Books And Movies

You may remember not that long ago about people trying to get Harry Potter and Lord Of The Rings removed from libraries, cinemas, store shelves, and anywhere else these items could be obtained. Rather it be in literary or cinematic form. You have probably heard of such things as book burnings. You have probably even heard some books referred to "satanic". I'm going to point out just how ridiculous the whole idea really is.

Provided by Everynight Teen (Interesting Article)

Harry Potter was a great series of books that were well written, humorous, captivating, and a magical struggle between good and evil. Sadly, the movies did not do justice to these works of art. There are some people that say these books "promote witchcraft" and should be banned. To even have this as an objection to the books in the first place, the people must think magic is real. These books are labeled as fiction because it's fake. If you can't tell the difference between fiction and nonfiction then you have the mind of a five year old.

Another book that seemed to get banned all over the place is Fahrenheit 451 ironically enough. This is a fantastic tale of censorship gone overboard. The most common reason given for these banns was "it's offensive". Some said this because of the profanity. While others claimed offense to the Bible being burned. It would seem these people missed the hole point to the book in the first place. I was first introduced to this book in high school. I have read it many times since then. I've even gotten one of my kids to read it and plan to have the other read it once she's at a high enough reading level. It's a fascinating book, and an almost plausible future that scares the crap out of me. 

There have been movies that have been banned as well. Scarface is to my knowledge the most notable. I never really cared for the movie myself, but that's just my personal taste. Just because I don't like it doesn't mean no one should watch it. Scarface is an iconic movie to many people. It was banned due to "glorification of crime". Assuming that is a valid reason to block a movie (which it's not) then it stands to reason that every movie from a criminal's point of view should be banned. Friday should be banned then and we would miss out on one of the funnest Chris Tucker rolls he ever had. 

Most movies and books these days don't get banned so much as censored. I have seen the same movie with a R (NC-17) rating and a PG-13 rating on the same shelves. The difference being that the PG-13 version is edited for content. The same thing happens when you see movies on TV. I don't think I've ever seen my favorite Christmas movie, Die Hard, without the word motherfucker bleeped out. Sure, I know what is being said, but that's not the point. It's the best line in the whole movie, and it gets bleeped. Something is wrong when the iconic line from an iconic movie gets bleeped. 

When censorship happens to books or movies it's normally for one of a few things. 

1. Sex
2. Nudity
3. Violence
4. Drugs

That's it, just the four things. I can understand something listing what is in store for the reader/viewer. That makes sense, let people make their own choices without removing what is in there. That is why I don't have any issues with a rating system. (Just not the one we currently have) I do have an issue when the parts containing these things are removed for one reason. The artistic view of the writer / director / actors / editors / publishers / producers all favored what is contained. What right does anyone else have to say what is included? 

Let's take a look at a book that people want to hand out to kids at school. The Bible is handed to children, often at very young ages, without censorship. Most commonly this book is handed to kids that are not able to watch more than a G rated movie without parental consent. It should follow logically that this book does not contain any sex, nudity, violence, or drugs. However, that is not the case. People have sex at least 255 times. Often this comes in the form of incest. There are at least 10 descriptions of nudity. There are at least 1321 descriptions of violence. While there isn't a whole lot of drug use in the bible, it seems drinking was always a big thing. Since the Bible breaks all four of the censorship levels, why are people giving this book to kids? Why isn't the Bible ever censored? Why is it that the most common people to censor this kind of content wasn't to give a book including all of it to young children? 

The same person that takes offence to John McClane saying "yippee ki-yay motherfucker" hands me a book that lets me read about Lot screwing his daughters. Doesn't that seem rather fucked up? Control what you read / watch and let other people do the same. Sure, I might just be a jerk named Rug, but that is what I think.