Fungus the Bogeyman and a Jules Verne classic are among the books banned from libraries after a single complaint

We should just ban the people that are making the complaints from the libraries.

>A public library in Essex removed McKee’s Three Monsters after a customer complained it included “divisive language”. 

>The particular section was: ”’Clear off,” shouted the second monster. ”We don’t want any funny foreigner types here.”’

I’ve never read this, but from what I can gather the point of it is that the two original monsters start off by being rude to the third, but then come to learn the error of their ways.

From the Amazon page:

>The new yellow monster arrived on the island with an intriguing offer: “Let me have a tiny bit of land for myself and I will clear away your rocks, level your ground, and tidy up your jungle.” The very lazy red and blue monsters may not like the strange “funny foreigner type” but how can they refuse especially when they had not the faintest intention of holding up their end of the bargain? How yellow monster succeeds in forcing the two monsters to live up to their promise, while building himself a lush island paradise, **makes for a remarkable modern fable of sharing and acceptance**.

I’d wager that someone seems to have read this line and taken it out of context, just to pretend to feel offended, whilst missing (or intentionally ignoring) the overall message of the story.

Perhaps I’m wrong, but that’s what it seems to be (without actually reading it, which I’m not going to).

Having read Verne’s five weeks in a balloon it does use heavy-handed racial stereotypes and frequent usage of various slurs, however it is made a point that only the uneducated servant character calls them thus, whilst the educated hunter and scientist do not. Furthermore the protagonist makes a major point that though Africa is savage and wild it like Europe will be the next seat of Civillisation, just as Asia once was but is no longer and as Europe is but will not be so forever- and so Verne’s book is actually fairly progressive despite the copious amounts of Victorian racism.

>”As we make clear in our guidance, we are committed to opposing censorship unless there is a specific risk that providing access to a particular book would break the law or incite hatred or violence.”

No wonder racial tensions are so high, Jules Verne has had that N-bomb sitting around on shelves since the 1860s. It was a hard struggle reading that story about an eccentric in a hot air balloon but somehow I resisted the allure of radicalisation.

Don’t even get me started on Fungus the Bigotman

There are people in decision-making positions who really should not be making decisions.

My parents bought me Fungus when I was a kid I’m 56 now and still have it

A spokesperson for the Department for Culture, Media and Sport said: “Freedom of speech is one of the core values that defines our society and we expect library collections to represent a variety of perspectives and topics.”

Five Weeks in a Balloon was removed by Coventry Library Services after a customer complained about its ‘inappropriate and racist’ language. 

An internal email read: “[The customer] says it refers to ‘beastly n*****’s and other such terms.” 

A public library in Essex removed McKee’s Three Monsters after a customer complained it included “divisive language”. 

The particular section was: ”’Clear off,” shouted the second monster. ”We don’t want any funny foreigner types here.”’

I wonder what perspectives and topics are being represented here?