Log In

Home
    - Create Journal
    - Update
    - Download

LiveJournal
    - News
    - Paid Accounts
    - Contributors

Customize
    - Customize Journal
    - Create Style
    - Edit Style

Find Users
    - Random!
    - By Region
    - By Interest
    - Search

Edit ...
    - Personal Info &
      Settings
    - Your Friends
    - Old Entries
    - Your Pictures
    - Your Password

Developer Area

Need Help?
    - Lost Password?
    - Freq. Asked
      Questions
    - Support Area



Captain Awesomepants ([info]bobafeis) wrote in [info]unfunnybusiness,
@ 2009-06-15 23:27:00


Previous Entry  Add to memories!  Tell a Friend!  Next Entry
Current mood:Grouchy

I doubt this lawsuit will go anywhere, but there's some serious overreaction here
(Articles are here and here)

I might be missing several details here, because this thing seems like a sprawling mess that's only partially explained in the articles, but here goes:

Francesca Lia Block is a rather well-known YA author whose works frequently touch on things like HIV, homosexuality, premarital sex and pregnancy, and all sorts of other scandalous things that children should OMG never be exposed to.

There is a group called the Christian Civil Liberties Union that has decided that her books are something that no one should be exposed to. Earlier in the year, concerned citizens in the town of West Bend, WI petitioned their local library to separate out all teen books with "explicit" material and keep them away from... teenagers. When the library's trustees flat out denied the petition (and four of them may have lost their appointments for failure to comply with it), the CCLU came and filed suit.

Four elderly gentlemen were exposed to Block's book Baby Be-Bop, which is the story of a gay teen who gets beaten up by a homophobic gang. This exposure was so damaging that they are requesting $120,000 in damages ($30,000/person). This book, which contains several racial and gay slurs, hurt them so much that they want to have it declared obscene and they call it a hate crime.

They are also asking for the mayor's resignation, because she allowed the public to be exposed to the book (and I'm sure the fact that she supported bringing the fired trustees back has nothing to do with it it all).

And they want the library to publicly burn the book.

Cheap publicity stunt, yes, but they're calling for a library to burn books. D:



(Read comments) - (Post a new comment)


[info]witty
2009-06-16 12:24 pm UTC (link)
If we can sue for having been forced, by a compulsion I tell you, to read books we deem crappy, then I have a lot of authors I have to sue. Better get cracking! At $30K a pop, I could set myself up for life!

(I read a lot of crap. I can't help myself!)

(Reply to this)(Thread)


[info]hyeri
2009-06-16 01:07 pm UTC (link)
I wonder if this would extend to bad fanfiction...

*gets ready for the windfall*

(Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)


[info]miss_padfoot
2009-06-16 01:20 pm UTC (link)
I'm wondering about books I've had to read for classes.

(Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)


[info]risha
2009-06-16 02:13 pm UTC (link)
...does this mean that I can sue my high school for forcing me to read Ethan Frome. I'm pretty sure that the idiocy of the suicide scene scarred me for life.

(Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)


[info]lady_ganesh
2009-06-16 04:05 pm UTC (link)
Seconded. Plus, I had to write an essay about that fucking pickle dish.

(Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

(no subject) - [info]twinno, 2009-06-16 05:28 pm UTC
(no subject) - [info]lady_ganesh, 2009-06-16 05:31 pm UTC
(no subject) - [info]twinno, 2009-06-16 05:35 pm UTC
(no subject) - [info]lady_ganesh, 2009-06-16 05:37 pm UTC
(no subject) - [info]sistercoyote, 2009-06-16 05:38 pm UTC

[info]hyeri
2009-06-16 05:24 pm UTC (link)
Can I sue for having to read Shakespeare? I didn't mind MacBeth but Hamlet...*twitches* Nightmares and it's been nearly 25 years...

(Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)


[info]adevyish
2009-06-16 10:55 pm UTC (link)
I liked Hamlet well enough, but I ever-grateful for having escaped King Lear.

(Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

(no subject) - [info]hyeri, 2009-06-17 10:22 am UTC
(no subject) - [info]jaythenerdkid, 2009-06-21 04:35 am UTC

[info]bleachedclouds
2009-06-17 12:11 am UTC (link)
Hamlet fills me with a stabby rage that knows no limit... That and Birdsong, WHY IS THAT BOOK A 'MODERN CLASSIC' WHHHHHHHY. /Ragerage

(Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

(no subject) - [info]hyeri, 2009-06-17 10:24 am UTC

[info]luthe
2009-06-17 05:23 am UTC (link)
Yay! Someone else who thinks Hamlet sucks!

