Burning Books

Burning Books
Image Courtesy of The Good Atheist

Thursday, October 21, 2010

Final post

 

Image courtesy of ALA banned book week 2010
Biblioclasm, Libricide  Book Censorship
Introduction
I chose this topic as one of my beliefs is that all people should have the right to read whatever they choose and that this choice should not be taken lightly. Those of us who have this choice should use it wisely.
My findings described below tour the words used to describe the destruction of books and the effects on society.
Biblioclasm
Biblioclasm sounds interesting right so let’s look at the dictionary meaning for biblioclasm which is “extreme criticism or destruction of books, especially the Bible”.
Libricide

Libricide  is kind of like pesticide but not quite the definition of libricide is the destruction ("killing") of books.
Book cover of Libricide by Rebecca Knuth

An example of Biblioclasm and Libricide is to burn books. In Nazi Germany books were burnt because they were written by Jewish authors or contained any political or cultural content that could have been seen as “Un –German”. More than 25,000 volumes were burned on one night, May 10th 1933.


Image Courtesy of United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
Book Censorship
Even the most evolved society still feels the need to control what its people should or should not be reading. Australia is no different our current censorship act of parliament is to restrict any publication/film or computer game if it "advocates terrorist acts".
Book banning is the most common form of book censorship. Books are banned for a large number of reasons:  
  • Supernatural content
  • Swearing/coarse or foul language
  • Sexual content
  • Racial content
  • Religous or anti religous content
  • Drug abuse
  • Child abuse


Effects on society
In our ever changing society the role of a simple book, its contents and the ability to read has been and still is a way to influence how our society acts, thinks and does.  Wars have been fought over what one little book has said over what another book condemns, and is it fiction or non-fiction, does it contain supernatural or religious themes. All books are precious and reflect our society and culture past, future and present .
Cultural Heritage - By destroying a culturally significant collection such as the Jaffna Library in Sri Lanka, you destroy more than just paper and words you destroy that regions cultural heritage. 


All items in the Jaffna library were destroyed with no way of replacement. This irreplaceable written/visual heritage gone because of civil unrest, politics and simply being afraid of knowledge contained with the library.
Happily the Jaffna library has been restored to its former glory, the original collection was destroyed but with lots of support from other libraries a new collection is evolving.

Knowledge - Any destruction of books or collections/libraries is a destruction of knowledge. Knowledge is power and it is often for this reason that Libricide occurs, someone already in power is afraid of the populace uprising and overthrowing that power.

Destruction of books/libraries during times of crisis is an easy target to inflame the opposing cause, books are the innocent bystander.


Freedom of choice -This would have to be the greatest of all the effects on society, loss of freedom to choose for oneself to be told what you can or can't do, read, see and learn. Book banning or removal of certain titles because of content is the worst way to take away an individual freedom of choice.  To lose this freedom is not something I a western educated female in a non third world country could even imagine or being to understand. I love to read and the opportunity to read anything is a great privilege.


Image courtesy Cocking a snook blog
Religious Persecution – Burning of religious texts by a different religious group has occurred throughout history as a way of attacking that religion and those people who believe in that religion. Burning of religious texts has been beginning of many wars and certainly an easy target which still goes on today.


Conclusion


Books are life changing, informative/educational. The freedom to choose what to read, the ability to use the knowledge gained to improve oneself should be a basic human right. Unfortunately even today the ability to read and to choose what to read is a luxury that many will not achieve. Whether by government, or other ruling bodies the right to read and/or to choose what to read can be taken away to keep the population under the government  rule by taking away either or both of these rights the population doesn’t think for itself, doesn’t dream,  imagine or learn about the rest of the world. 
Reflection
On the whole the blogging process is not one that works for me. To me this process made my research feel disjointed and at many points I felt lost and overwhelmed. Having to post something every week was a struggle and a little confusing to my usual process of collection and then collation based on usefulness and relevance, finally writing up my findings ready to present. The weekly blog was a rush of this process.


I can see how useful a blog can be to convey information in such a way that is easily navigated, added to,  and commented on allowing the viewer to interact.Such information as events, book reviews and the like are easily placed in this format and I can see why so many libraries use blogs for these purposes.

References
Duthie, Fiona,  2010 "Libraries and the Ethics of Censorship." Australian Library Journal 59, no. 3: 86-94. Australia/New Zealand Reference Centre,  EBSCOhost  (accessed October 20 2010).
Knuth, Rebecca, 2003, Libricide : the regime-sponsored destruction of books and libraries in the twentieth century, Praeger, Westport, Conn.

‘Book Burning’ 2010, Holocaust Encyclopedia, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, viewed October 20 2010, <http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10005852>.
Burning of Jaffna library’ 2010, Wikipedia, viewed October 2010, <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burning_of_Jaffna_library>.

