The Wanganui Chronicle of New Zealand has a follow-up to last week’s story about the parent who was demanding censorship of certain (unspecified) manga titles in the local library, even going so far as circulating a petition which asked that there should be “a clear, consistent procedure for the public to have books censored should they wish to.” I found that prospect – and the fact anyone would even suggest it – rather disturbing; a call for a mechanism to draw librarian’s attention to material that might not be suitable for younger readers so it could be displayed in a clearly adult section of the library would make sense, but not the right to censor what other people may want to read.
Well, it seems that this isn’t far from what is likely to happen, according to the new article – staff have suggested that the manga books which are currently in the teen fiction section (since they are aimed at a teen market, apparently) be relocated to the adult section of the library instead, since the teen fiction section is next to the children’s section (as is normally the case in most bookstores as well, although most stores now call them ‘young adult’ rather than teen fiction). This seems to be a fairly sensible precaution which removes the demands for official censorship, which, from this article, it sounds like no-one is keen on (other than the original person to make the complaint who has taken several books to the censor’s office). The local Mayor commented “In essence, this is to ensure that contentious material, available to teenagers, is located further away from the children’s section…my pick is that Council will not want to play censor but alert library management that a heightened sensitivity is in order” and that he hoped the issue would now be “put to bed…” with a “commonsense” solution.
Hopefully this sensible solution will prevail and Mrs Gordon will not feel the need to take more books to the censor’s office and demand they are dealt with, although since I have had personal experience of people complaining about graphic novels they found offensive in the adult section of bookstores on the grounds that children might still pick them up, you can never tell (again I think perhaps if the parent pays more attention to where their child is wandering about and picking up books from in a library or bookstore this wouldn’t be a problem either). And then there are some parents who demand a young adult book for their teen, but one with no particular words they object to (including the names of body parts) and no references to certain religions, gender orientations and a host of other provisos but still want something challenging for their maturing offspring to read (they also assume all booksellers have read every single book in the library or bookstore and know all of this information instantly – it isn’t true, although we do try!), from which experiences I think it is fair to infer there will always be someone who objects to something.
Mon, Apr 30, 2007
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