imposed ignorance by a vast swath of Americans is reflected in these statistics:

• 33% of high school graduates never read another book for the rest of their lives.


• 42% of college graduates never read another book after college.


• 80% of U.S. families did not buy or read a book last year.


• 70% of U.S. adults have not been in a bookstore in the last five years.


• 57% of new books are not read to completion.


• There are over 17,000 radio stations and over 2,000 TV stations in America today.


• Each day in the U.S., people spend on average 4.7 hours watching TV, 3 hours listening to the radio and 14 minutes reading magazines.


• The projected average number of hours an individual (12 and older) will spend watching television this year is 1,750.


• In a 65-year life, the average person will have spent 9 years glued to the tube.


• Number of 30-second TV commercials seen in a year by an average child - 20,000


• Number of videos rented daily in the U.S. - 6 million


• Number of public library items checked out daily - 3 million


• Percentage of Americans who can name The Three Stooges - 59%


• Percentage who can name at least three justices of the U.S. Supreme Court - 17%

When Ray Bradbury wrote his novel in the basement of the UCLA library on a pay per hour typewriter, television was in its infancy. In 1945 there were only 10,000 television sets in all of America. By 1950, there were 6 million sets. The US population was 150 million living in 43 million households. Only 9% of these households had a TV. There was one TV for every 25 people. Americans read books and newspapers to be aware of their world. Today, there are 335 million television sets in the country. The US population is 310 million living in 115 million households. There is a TV in 99% of these households, with an average of 3 TVs per household. Your reality is whatever the corporate media decides is your reality. ...(link)

[Gabi Hayes]

6. Bradbury is in the throes of wingnut/senile dementia, btw:

[phasma ex machina]

7. National Medal of Arts honorees are selected by the National Endowment for the Arts nt.

[Gabi Hayes]

8. so? he's still a senile wingnut.

think I'm making it up?

[Gabi Hayes]

9. I got the picture from freeperville, btw.

from a thread which drooled over his most excellence

[phasma ex machina]

14. You know what? This is DU. I'm not really interested in what goes on at other sites.

If you want to burn Bradbury's books because of his politics that's your business.

[Name removed]

15. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[phasma ex machina]

19. Bradbury's dreckful ... got it. nt

[Gabi Hayes]

34. goody for you! at least you get something

small step for a man....

[Frank Cannon]

42. Ray Bradbury has always been one of my favorite authors

But there is no denying that he has turned into a rabid wingnut of late. You almost can't believe it's the same guy who wrote Fahrenheit 451 or the Martian Chronicles. It's like he's had a head transplant.

[phasma ex machina]

46. Bradbury also bashes the Inet and by extension me. He's entitled to his own misguided opinions.

Bradbury's "off topic" opinions do not diminish my enjoyment of his opus in the least.

Dissent beats living in a world of goose stepping locked down group think.

Given the premise about Americans outsourcing their thinking to corporate media, it seems doubtful that many young Americans even recognize the name Bradbury, let alone his politics.

[Delphinus]

51. That is

quite disconcerting - that's he's a wingnut senile freeper.

[Hekate]

27. How old are you? How many of his books have you read? He's 90 and has 500+ publications...

Nowhere in them do I see a right wing nut. In Fahrenheit 451 I see social criticism on par with Brave New World and 1984. Something Wicked this Way Comes is a spooky/scary coming of age story about two 13-y.o. boys complete with themes of good vs evil.

The old man had a stroke in 1999, and you can see the effects of it and age in the photo you provided. Yet he continues to write, publish, and speak.

What should he have done when presented with this medal? Thrown it in the President's face? The Bushes didn't make the choice -- a committee did. Bush politics have exactly zero to do with Bradbury's genius as an American writer.

Go. Read. Bradbury's. Books.

Hekate

[Forkboy]

31. Read them all. He's a great author. He's also batshit insane these days.

Not Hannity type crazy, but Right Wing crazy, for sure. Just read an interview with him the other day. He's nuts when it comes to politics. Sue me.