Australasian Legal Information Institute, CLASSIFICATION (PUBLICATIONS, FILMS AND COMPUTER GAMES) ACT 1995 - SECT 5, viewed October 20, 2010, <http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/legis/cth/consol_act/cfacga1995489/s5.html#publication>.

Cockingasnook, 2007, “Banned Books Week” Needs More Than Celebration This Year, 23 September 2007, viewed October 20 2010, <http://cockingasnook.wordpress.com/2007/09/23/happy-banned-books-week-2007/>.
American Library Association, 2010, ‘Banned Books Week: Celebrating the Freedom to Read’, viewed October 20, 2010 <http://www.ala.org/ala/issuesadvocacy/banned/bannedbooksweek/ideasandresources/free_downloads/2010banned.pdf>.

Thursday, October 7, 2010

Biblioclasm, Libricide & Book Censorship Effects on Society

For this post I will be looking at effects on society

Cultural Heritage - By destroying a culturally significant collection such as the Jaffna Library in Sri Lanka, you destroy more than just paper and words you destroy that regions cultural heritage. All items in the Jaffna library were destroyed with no way of replacement. This irreplaceable written/visual heritage gone because of civil unrest, politics and simply being afraid of knowledge contained with the library.

Knowledge - Any destruction of books or collections/libraries is a destruction of knowledge. Knowledge is power and it is often for this reason that Libricide occurs, someone already in power is afraid of the populace uprising and overthrowing that power.

Blog: Banned Books
http://bannedbooks-group.blogspot.com/2009/10/what-did-you-read-during-banned-books.html
 Viewed 7/10/2010

Freedom of choice -This would have to be the greatest of all the effects on society, loss of freedom to choose for oneself to be told what you can or can't do, read, see and learn. To lose this freedom is not something I a western educated female in a non third world country could even imagine or being to understand. I love to read and the opportunity to read anything is a great privilege.

A good example is the Nazi regime burning books.

YouTube video: Dr. Goebbels Burns the Books http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jF5kMVIolYw&feature=related
Viewed 7/10/2010




 

Religious Persecution – Burning of religious texts by a different religious group has occurred throughout history as a way of attacking that religion and those people who believe in that religion. Burning of religious texts has been beginning of many wars and certainly an easy target which still goes on today.

Article: IRAN – The Burning of Hundreds of Bibles by the Government Security Forces
http://www.fcnn.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=1522:iran-the-burning-of-hundreds-of-bibles-by-the-government-security-forces&catid=127:iranian-christian&Itemid=593
 Viewed 7/10/2010


Article: Holy Smoke! QUT Man Tokes On Koran
http://www.australianews.com.au/australia/queensland/darlingdowns/toowoomba/story?cityid=9901bdf5-f527-4b68-852d-149172949fd4&storyid=c7fb8d78-afb7-4c3d-9d35-4f2d761900e5
Viewed 7/10/2010

Article: Burning Books: Thoughts Without Thinking
http://www.basilandspice.com/journal/92010-burning-books-thoughts-without-thinking.html
Viewed 7/10/2010

Reflection: Today's post got me to think about how important books are to our society, past present and future. Not only do books teach us, they expand our awareness of others, imagination is invoked and generally we see ourselves as part of a whole. Take the right to read away and humanity is reduced to acting like sheep, not thinking for ourselves just towing the line.

Process review: Today's post is on effects on society, I think I have covered the biggest effects on society. I tried to find a interesting link, article, video or image to go with each effect. I didn't want to repost the Jaffna library story again but I think in the final presentation this needs to be part of the cutural heritage section.

Friday, September 24, 2010

Sorting of research - collation of ideas

Got a little off track over the last few weeks so for those still interesting. Here goes a fresh start.

I set out to find out about each word i.e Libricide, Biblioclasm, Book Censorship.

I have learn't that Biblioclasm and libricide are very similar one meaning the the extreme criticism or destruction of books(see Link 1) and the other meaning the destruction of books(see Link 2). Book censorship falls in between, being straight out criticism in the form of not allowing books to be read because of content.

Link 1 Definition of Biblioclasm
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/biblioclasm?qsrc=2446

Link 2 Definition of Libricide
http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/libricide

And then what effects these types of book destruction and criticism have had, are having on society.

This is still a work in progress and everytime I search the internet another article or item of interest is found. Books effect so many lives in so many different ways.

Recently I came across this item about the Jaffna Library in Sri Lanka(Link 3). On May 31, 1981 a mob of paramilitias and police during a time of great civil unrest set fire to the Jaffna pubic library destroying the library and its 97,000 volumes including many cuturally and regionally irreplaceable items.

