I just spoke to the intake department of the ACLU of Southern California about the removal of all 13 copies of Manga: Sixty Years of Japanese Comics from the San Bernardino County Library after a patron complained about sexy scenes in the book. The intake worker didn’t think they had gotten any other complaints, but he’s passing along the information to their attorneys. Now we have to see if they will pursue it.
Also, Chris Rohrbach, of Guilty Parties, has written a respectful letter to Bill Postmus, the chairman of the county board of supervisors, asking him to reconsider his decision to pull the book from the libraries. It’s a good model if you’re thinking of writing one of your own.
In the meantime, before the story goes off the radar I wanted to link to some of the commentary from around the blogosphere. I’ll put the news links at the end as most of you have already read them.
The author of the book, Paul Gravett, has links to the original news stories and some commentary (including here—the circle is complete). Some other people who commented:
The Beat
Boing Boing
Bookseller Chick
Booksquare
Christopher Butcher
Comics Worth Reading, where Johanna nails it:
Like most politicians, he reveals himself to be a complete hypocrite. “The councilman was quick to say he does not believe in censorship of books, but was also clear to point out the need to protect underage library members from explicit content.” Having the book removed IS censorship, dweeb.
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…:
The book, which is shelved next to Charlie Brown and other comic books, contains some X-rated cartoons depicting graphic sexual acts, including sex with animals.
Yick.
Mely reviews the book itself.
It is carefully researched, insofar as I can judge without access to the primary sources; it is engagingly written; it is so comprehensive it could serve as a primer for beginners and a coursebook for experts. This isn’t a disposable cash-in book on a popular topic; it’s a model of popular scholarship. If you’re curious about manga, the book is well worth checking out of the library; if you already have an abiding interest in the topic, you’ll probably want to own it.
Well said! Of course I had to buy a copy for myself, and I’m glad I did. At $24.95, it’s a lot of book for the money, even if you do have to squint a bit to read the comics.
News posts:
Victorville Daily Press: Good grief, Charlie Brown! Family stunned by porn comics at library
Victorville Daily Press: Comics Ordered Removed
Press Release: Postmus Orders Obscene Book Removed from Library (pdf file)
American Libraries Online: San Bernardino Removes Explicit Manga Book after Challenge
Hesperia Star: Banned in Hesperia
[...] MangaBlog continues to do a great job gathering together all the stories about the removal of Manga: Sixty Years of Japanese Comics from the San Bernardino County Library system. I’m surprised that so far we haven’t seen any commentary from library oriented publications about the removal process, which seems a little irregular to me. Well, the whole story will be a great reason to feature the book in displays for Banned Books Week. I haven’t read the book yet, but I want to. [...]
Good job taking this to the ACLU.
One assumes the book burnings will commence shortly.
[...] Besides offering his own insights, David links to two articles worth reading for their own sake. One is Keith Giles’ interview with Dreamland Japan author Frederik L. Schodt and American manga artist Tony Leonard Tamai at Slushfactory.com The other is an introduction to manga by Paul Gravett (yes, that Paul Gravett). So get comfy and settle in. [...]
[...] In this week’s Flipped column, David Welsh comments on the case in Victorville, California, where the local library banned Paul Gravett’s book Manga: Sixty Years of Japanese Comics, and finds it rich in irony: Gravett uses Tezuka’s ardent wish – that manga transform from a kiddie diversion to a medium that offers a rich diversity of material for readers across the lifespan – as a guiding principle and goes on to illustrate the ways that Tezuka’s dream came true. [...]
[...] This thread began with a warning that has been around as long as parenthood, although the internet makes it easier to propagate: hidden dangers to your children. It usually starts with a well-meaning parent who is genuinely shocked by something and wants to warn others: “Do you know there’s porn in manga?” I’m glad that in this case, other parents followed it with a reasoned response. In the Victorville library case, the same sort of discovery turned into a crusade and resulted in a perfectly good book being pulled from an entire library system. Trust me, we don’t want that. [...]
[...] Mickle at The True Confessions of an Hourly Bookseller posts on a Tokyopop rep’s talk at a local library meeting. (Background is here. It may sound vaguely familiar.) There are some interesting nuggets, like this: Tokyopop is in the early stages of revamping it’s rating system. Generally, some of the OT stuff will become M, some T stuff will become OT, etc. Don’t expect to see it until fall, and they may or may not go back and adjust some of the already published titles still in print. [...]