[Gabi Hayes]

36. I liked his stuff when I was a KID.

I liked comic books, too, but I moved on

when's the last time you've read anything he's written?

embarrassing, mostly, especially his later stuff

waste of time

as for his medal:

what would you do if you had to get something from a monster like Bush. I'd either not take it, or create a scene while accepting it, like any sentient human would...

do a little checking. he's become a wingnut tool

as I mentioned above, that picture of him is from FR. you think they'd be showing a picture of, say, Harry Belafonte getting his medal, and extolling his virtues?

[Prophet 451]

49. He's in his nineties

I tend to cut the guy a little slack for the ravages of age.

[Merlot]

54. Every time I see a pic of laura bush I get creeeped out by her eyes

They just don't look real is the only way I can explain it.

[kentauros]

17. "Percentage of Americans who can name The Three Stooges"

You mean all six? Moe Howard, Shemp Howard, Curly Howard, Larry Fine, Joe Besser and Joe (Curly-Joe) DeRita ;)
And yes, I learned that by reading it, in a comic book about them :D

I'd have to dig through eight long boxes of b&w comics to find it, though I won't find it in the European or Japanese comics collection. It's probably in with the "Murder Can Be Fun" comics... Probably not what you were expecting from a comic book reader (as I look at my four bookcases full of books...)

:hi:

[phasma ex machina]

23. That reminds me.

I got an unopened mint condition of this title with Shat smiling on an alternative limited edition cover.



Shat recently got his picture taken with Bradbury before performing "Leviathan '99", which can only mean that Shat too is a senile wingnut.

:crazy:

[kentauros]

24. I'm not familiar with everything Bradbury wrote

so your last bit there probably went over my head ;)

And I have never 'collected' comics to leave them unopened and unread (though plenty are unread due to buying more than I could read in one sitting; I don't want to turn into the Flaming Carrot :P)

Of the very collectible comics I do own are the first three copies of "Uncensored Mouse", a collection of the Mickey Mouse comic strips from the 1930s. It was assumed by the publisher that those particular comics were in the public domain, but as we know with Disney where Mickey is concerned, there's no such thing! And Mickey wasn't the squeaky-clean character back then as he is today }(

[phasma ex machina]

26. The entertainment industry twists copywrite law and uses the FBI to intimidate DVD viewers.

America's fascist oligarchical government sucks.

[Brother Buzz]

28. There were seven stooges. Joe Palma should be recognized for his contribution

On a stretch, you could even say there were eight stooges if you included Fred Sanborn from the early Healy years. I read this years ago in a library book, but I had to peer into one of the internets to find the actual names because my mind is not unlike Swiss cheese these days.

[kentauros]

29. Did they film and air the Healy years, though?

I think that's the six this comic book was referring to, and the six most people are likely to know, if they know more than Moe, Larry and Curly. Sanborn sounds familiar, as I know I've read about those early years, but can't remember much.

This is kind of like naming all of the Marx Brothers. Many can name three (Harpo, Groucho and Chico) but Zeppo rarely comes up and Gummo, never ;)

[Brother Buzz]

39. Film, yes. Television, no

Ted Healy years were MGM. Three Stooges were with Columbia. All the television stuff is Columbia.


All the Marx Brothers names roll off my tongue easy, but that is my bailiwick.

[kentauros]

41. I think TCM has played some of the Healy films,

but I wasn't in the right mood to watch, so I've missed them. I guess I'll have to look online...

I read somewhere that the Marx Brothers determined they could do comedy as their act when they made an insulting joke about Texas in Nacogdoches and got laughter instead of boos :D

[Forkboy]

32. This is why I love you!

:D

[kentauros]

35. Thanks!

:hi:

[demmiblue]

2. "The Giver" is an excellent book...

but I liked, "Gathering Blue," even more. These are two great books for DU parents of young teens.

Thanks, Swede! Bookmarked.

[woodsprite]

3. The Giver was required reading for my daughter in middle school

a couple years ago. This year her reading was "The Stranger", "Hunger Games" and "Crime and Punishment" so far.

Thanks for the list! We're struggling with getting our son interested in reading. He can do it, but just doesn't like it. Maybe we can find something that will light up his passion for reading.

[demmiblue]

45. The Artemis Fowl series by Eoin Colfer might pique his interest.

Fun fact: Eoin Colfer wrote the sixth book of the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy trilogy.

