Tried to read Animal Farm in a small book club and three people walked out when I brought up the political parallels

It happened last Thursday at a neighborhood meetup in Portland, and I ended up just sitting there with my coffee while everyone awkwardly shuffled out, has anyone else had a total flop with a classic banned book like that?

2 comments

2 Comments

anna75822d ago

Oh wow, that's rough. I've got to gently push back on calling Animal Farm a "banned book" though, at least in most places in the US. It's been challenged or restricted here and there over the years, sure, but it's not actually banned in the same way something like "Maus" or "Ulysses" has been. Your local library or school probably still has it on the shelf, you know? Anyway, I'm sorry your book club bailed so fast, that's a real bummer when people can't handle a little political talk over coffee.

emeryfox22d ago

Hmm, I see what you mean, @anna758, but I guess I see it a little differently. Animal Farm has been banned outright in some countries, and even in the US it's been pulled from classrooms or libraries in certain districts. Just because it's not as widely banned as Maus doesn't mean it hasn't faced real suppression, you know? A book doesn't have to be globally forbidden to count as banned in my book, especially when kids can't access it because of local pressure. It's a slippery slope when we start ranking censorship like that. Don't you think that kind of downplays the impact on the people who can't read it?