Really, it doesn't take five acts of dicking around to decide to kill Claudius, ok? I swear, Ophelia is the smartest person in that play and that's because she's crazy.

(Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

(no subject) - [info]hyeri, 2009-06-17 10:21 am UTC

[info]ahiru
2009-06-16 02:00 pm UTC (link)
Man, if that was the case Stephanie Meyer's in trouble. And think off all the money fandom could leech off J.K. Rowling for the last two HP books alone.

(Reply to this)(Parent)


[info]sarracenia
2009-06-16 03:50 pm UTC (link)
You mean, my tendency to read books I know are awful has a redeeming side? (Well, profitable side at least.) Brb, suing Jim Theis.

(Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)


[info]sistercoyote
2009-06-16 05:38 pm UTC (link)
I was just thinking that I could actually turn a profit off of reading all three of the Venom Cock novels.

(Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)


[info]agent_hyatt
2009-06-16 07:48 pm UTC (link)
There are three of them!?

(Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)


[info]sistercoyote
2009-06-16 07:58 pm UTC (link)
Yes. :Nods solemnly: And I'm pretty sure that there are two of us around Journal_fen who have read all three.

(Reply to this)(Parent)


[info]bobafeis
2009-06-16 08:50 pm UTC (link)
I suspect JF could file a class-action lawsuit just for being exposed to those books.

(Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)


[info]sistercoyote
2009-06-16 10:36 pm UTC (link)
Quite possibly. Although I suspect that, in my case at least, an argument could be made that I read the first one and thus I knew what I was getting into when I asked for inter-library loan of the other two.

In my defense, I got some Connie Willis and "Gun, with Occasional Music" in the same inter-library package.

(Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

(no subject) - [info]snarkhunter, 2009-06-17 12:05 am UTC
(no subject) - [info]sistercoyote, 2009-06-17 12:40 am UTC
(no subject) - [info]snarkhunter, 2009-06-17 03:04 am UTC
(no subject) - [info]sistercoyote, 2009-06-17 04:50 am UTC

[info]shark
2009-06-16 03:54 pm UTC (link)
Does this mean I can sue Palm Springs Unified School District for forcing A Separate Peace on my impressionable mind? I was scarred for life, after all.

(Reply to this)(Parent)


[info]bigbigtruck
2009-06-16 04:23 pm UTC (link)
I think I should get extra damage compensation for reading Cradle.


OH ARTHUR C CLARKE NO

(Reply to this)(Parent)


[info]mmanurere
2009-06-16 07:09 pm UTC (link)
Thanks to my little brother, Terry Goodkind apparently owes me a flaming shitload of money.

(Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)


[info]shinysandals
2009-06-16 08:39 pm UTC (link)
Same here, only with Piers Anthony.

(Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)


[info]deadwood
2009-06-16 11:25 pm UTC (link)
Aww, I like Piers Anthony. He's just the thing when I need something light hearted and punny.

(Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)


[info]sistercoyote
2009-06-17 12:42 am UTC (link)
If you want something lighthearted and punny, pick up the Myth Adventures series by Robert Asprin (I think. I always get his last name rong).

(Reply to this)(Parent)


[info]sarracenia
2009-06-17 12:21 am UTC (link)
Oh god. I kept buying that damn series for YEARS after it had degenerated into a morass of crappiness. (Not that it was ever brilliant, but Spell for Chameleon was infinitely better than the one where the demon Xanth took a weirdass form and wandered through a morass of puns in order to convince a girl to cry for him.) Sometimes I want to go back in time just to kick my younger self for continuing to buy them no matter how bad they were.

(Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

(no subject) - [info]sistercoyote, 2009-06-17 12:41 am UTC
(no subject) - [info]shinysandals, 2009-06-17 01:24 am UTC
(no subject) - [info]sarracenia, 2009-06-17 01:29 am UTC

[info]darkecology
2009-06-17 01:41 am UTC (link)
Piers Anthony owes me for that piece of child porn called Firefly. A lot.

(Reply to this)(Parent)


[info]librarianmouse
2009-06-17 05:34 am UTC (link)
But Charlotte Bronte is dead. How will I collect my settlement for the horror that was Jane Eyre?

(Reply to this)(Parent)


(Read comments) -

 
   
Privacy Policy - COPPA
Legal Disclaimer - Site Map