[BlueIris]

10. I need to read more Lois Lowry; Number the Stars was so long ago. nt

[XemaSab]

38. I have Number the Stars signed in hardback

:D

[hfojvt]

13. I disagree, at least about the Giver

cannot say about "Gathering Blue". I think when I was a young teen that I was reading Asimov. When my niece was a young teen she was reading "Sophie's world". I cannot remember what I was reading in Junior high though. Perhaps it was more non-fiction. Books about Mars and dinosaurs and such.

[Nevernose]

50. IIRC, "The Giver" was actually written as a short story for adults

But, since there's little market for short stories these days, she marketed it to publishers as a children's novel. At least that's what I've heard; seems feasible.

And agreed: awesome book, and a science fiction book that even people who hate science fiction will enjoy.

[Dead_Parrot]

4. OK, so there's two of those I don't have

I shall add The Giver and Shade's Children to my shelves ASAP: They must be good...

[uppityperson]

5. They are. I read them when my kid was in school and we recently bought them again.

Garth Nix is a wonderful writer, as is Lois Lowry. Their review of "the giver" is weird, the book is so much more. Quite interesting and suddenly there is an "aha!" moment, or a "wtf? now I have to read it again" moment.

[Dead_Parrot]

21. I hate books like that

which is why I must read them. Dammit.

[hfojvt]

11. The Giver has won awards, IIRC

but it's not very good IMO. Just strange and dark. If you want some good science fiction for a grade school reader try the "My teacher is an alien" series by Bruce Coville, or "If I had one wish" by Jackie French Koller. Heck, almost anything by Christopher Pike would be better.

[Dead_Parrot]

20. Wait, what?

[kentauros]

30. !!

:rofl:

[Swamp Rat]

12. I've read seven of them (not the first three)

I read some of those books while I was still in elementary school, and many others by Poe, H.P. Lovecraft, etc. :shrug:

I've got multiple copies of the Bradbury, Heinlein, and Orwell novels, and probably Vonnegut too. I'll be sure to quietly 'donate' them to a few school libraries.

[lame54]

16. I love slaughterhouse five

[Skip Intro]

18. What do you mean banned? Does that mean that I cannot purchase these books? nt

[Odin2005]

22. Idiocracy at it's most pathetic.

[ismnotwasm]

25. I haven't read the first two

On my list for immediate consumption.

[proteus_lives]

33. I've read all of those books except for #1.

Which I'll be looking for.

[murielm99]

37. Has anyone ever read "The Day They Came to Arrest the

Book?"

It is a great story about censorship in high school.

My son was always a non-fiction reader. I think that is great, but I thought he was missing out on a lot of good books. I can't remember why he asked me to find that one for him. He loved it and could not put it down. I think many of the adults here would feel the same way. I recommend it highly.

[Tx4obama]

40. 1984

A few years ago when I was staying in Italy for an extended period of time I gave English lessons to an Italian high-school student.
Her class was reading/studying George Orwell's ''1984''.
That is when I realized (somewhere on the planet earth) that any book that is banned there is always going to be places in the world where people will be discovering ALL books that have ever been written.
Once a book as been unleashed upon the world it will always be 'out there' somewhere and someone will be reading it ;)

p.s. Yes, I know that what I typed up above is grammatically incorrect - too much rum and coke tonight and I can barely see my keyboard ;)

[hobbit709]

43. Read 8 out of the 10.

[blindpig]

44. I wonder...

how 'The Sheep Look Up', by John Brunner, didn't make the cut.


Stop killing me!

[ProdigalJunkMail]

47. I LOVED L'Engle's work

A Wrinkle in Time as a kid. it was wonderful. so good in fact that i bought a copy to have as an adult.

sP

[JitterbugPerfume]

48. there is a couple of them I haven't read

but I will

[McCamy Taylor]

52. Some of the books are too "mature" for grade school.

But "A Wrinkle in Time"? "Farenheit 451?" We read those in class when I was in elementary and middle school. And "1984" used to be the darling of the right wing. My, how times change.

How about fantasy? Anyone trying to remove Tolkein? Or the oh so Christian C.S. Lewis?

[Motown_Johnny]

53. Anyone who would even consider banning "Stranger In A Strange Land"

will never fully Grok

[TBF]

55. I don't read much science fiction - but I loved that book.

Lois Lowry is very good as well. They should be required reading rather than banned.