Space Opera Fans discussion

Without being too overtly political, in most western countries we are seeing increasingly repressive and authoritarian leaders banning and silencing anybody who doesn't toe the "official" line., whether that be political, moral or religious.

As you would expect, many SF authors and books have been banned - and even burned - often by people who've never read a word of them.

So please share your thoughts about some of these attempts at censorship. What is your favourite banned SF book? What is the most ridiculous piece of censorship you've come accross? Has there ever been a book banning that you agree with? What is your favourire banned book? And in your city/state/country are there any SF books currently banned?

And for the authors in the group - how would you feel if a book of yours was banned?

But these are just some example questions - what are YOUR thoughts and feelings on this topic?

I feel strongly that no books should be banned. Even for children. I don't pay enough attention to it to know of any SF's that have been banned. But I know it's getting bad in the U.S. In some places they're trying to ban To Kill a Mockingbird.

I too am opposed to banning books. I wouldn’t fight too hard against a ban on books that try to convince people to oppress those who are different, or that give instructions on how to build bombs, but since banning is an extremely slippery slope I would rather not allow banning at all.

If parents don’t want their own children to read certain books, that’s their responsibility to enforce. Library patrons suggesting that a book in the YA section should be moved to adult fiction is appropriate IMO, but sheesh some people tried to ban The Giving Tree.

There is an impressive roll-call of authors of SF and fantasy whose books have been banned for various reasons, including - Orwell, Huxley, Vonnegut, Atwood, Heinlein, Pullman, Rowling, Bradbury, Butler, and Le Guin.

To quote Asimov again - “Any book worth banning is a book worth reading.”

From what I can see, there are no books currently banned in the UK. The most recent examples I can find were Rowling's Harry Potter books being banned in some Christian schools (probably private schools, so the impact would have been minimal.)