Banned Books Week

http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2011/apr/12/brave-new-world-challenged-books

I am particularly struck by Barbara Ehrenreich making that list.

i am particularly struck by twilight making that list.

That was probably a book lover's doing.

Reviving this to ask a question, seeking information and ideas.

I am writing something about literary censorship, in Britain, in recent decades. Also controversy, as actual censorship seems increasingly rare. Relevant instances would include THE ROMANS IN BRITAIN, THE SATANIC VERSES.

What books or episodes do you think belong in such a story? Especially in, say, the last 20 years? Apart from the rumpus around the CRASH movie I can hardly think of an actual literary ban in this period.

Names, titles, links welcome.

controversy in theatre? Blasted, Shopping and Fucking.

Have the impression that Melvin Burgess caused some trouble with Junk and Doing It.

supervert has a lot to say about Lord Horror.

are the 'video nasty' controversy and later bbfc-centric things relevant? i am too young to remember the rumpus around the crash movie but the human centipede: second sequence is fresh in my mind. anyway there's http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Video_nasty and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_banned_films#United_Kingdom to look at ; there's a fair bit of scholarship surrounding some of the stuff on the video nasty list, i think? eh

If theatre is ok, then the fuss about and attempted prosecution of Jerry Springer: the Opera could be in there. Stewart Lee's libretto v literary iirc fwiw. Def Blake refs.

Is it even possible to ban things in Britain? There's nothing to stop you publishing and selling what you like, I don't think? Cinema and DVD are different, in that everything needs a certificate before release - but that's failure to meet a positive requirement, not a negative ban.

In terms of censorship, The Satanic Verses and ongoing fallout seems like the big story here.

I just thought of another - libel. There have been several studies of I think mostly Arab-money-and-terrorism or former-ussr-and-brutality which have been subject of libel proceedings here. I'm sure I've read that some of these are American books never even published in the UK, but have been deliberately ordered from Amazon.com to UK addresses so as to bring them within the jurisdiction.

I don't know any titles I'm afraid - obviously by their nature these aren't going to be well-known titles in the UK

'Banning' in terms of books would usually mean prosecution under the Obscene Publications Act. David Britton's Lord Horror was the last thing to be done, in 1990.

There's also the Blasphemy Act, which Mary Whitehouse dragged back into action in the 70s, & was used (unsuccesfully) against Springer. It's one of the traditional means of effectively banning books in England, was used to hit 17th/18th century freethinkers.

Libel crossed my mind, but pf did seem to want specifically literary stuff - it's def part of the bigger picture though. House of Bush, House of Saud was the last thing I remember being pulled by the libel laws (though it came out eventually iirc). There's also direct state intervention - Spycatcher.

And since we're on ilx, seems remiss not to mention the girls aloud fanfic prosecution.

Thanks for these suggestions.

I do intend to mention Spycatcher in passing. But think the In-Yer-Face theatre cases might be the most pertinent ones that I had overlooked.

I think it is worth looking at how the libel laws and suchlike suppress free speech, possibly even getting into questions of how patterns of media ownership can restrict debate. But that is of course a bit different from literary censorship.

Wow, just looking at the register of books banned in Ireland - and there are now NO BOOKS WHATSOEVER banned on the basis that they are indecent or obscene. Still a great many banned in perpetuity for advocating abortion, and a load of bannaed periodicals (including many that have long since ceased publication): http://www.justice.ie/en/JELR/Register%20of%20Prohibited%20Publications%202010.pdf/Files/Register%20of%20Prohibited%20Publications%202010.pdf

Part 1
Books prohibited on the ground that they were indecent or obscene (please see note inside cover)
On 31st December, 2010 there were no books prohibited on the grounds that they were indecent or obscene.

yes, that's fantastic.

Back in the early 1990s, when I wrote a boring thesis on this kind of thing, there were loads of GREAT banned books. "Hard Horny Cowpokes" was a particular favourite.

I just wondered what Mary Whitehouse thought of the Ayatollah Khomeini.

still a very good article
http://www.guardian.co.uk/stage/2005/oct/28/theatre