Banned Book of the Day: Monday, September 27
Black Beauty, by Anna Sewell, is a children’s book about the life of a horse, as told by Black Beauty himself. It’s about the many varieties of man available out there in the world– kind men, stupid men, evil men– and his life while in the care of each one. There is quite a lot of suffering that goes on and a bit of rejoicing, as well.
This book was banned in South Africa during the years of Apartheid– not because those in power saw themselves in the broken, awful men responsible for the horse’s despair and suffering, but because the title of the book was Black Beauty and if you didn’t know any better, it would seem to you that this was a book about a black woman… who was a beauty.
Banned Book of the Day: Tuesday, September 28
Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, by Lewis Carroll, banned in China in 1931 by the Governor of Hunan Province, because “animals should not use human language” and “it is disastrous to put human beings and animals on the same level”.
The Other Day at Portrait... 