Will Wilkinson - Latest Comments in What Books Would You Ban?

Re: What Books Would You Ban?

christine — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 15:00:51 -0000

Stewart Home, Jack Ketchum and other total crap. I am more movie banner than book banner, though.

Re: What Books Would You Ban?

Tara — Wed, 17 Sep 2008 20:22:21 -0000

From the public library?

Ban 'em all.

If people want to read books, they can buy them themselves.

Re: What Books Would You Ban?

Jason111213 — Wed, 17 Sep 2008 11:25:18 -0000

I think everyone is missing the most obvious crap to ban: worthless politcal tracts written by people like Hannity, Coulter, Moore, O'Reilly, etc. How could anyone propose banning Rand, the Koran, Nietzsche, Cervantes, Keynes, or Dostoevsky before this garbage?

Re: What Books Would You Ban?

Anonymous Today — Tue, 16 Sep 2008 14:06:04 -0000

The Bible, Torah, Koran, and every other book that people use to teach children that there is, as George Carlin put it:

"an invisible man living in the sky who watches everything you do, every minute of every day. And the invisible man has a special list of ten things he does not want you to do. And if you do any of these ten things, he has a special place, full of fire and smoke and burning and torture and anguish, where he will send you to live and suffer and burn and choke and scream and cry forever and ever 'til the end of time!"

Re: What Books Would You Ban?

Matt — Tue, 16 Sep 2008 10:15:22 -0000

Anything by Al Gore.

Re: What Books Would You Ban?

Richard — Mon, 15 Sep 2008 18:38:28 -0000

I would ban books that are largely inoffensive and very popular. I would do this to spur resistance to the idea of banning books. However, that probably violates your supposition that I favor book-banning.

But then, I think the "lame" resistance to counterfactuals is not lame at all. It's usually the counterfactuals that are lame. If you find it annoying that some people don't respond according to your preferences, then find a different technique.

Re: What Books Would You Ban?

NicoleTedesco — Mon, 15 Sep 2008 09:33:25 -0000

If I had to ban books, I would make up a few authors and titles of books I would WANT written then simply say they were banned. Good Grief, what a conspiracy! People would look everywhere and not find those titles anywhere--how effective was I at banning those books! I would imagine that real authors would write similar books just to cash in on the resulting clamor.

Golly, this sounds like a great business plan...

Re: What Books Would You Ban?

NicoleTedesco — Mon, 15 Sep 2008 09:31:32 -0000

[delete me]

Re: What Books Would You Ban?

$54123764 — Mon, 15 Sep 2008 03:20:07 -0000

"The Future of the Internet - And How To Stop It" by Jonathon Zittrain.

Re: What Books Would You Ban?

Michael — Sun, 14 Sep 2008 22:33:35 -0000

Where to start, where to start? Ayn Rand, Ann Coulter, Michael Moore, Dinesh D'Souza, Lenin, most self-help books, Sophie's World, anything pop-Buddhist, anything of the Tom Clancy/John Grisham/Sydney Sheldon genre and much much more!

This has revealed an authoritarian streak in me.

Re: What Books Would You Ban?

Greg S. — Sun, 14 Sep 2008 20:38:12 -0000

"People's History of the United States" by Howard Zinn

Of course I haven't read it, but I find those that have extremely annoying.

Re: What Books Would You Ban?

Ryan — Sun, 14 Sep 2008 18:25:00 -0000

I can't believe no one has mentioned Keynes' General Theory book. I'd ban that one. Also, I would be on board with banning any book advocating socialism, or any other form of collectivism.

Re: What Books Would You Ban?

Snorri Godhi — Sun, 14 Sep 2008 09:55:35 -0000

What about the Iliad? Lots of gratuitous violence, and the idea that our destiny is in the hands of the gods undermines personal responsibility.

Re: What Books Would You Ban?

greenish — Sun, 14 Sep 2008 06:15:46 -0000

No! Censors frequently don't read or see what they ban - get in character!

Re: What Books Would You Ban?

Steve M. — Sun, 14 Sep 2008 04:35:12 -0000

Query: must I have read the book in question in its entirety? It would seem only fair.

Re: What Books Would You Ban?

tomhanna — Sun, 14 Sep 2008 02:57:36 -0000

If I were banning books, I would go for horribly written pretentious garbage like Heart of Darkness.

Re: What Books Would You Ban?

Jason Malloy — Sat, 13 Sep 2008 23:57:37 -0000

The Mismeasure of Man. The whole enormous genre of behavior genetic/psychometric/sociobiology bashing propaganda.

Re: What Books Would You Ban?

jl — Sat, 13 Sep 2008 22:59:06 -0000

Everything by Jacques Derrida, Stanley Fish, Martin Heidegger, Betty Friedan, Herbert Marcuse, Howard Zinn, and Edward Said.

Every book with the word "afrocentric" in it's title that isn't immediately followed by the word "bullshit".

Re: What Books Would You Ban?

Jason Kuznicki — Sat, 13 Sep 2008 22:33:39 -0000

I'd make Lenin required reading. He's so awful, people would be turned away from communism forever.

Re: What Books Would You Ban?

TotalitarianismKillz — Sat, 13 Sep 2008 21:06:45 -0000

Mein Kampf
The Protocols of the Elders of Zion
Collected Works, Joseph Stalin

Re: What Books Would You Ban?

Riz — Sat, 13 Sep 2008 21:01:02 -0000

Don Quixote and anything by P.G Wodehouse - how many potential writers have discouraged by the brilliance of these works!

Re: What Books Would You Ban?

Terabyte — Sat, 13 Sep 2008 20:59:48 -0000

"Farenheit 451" - and I'm not just going for irony. I really think Ray Bradbury is a bad writer.

Re: What Books Would You Ban?

MikeWebkist — Sat, 13 Sep 2008 20:54:35 -0000

You're onto something. I'll add "The Secret", "Men are from Mars...", etc. The self-help genre can probably stay but anything based on some sort of ridiculous spirituality or reductionist sexuality is out.

Re: What Books Would You Ban?

august — Sat, 13 Sep 2008 20:10:50 -0000

Curious -- pretend the instruction was, "Write something offensive." And you added that beginning philosophy students always refused to write something offensive, but that just showed that they didn't know how to play ball. Would it then be morally acceptable to write offensive things?

Re: What Books Would You Ban?

K. Larson — Sat, 13 Sep 2008 19:15:34 -0000

[i] The Glass Bead Game [/i] by Hesse.