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


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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:



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[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)


[info]sistercoyote
2009-06-17 12:41 am UTC (link)
Spell for Chameleon was horrifically sexist, although not nearly as bad as the space pirates one.

Yeah. I read a lot of Anthony when I was younger.

(Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)


[info]shinysandals
2009-06-17 01:24 am UTC (link)
Ditto for me. I also tried getting into his Mode series, but finally I realized that Anthony is just a really dirty old man writing out his kinks for underage girls and panties.

(Reply to this)(Parent)


[info]sarracenia
2009-06-17 01:29 am UTC (link)
God yes. When I read it for the first time since I was too young to figure out what he was meant by the monthly cycle, I was appalled. However, his later books in the series are both horrifically sexist (though lacking the sheer wtf of Chameleon) and utterly lacking in plot or point.

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[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)


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