Circle Fully Turned: Fanny Hill Banned

The Atheist

The Grammar Tyrant
The Atheist
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Jul 3, 2006
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I just love the irony in this one - it took over 200 years to enable Poms to be able to print & buy Fanny Hill, but only 53 to get to a time when it's removed from a university because it might offend someone.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/world/news/article.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=11904416

If a book is good enough to survive hundreds of years, it's probably good enough to accept that if Snowflake gets upset by it, bring a hanky. Huck Finn, Fanny Hill... what next?
 
Yes, after all learning stuff has nothing to do with universities, and who wants to challenge their beliefs and values while learning, anyway?
 
The Atheist said:
I just love the irony in this one - it took over 200 years to enable Poms to be able to print & buy Fanny Hill, but only 53 to get to a time when it's removed from a university because it might offend someone.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/world/news/article.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=11904416

If a book is good enough to survive hundreds of years, it's probably good enough to accept that if Snowflake gets upset by it, bring a hanky. Huck Finn, Fanny Hill... what next?
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No - or at least that is not what the article links to, according to your linked article it has been removed from the curriculum of one course, in one university....
 
Darat said:
No - or at least that is not what the article links to, according to your linked article it has been removed from the curriculum of one course, in one university....
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It's exactly what the article links to. Given the age of the book and the class being taught, I'd be confident that it's the only course at that uni that will ever have had the book on its list.

And yes, it is only one university, which is why I used the singular indefinite article in my first line.

Anything else you want to be wrong about this morning?
 
The Atheist said:
It's exactly what the article links to. Given the age of the book and the class being taught, I'd be confident that it's the only course at that uni that will ever have had the book on its list.

And yes, it is only one university, which is why I used the singular indefinite article in my first line.

Anything else you want to be wrong about this morning?
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Why did you say fanny hill had been banned?

This signature is intended to irradiate people.
 
If you think New Zealand is bad when it comes to banning books, you should come to Tennessee.

I love visiting university libraries. (Well, who doesn't?) A few years ago I had dropped by Tennessee Tech in Cookeville to spend a couple of hours browsing, and I noticed a section where a lot of interesting older books had been placed. I asked a friend who worked at the library what was going on with those books and she explained that they were culling a lot of the books no one had checked out in a long time, and these books were being set aside to give professors a chance to see if any were ones they wanted to see kept. (A handful of the books did get rescued. Alas, the others did not.)

Can you imagine? These books didn't have graphic sex, or racial slurs, or words which rule 10 won't permit me to use here, they didn't even have words like fanny in their titles, and they were going to be, as the OP so eloquently describes it, banned!

I certainly hope that kind of thing doesn't happen anywhere else in the USA. (And this was long before Trump became president, so this is something which Trump can't be held responsible for.)
 
Nova Land said:
If you think New Zealand is bad when it comes to banning books, you should come to Tennessee.

I love visiting university libraries. (Well, who doesn't?) A few years ago I had dropped by Tennessee Tech in Cookeville to spend a couple of hours browsing, and I noticed a section where a lot of interesting older books had been placed. I asked a friend who worked at the library what was going on with those books and she explained that they were culling a lot of the books no one had checked out in a long time, and these books were being set aside to give professors a chance to see if any were ones they wanted to see kept. (A handful of the books did get rescued. Alas, the others did not.)

Can you imagine? These books didn't have graphic sex, or racial slurs, or words which rule 10 won't permit me to use here, they didn't even have words like fanny in their titles, and they were going to be, as the OP so eloquently describes it, banned!

I certainly hope that kind of thing doesn't happen anywhere else in the USA. (And this was long before Trump became president, so this is something which Trump can't be held responsible for.)
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Oh ffs. That's why Gawd invented microfishe machines, you ass.

Try getting ahold of the Beilstein Index in printed form. It fills a freaking library.
 
John Jones said:
Oh ffs. That's why Gawd invented microfishe machines, you ass.

Try getting ahold of the Beilstein Index in printed form. It fills a freaking library.
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I think you missed the sarcasm. I did have to read it twice myself, plus it helps to understand that the banning claimed by the OP never happened. Fanny Hill was removed from a reading list. It wasn't banned.
 
The Atheist said:
A difference that makes no difference is no difference.
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So true!

For instance, if a book has been removed from a library's collection it won't be there on the shelf for me to borrow and read when I visit. And if a book is currently checked out of the library it won't be on the shelf for me to borrow and read when I visit. Removed and borrowed are different but, as you say, a difference that makes no difference is no difference.

Oh, but hold on a sec…

If the book has been removed from a library's collection it won't be there on the shelf for me to borrow any time I visit the library. But if a book is currently checked out then it will be there for me to borrow if I visit the library after the person who borrowed it returns it. So in the latter instance I'd be able to read it after all. So I guess a difference which makes a difference is a difference.
 
It appears it's no longer required reading. Are all novels "banned" if students are not required to read them, in your view?

It seems that the controversy here is the reason for dropping it, which appears to be the current fashion for taking offence, usually on behalf of others, for things they might find troubling. Which some here seem to find troubling, and are consequently offended, on behalf of others.
 
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"Is it true, that a long time ago, liberals used to put out fires, and not burn books, as part of the belief that discussing controversial things in their historical context was a key ingredient of a quality education?"

"Put fires out? Who told you that?"

"Oh, I don't know, someone. But is it true? Did they?"

"Oh, what a strange idea."
 
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In the middle east, such as Egypt, the government censored incoming news feeds. Their rationale was that "the People could not handle the information unvarnished, and the government needed to protect them."


This is exactly what seems to be going on now. That exact same reason. To justify censorship.
 
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