New Zealand bans award-winning teenage novel after outcry from Christian group

[Eugene]

Source: The Guardian

New Zealand bans award-winning teenage novel after outcry from Christian group

Eleanor Ainge Roy in Dunedin
Monday 7 September 2015 09.44 BST

An award-winning young adult novel has become the first book in more than 20 years to be banned in New Zealand after an outcry from a Christian group.

Ted Dawe’s Into the River has been banned from sale or supply by the Film and Literature Board of Review (FLBR) after a complaint from conservative lobby group Family First.

It is currently being pulled from libraries, schools and bookshops around the country.

Family First objected to sexually explicit content, drug use and the use of a slang term for female genitalia.

The interim restriction took effect on 3 September and will be reviewed to decide on a permanent classification within the next month.

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Read more: http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/sep/07/new-zealand-bans-into-the-river-teenage-novel-outcry-christian-group

[RufusTFirefly]

1. "Concerning"? I'll say!

Joanna Mathew, executive director of the Library and Information Association of New Zealand, said the banning of Into the River was “concerning” for freedom of speech in New Zealand.

It just boggles my mind that an entire country could ban a book. That said, the total population of New Zealand is slightly more than that of Kentucky and slightly less than that of Louisiana. That makes a perverse kind of sense when you think about it.

[nilram]

2. His response: "Will I be burnt next?"

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/entertainment/news/article.cfm?c_id=1501119&objectid=11509128

He also said, "The book was never about sex and drugs, it was always about bullying people and how that damages people for the rest of their lives. That is really the underlying theme, everything else is just the trappings that go along with that."

But if he connected the idea of bullying to the banning, it wasn't in the article. Easy connection to make...

[msongs]

3. are bibles banned? they are full of perversion, genocide, sexual misconduct, witchcraft etc nt