Manga banned
04/19/2006 @ 6:00 pm
It seems some “educators” overseas can’t get enough of banning “dangerous” books in some school and public libraries. Miguel Gonzalez, writing in the Desert Dispatch newspaper recently, notes:
Following a news article that was published here, school district supervisor Bill Postmus has ordered county libraries to remove a Japanese comic book that contained pornographic cartoons.
The book in question?
It’s titled Manga: Sixty years of Japanese Comics, and it became the subject of controversy “after local woman’s 16-year-old son told her the book contained illustrations of sexual acts and sex with animals,” Gonzalez notes. More on the controversy at MangaBlog, “an ongoing conversation about manga”.
“That’s awesome!” Jones said. “I think Mr. Postmus is showing with his actions that he really cares about his community and the children.”
They probably have Guns & Ammo at the library and no one cares…
April 19th, 2006 at 6:37 pmWhat’s wrong with Guns & Ammo?
April 19th, 2006 at 8:05 pm“What’s wrong with Guns & Ammo?”
Guns kill people
(yeah i know people kill people, but the people who kill peoples usually have guns)
April 19th, 2006 at 8:14 pmYou’re from Sweden apparently. That figures. I guess we should ban everything that kills people then, like cars, sharp pencils, tall buildings, nature, disease, just to name a few.
While we’re on the subject of guns, look what I found in American Hunter! It’s happening in Asia, so I think it belongs here, or at least on Asiapundit.
“Thailand Encourages Teachers To Arm Themselves for Defense”
“The Bangkok Post reports that in Thailand a new program for arming and training teachers is being conducted with the support of that country’s Federation of Teachers and its Queen Sirikit. The report notes that school-teachers in Thailand’s three southern-most provinces are being encouraged to buy handguns and participate in voluntary small arms and martial arts training for defense against violent insurgents.”
“Several hundred teachers have already been trained, with another 2,500 expected to be trained this year. “We must dare to fight and protect ourselves,” said Sa-nguan Intharak, the commander of the Teacher Protection Battalion. Teachers, he said, “should not be sitting ducks.”"
It seems Thailand cares more about freedom than I thought. Other countries could learn a thing or two from these people, like Sweden, Japan, and even much of the USA.
April 19th, 2006 at 9:26 pmWait, why would there be weird graphic hentai in book about the history of manga. Did anybody there actually check that title itself, or are they just jumping on the bandwagon to make it seem like they actually do any work?
Hey don’t worry everyone, the kid can get his fill online. Who goes to a public library anyway, please…
Paul, come on, guns are fine with an armed insurgency going on around you, do you expect one in Sweden or Japan? But hm, arming teachers is something else alright. I’m an officer in the USN and they wouldn’t even let me have a gun for watchstanding duty. Here’s hoping they’re smarter at it than that idiot from the DEA who shot himself giving a gun safety presentation to a classroom full of kids!
Come to think of it I think I’d feel safer living around gun-toting Swedes than gun-toting Japanese for some reason, although I’m not sure why. Instinct!
April 20th, 2006 at 12:47 amI don’t have the slightest objection to my kids reading the stuff (and my wife) also when their finished with it - but why! oh why! do I seem to end up paying for the damn things - and then cop remarks like “boroi oyaji”…
April 20th, 2006 at 7:15 am”I guess we should ban everything that kills people then, like cars, sharp pencils, tall buildings, nature, disease, just to name a few.”
You are a master of comparisons, comparing guns which are made to kill and are used for this purpose with something which has greatly aided society, something used for art and education etc etc. How many cases a year do you hear of people killed by pencils anyway?
If the kid is 16 he could have had sex legally in the Uk anyway. I love it when there are these oversensitive parents though. I mean seriously he could see the exact same stuff just by using any search engine on the net.
April 20th, 2006 at 10:09 amGuns have greatly aided society Tom. You try hunting an elk or defending yourself from thugs with a knife or your fists and see how well you do.
Duo, what difference does in make if there is no insurgency in those countries? People who want to own guns shouldn’t need to justify it to anyone.
April 20th, 2006 at 10:25 pmDo you mean any of that last post seriously?
April 20th, 2006 at 11:28 pmYou’re from Sweden apparently. That figures.
Huh?
Nevermind…
April 21st, 2006 at 12:22 amLMAO! is that a serious post paul? Greatly aided society and i should prove this to myself by hunting an elk? Why your right hunting an elk surely furthers the standard of living of…. wait a minute it does nothing at all to help society.
And defending myself from thugs? I’ve never had to and don’t think i ever will. And tell me how many muggings a year are stopped in America because the victim manages to whip out their gun before the crook can pull the trigger on his gun?
April 21st, 2006 at 1:51 am[...] Dorian Fahrenheit Digital Galley Cat Hurrikane Japundit, where the comments thread inexplicably devolved into a shouting match about gun control LA COMfidential Mangacast Shush, the only blog that seemed to be OK with the decision to pull the book: It may have been shelved in the adult section but if you’re putting all your comics in the same area that’s not helping much. Plus the content is just a little excessive…: [...]
April 21st, 2006 at 7:57 amSan Berdoo bluenose orders removal of scholarly manga book from public libraries, boingboing notes today.
text: Bill Postmus, the chairman of the board of supervisors in San Bernadino County, California has banned Manga: 60 Years of Japanese Comics from public libraries, citing it as obscene. What a jerk.
The 2004 trade paperback, written by Paul Gravett and published by Harper Design, is a history of Japanese comics, and includes, in several chapters, discussion of adult comics that depict sex and violence. The violence was apparently not an issue, nor was the fact that the reproductions of panels that feature sexual situations were, as far as we could tell, all R-rated and treated in a serious, scholarly way. Postmus’ statement and the local newspaper coverage made much of the fact that the book contains “sex with animals,” but we couldn’t find it; we must not have looked as hard.
[posted by Mark Frauenfelder at boingboing]
April 21st, 2006 at 2:41 pmUpdate link:
Good followup here from Mangablog
April 21st, 2006 at 2:46 pmAny news on Fahrenheit 451?
April 21st, 2006 at 2:47 pm“Japundit, where the comments thread inexplicably devolved into a shouting match about gun control” Sorry…
April 21st, 2006 at 6:22 pmI’m not sure if anyone pays attention to new comments on month-old posts but I’ll offer my two cents anyways.
After reading about the book here, I checked it out of my local library and read it. It’s a very comprehensive history of manga. After reading it, I knew significantly more history and even had a chance to practice reading the little Japanese that I know. (There are also many reproductions in English and some in other languages.)
Was there explicit sexual content? Well, yeah, there were some manga I’d not want a young child to see. Most sexual content was not worse than what you’d see on a late-night movie channel.
Personally, I found some of the extremely violent comics more disturbing. Some of these artists must pull from really awful nightmares or a type of creativity I’d not previously imagined. However, I don’t think sexual content or violent content is a reason to pull the comic from any library.
Oh, and about the “sex with animals”? I seem to recall one manga reproduced that involved a woman and snakes, but I don’t think it was that explicit.
May 19th, 2006 at 7:22 am