Comments on: Good Link Reads

By: James Schee

James Schee — Fri, 31 Mar 2006 23:59:22 +0000

I wouldn’t be surprised if the Upskirt shot movement might work, since there is a bar/nightclub 2 blocks down from the library which has whipped cream bikini night. Or when some female prowrestler signed copies of her issue of Playboy at the local Books A Million store.

Sex and language seems okay, as long as it is something the city leaders are interested in.

My area loves censorship though, or I guess at least avoiding anything controversial. The local NBC station never aired the lesbian wedding episode of Friends. The ABC affiliate didn’t air the first 3/4 of the first season of NYPD Blue. Plus there was even discussion of whether the movie Brokeback Mountain should be allowed in theaters in the area.

It used to get me down, now it just … bewilders me at times.

By: Johanna

Johanna — Fri, 31 Mar 2006 13:39:55 +0000

Save the Upskirt Shot! Yeah, I’m sure THAT’s a movement that will work in James’ area of backwards Texas. :)

By: tangognat

tangognat — Fri, 31 Mar 2006 04:38:13 +0000

Hmm, in that case maybe someone at the library is defacing the books. Bad Library! Along with perserving open access to information, libraries should also preserve up skirt shots :)

By: James Schee

James Schee — Fri, 31 Mar 2006 04:31:06 +0000

I’m really not sure who is doing the defacing, as it is something I’ve seen in other manga volumes from this library as well. Along with library stickers placed on up the skirt shots in places.

The library keeps their entire GN/Manga library in the Young Adults section, so I’m unsure. Yet it won’t hurt to ask the next time I go in I guess.

By: JennyN

JennyN — Thu, 30 Mar 2006 23:39:50 +0000

Johanna wrote
“I tried to acknowledge that in my comments above by using the phrase “American culture”, but it likely wasn’t obvious enough”.

Actually no, Johanna, you *did* make your comments specific. I was simply making the point that in many online discussions people do seem to forget that what applies in their own national context may not in others (and while some posters on LoveManga did make it clear that they were considering the issue in a US context, my own feeling at least was that a few others fitted said context onto other countries, which doesn’t really work).

By: Johanna

Johanna — Thu, 30 Mar 2006 14:50:43 +0000

Brandon, thanks for sharing your enthusiasm!

Jenny, good reminder — I tried to acknowledge that in my comments above by using the phrase “American culture”, but it likely wasn’t obvious enough.

I despise the attitude that would think it was your right to deface a book that doesn’t belong to you.

By: tangognat

tangognat — Thu, 30 Mar 2006 02:02:38 +0000

I seriously doubt that a library would deface a book like that. It would be much more likely that another library patron picked up the book in the library before it was checked out and scribbled on it. I’ve checked out romance books from public libraries where pages detailing any sort of sex act were already ripped out. And checked out books where someone went through them with a black marker. Usually I’ll hand a book like that to someone at the library and point out that it is damaged instead of putting it in the book drop when I’m returning it.

By: James Schee

James Schee — Thu, 30 Mar 2006 01:13:46 +0000

Hmm I’ve been getting manga at my library, in a very conservative area in Texas. One of the ones I just picked up was Cheeky Angel #11, and one word balloon has an ink scribble over a word that seemed like it could be a curse word.

I wonder if the library may have done that? (it is a brand new volume, that they had just put on the shelf, so I doubt a kid could have done so)

By: tangognat

tangognat — Thu, 30 Mar 2006 00:34:33 +0000

Thanks for the link – I do agree with JennyN that there are cultural differences at play, and when American librarians and British manga fans start talking about an incident in a Canadian library and extending the dicussion to libraries in general, all the cultural/legal norms get all mixed up. But in some cases in the comment thread over at Love Manga, I think the discussion was centered around the possibility of a similar situation happening in libraries in the U.S., and I don’t think it is good to make arguments about restricting access in American libraries without an attempt to understand some of the laws and values under which they operate.

By: JennyN

JennyN — Thu, 30 Mar 2006 00:08:17 +0000

Johanna – On balance, I agree with you and Tangognat (apart from anything else, the practicalities of a public library’s trying to enforce anything that’s not very clearly spelled out are horrendous). However, when I looked at the discussion on LoveManga, I did notice that many participants seemed to be viewing the matter from an American perspective – specifically that of the US – which rather overlooks the fact that, say, the concept of “First Amendment rights” (as something with any legal force) simply doesn’t apply outside US territory. In this case, the incident itself apparently happened in Canada, while David Taylor is writing from a UK perspective. (My own country originally derived its legal and political systems from Britain and has continued to develop them along lines much closer to Continental Europe).

I’m sure we all agree that censorship is, broadly speaking, Not A Good Thing. However, I do think that when writing in what is really a global forum / medium – the Internet – we all need to remember that what we take for granted as a cultural/political/legal norm may not be so to others.

By: Brandon

Brandon — Thu, 30 Mar 2006 00:05:40 +0000

I too got a bit worried that maybe people were taking Usagi Yojimbo for granter, so I started buying it monthly to show my support. And I’m glad I did–now I know that in two months there’s an issue devoted to the tea ceremony . . . and I can’t wait!