“What might be OK for children in San Francisco might not be OK in rural Kansas.”
Which is exactly why libraries should not be censored. They should offer options that transcend the narrow mindset of the community. LGBT kids in rural Kansas suffer from lack of information about their bodies, information which could prevent suicide. I, Jonathan Markoff, hope to be a distributor of LGBT literature to children who sorely lack it.
I hated that Peanuts reruns cluttered up newspaper spots after Schulz’ death, when they should be left to books. Peanuts was mostly a handful of recycled gags, with occasional brilliance.
This is the uncensored text of Baum’s Dot and Tot of Merryland, including the Candyland scene with “colored servants who are chocolate” and “can seldom be depended on.” https://www.gutenberg.org/files/37976/37976-h/37976-h.htm
Dahl made revisions himself to Charlie’s Chocolate Factory to make the Oompa Loompas mythical creatures instead of African people.
Hugh Lofting’s Doctor Dolittle was censored at the behest of the author’s grandchildren to remove the racist elements.
I am sure that Lofting, Dahl, and Seuss (who had a similar thing happen in recent years) will have their uncensored work preserved in collector’s editions while the censored version is the mass market edition.
L. Frank Baum’s and Ruth Plumly Thompson’s Tales of the Wizard of Oz have been censored on occasion, but competitors and Project Gutenberg have put out uncensored forms, since the books are in public domain. (A few Thompson volumes are still copyrighted, but will be in PD no later than 1/1/2030.)
Baum’s Tottenhots are problematic, treating African pygmies as subhuman imps. I put out my own series of Oz stories starting with “I Am Jinjur” where I reimagine the Tottenhots as basically Wakandans.
A detective novelist was asked how upset he was when his sexy books were destroyed by their Hayes-Office-neutered film adaptations. He said “They haven’t been destroyed. They’re still here on the shelf.”
“What might be OK for children in San Francisco might not be OK in rural Kansas.”
Which is exactly why libraries should not be censored. They should offer options that transcend the narrow mindset of the community. LGBT kids in rural Kansas suffer from lack of information about their bodies, information which could prevent suicide. I, Jonathan Markoff, hope to be a distributor of LGBT literature to children who sorely lack it.