Alan Moore is not going to be happy when he hears that a public library system in North Carolina has pulled copies of his graphic novel, Neonomicon from the shelves. The library says it was responding to complaints about the levels of sex and nudity in the book.
Neonomicon is about FBI agents investigating ritualistic murders. It was checked out by a 14-year-old-girl (according to reports, users over the age of 13 can check out books from any section on the library) in Greene County. When she discovered the sex and nudity contained in the pages, she informed her mother who went to the library and demanded it be pulled from the shelves.
“It looked like a murder mystery comic book to me. It looked like a child’s book,” the girl’s mother Carrie Gaske told a local news outlet. “She came into my living room and asked me what a certain word meant and I said honey where did you hear that word? I said that’s a nasty word we don’t use that in the house.”
The mother was upset after seeing “graphic sexual content and pictures of nude men and women engaging in sexual activity,” comparing the contents to that found in nudie mags.
“The more into I got the more shocked I was, I really had no idea this type of material was allowed at a public library,” Gaske said. “I feel that has the same content of Hustler or Playboy or things like that. Maybe even worse.”
Gaske is pushing for the library to adopt a rating system for books, similar to those used in the videogame and film industries, while library officials fired back that its up to parents to screen what their children are reading.
Wait a minute, she was fourteen and didn’t know all her swear words.
I knew how to spell every swear word there is when I was that age, what on earth have they been teaching that girl?
It blows my mind that there are libraries that restrict content by age. I never ran into that growing up and had graduated to the grown up side of the library for many of my books by 4th or 5th grade. Granted the librarians guided my choices using both what I had read and what they new about me.
Me and many of my cousins learned all the swear words before we were 7 because of my great-grandmother. 100 yrs old at the time, brass spittoon near her rocking chair in the living room, could make a sailor blush. The kids loved it, the parents just shook their heads.
As for this situation, I think asking for ratings systems for books is going way too far. How would she like it if there were a big red “Rated X” on all of her friends’ romance novels next time they went to check one out of the library?
And don’t get me started on the assumption that all comics are just for kids. That assumption and that argument was out of fashion 25 years ago.
It doesn’t matter if there is an age limit imposed. That only works if someone wants to check the material out to read outside the library. Anyone can pick up a book and read it while at the library, and an age restriction would not prevent that.
When did parental responsibility disappear? It’s not the Library’s fault that the parental unit was not doing its job. Books and other media should never be censored from the public. If anything is to be done, then a simple “explicit content” sticker should be on the material.
I couldn’t agree more deathby2. When did it become everyone else’s responsibility to parent a child except the parent’s? Yo lady, why don’t you take an interest in your child’s life and ask them “Hey sweety, what did you borrow from the library today? Rainbows and Unicorns, cool. Nudes and Boobs, I don’t think so.” 30 seconds of parenting could save us from all this unnecessary whiney drama.
It’s North Carolina! What else really needs to be said. This is one of the states that’s trying to keep scientists from using scientifically accurate terms as if you can legislate reality. Between that, this, and Prop One I refused to be surprised by anything that state is will do.
“The Forbidden Fruit” is why the Catholic girls were the easiest to bed. Let everyone learn at their own speed and don’t let your values and biases pollute questioning minds. Answer truthfully. Educate. Any other way is your attempt to place dirt where there isn’t any.