Image courtesy of http://www.answers.com/topic/burning-of-jaffna-library
Link 3:  Full Story of the Jaffna public library destruction
http://www.answers.com/topic/burning-of-jaffna-library

This recent destruction which I had never heard of got me interested in how many other libraries have been destroy and if any more recent destruction had occured.  The answer (Link 4) is unfortunately yes the most recent destruction was in Iraq in National Library and Archive in 2003 during the Iraq war. As in most wars libraries are an innocent bystander with no defence and are usually targeted by mistake as a government building.

Link 4: Timeline of Libraries that have been destroyed.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Destruction_of_libraries

The Jaffna public library has been restored to its fomerly glory after 20 years of neglect and some shelling damage. With international help the collection is also being restored.

Next posting will go further into effects on society and hopefully help me work out how everything ties together.

Thursday, September 2, 2010

Recent exhibitions relating to banned books


http://arts.monash.edu.au/ecps/conferences/deprave-and-corrupt/


While research banned books in Australia,  I came across this book titled "The little red school book" that caused alot of controversy in the early 1970's, this one book got the entire Australian population up in arms.

http://www.guba.com/watch/3000095780/The-Book-That-Shook-The-World
Video

http://nla.gov.au/nla.aus-vn4512714
Digital copy of “The little red school book”
Hansen, Soren. The little red school book [electronic resource]. [by] Soren Hansen and Jesper Jenson ; Translated from Danish by Berit Thornberry, 1973.

By watching the video and looking at the content of the book, I can see that if this book was to be published now it wouldn't even get a mention in a newspaper or news broadcast. Most student run newspapers cover the type of topics that appear in "The little red school book" and these are widely accepted and not a all controversial.
Apparently the current Australian classification act:
"Classification (Publications, Films and Computer Games) Act 1995"
Will restrict any publication/film or computer game if it "advocates terrorist acts"
http://www.comlaw.gov.au/ComLaw/Legislation/ActCompilation1.nsf/0/0C5B4BE98AF769E1CA25775F007C2EA7?OpenDocument

 Reflection time:

As I dig deeper into my chosen topics I find more and more information and links that take me to information I had no knowledge of before I started this. I 'm just now feeling overwhelmed by what I thought was a straight forward topic. I keep getting caught up each time I research in what seems a small alley that opens up into an ocean of information, that drowns me and so thoroughly absorbs me that I find it hard to put together a small amount of what I find here on this blog to present to you.  I can only hope that my content so far is interesting and ina somewhat logical progression, if not please comment :)

Tuesday, August 24, 2010

Book Burning research
Photograph of Nazi's burning books and associated links via ALA site

Book Burning in the 20th Century—1933, ALA, viewed 24th August,
http://www.ala.org/ala/aboutala/offices/oif/bannedbooksweek/bookburning/20thcentury/nazigermany/nazigermany.cfm.


Found a poll & discussion thread on about.com under a forum called children's books
Titled 'Who should Censor Your Children's Books? ' This  discussion thread makes for interesting reading.

childrensbooksADM,Jan 06 02 06:03 PM, viewed 24th August 2010,
http://forums.about.com/n/pfx/forum.aspx?tsn=1&nav=messages&webtag=ab-chldrnsbooks&tid=170
.

Friday, August 13, 2010

Research begins

Libricide: “the killing of a book”.

At the moment research on Libricide is pointing towards author Rebecca Knuth and her book
`Libricide : the regime-sponsored destruction of books and libraries in the twentieth century`
published in 2003
Knuth, Rebecca, 2003,Libricide : the regime-sponsored destruction of books and libraries in the twentieth century,Praeger,Westport, Conn.

For book censorhip

Using The Australian Library Journal via GALE databases
I found an interesting transcript of an interview with author Pearce Carefoote, ( released book 'Forbidden Fruit: Banned, Censored and Challenged Books from Dante to Harry Potter' in 2007) who states "Book banning is on the wane in Western liberal societies, but the number of challenges against books has never been higher"

Challenges to books on the rise, author says (Broadcast transcript),Nov 26, 2007, The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC), Viewed August 13th, 2010, from General OneFile via Gale:
http://find.galegroup.com.ezproxy.lib.swin.edu.au/gps/start.doprodId=IPS&userGroupName=swinburne1


Even found a website that maps books banned across the USA
http://bannedbooksweek.org/Mapofbookcensorship.html
I have not yet found a similar a site for Australia.

Book Bans and Challenges, 2007-2010,viewed 13th August,
http://bannedbooksweek.org/Mapofbookcensorship.html

Tuesday, August 10, 2010

Hi all

This my very first blog, so be gentle with your comments :)

The topic for this blog  is based on a research topic 'book burnings and the history of censorship' for my course research skills 2.
Starting point for my research was to find a definition of book burning or biblioclasm/libricide, other forms of book censorship
From there i hope to find the history of biblioclasm and how this effects society as a form of censorship.
The why is most most interesting angle so I'll combine this too...