okay, who's reading this?

[orangerful]

Remember how I posted the other day about wanting to read manga? Well, I went into work today and there was a pile of donations sent to the library, and a bunch of them were manga books. And when I went to see if I could add them, we didn't have them in the system. Is it a sign? These could be horrible mangas for all I know, but hey, they were free. I'll put the titles up here so those of you in the know can tell me whether I should bother reading them.

Mermaid Saga by Rumiko Takahashi
Revolutionary Girl Utena by Chiho Saito Created by Be-PaPas
Immortal Rain by Kaori Ozaki

Also, looks like the spoils from last years free comic book day, a TokyoPop Sneaks with a bunch of random manga's (including a WoW manga??!! crazy!)

I stuck it to the man (or at least San Bernardino CA) and ordered the 'History of Manga' book that they just withdrew from their collection after almost 10 years on the shelf. Apparently some kid checked it out and found the one page with pr0n on it. (though it was hamster pr0n *looks at verdatum* is it what I think it is?)

I'm trying to figure out how I would have dealt with such a thing. I don't like censorship. It seems like taking a few minutes and maybe sharpie-ing over the offensive bits would have been less disruptive than just tossing the entire book out. It's a history of manga book, of course it's going to have naughty bits! But should you toss out the whole book? There had to have been a compromise they could have reached their. Black tape? black marker? Just color over the two graphic pictures and put it back on the shelf if it upsets you sooooo much.

Ugh, I hate censorship, it's such a frustrating thing. It's not like the entire book was dirty pictures, it was just the one section covering "adult" manga. And I know that writing in the book is probably worse because then people might start coloring over the naked indians in travel guides or marking up history books that say negative things about the united states or something. Snowball effect and all that. But is removing the book from the system any better? Talk about your knee jerk reactions.

Their defense is that the county next to them, that they have a recipricol borrowing agreement with, has the book on the shelf so it's still avaiable to their patrons. So at least it's still out there for people who just want to read about the history of manga and are mentally prepared to realize that just because it's a "cartoon" doesn't mean it's for children

Comments

[destertale.livejournal.com]

ZOMG! UTENA! Dibs if you don't want that one! ^_^

[orangerful.livejournal.com]

haha, I'll read it then give it to you to take care of ;)

[vertigozooropa.livejournal.com]

The only manga I would recommend is stuff by Rumiko Tahahashi. She did Ranma 1/2, and I like her stuff. It's funny.

[orangerful.livejournal.com]

right, that's the second vote for Ranma 1/2, guess I'll pick that one up! (and I'm pretty sure the library has it)

[bittertwee.livejournal.com]

Weird Al's mother used to color over all the bra and underwear models in the Sear's catalog before he could look at it (see, you can learn useful stuff from VH1's Behind the Music). And look what happened to him! I ask you, oh parents of America, is this what you want for your children?

I think libraries should keep as much offensive material as possible so that they become edgy, since I think this is their only hope for survival. (I do think recent battles for civil librties/privacy rights have caused people to see libraries in a new light). Adding a coffee shop wouldn't hurt either, and maybe a napping room for the homeless..

[orangerful.livejournal.com]

yeah, they actually just did a big study about public libraries and how people view them and the whole 'be more like a barnes&noble' comes up a lot. So we're trying little things like turning the books on the shelf so you can see the covers etc. our system isn't super conservative but they are definately of the 'wait and see' variety - we'll buy the somewhat offensive books after other systems have bought it and had no complaints. We still don't get as many graphic novels as other libraries, and we are not carrying the more "erotic" romances that are so popular right now (Zane, for example, is highly requested and we always have to order it from Baltimore County).