autumnfire1414 (autumnfire1414) wrote in library_mofo,
2013-01-16 19:58:00
  • Mood: pissed off

Walking dead isn't just the book title...

I just found out that someone with more time on their hands than sense, used black electrical tape to cover up various forms of the word 'fuck' in our Walking Dead graphic novels.  Whoever this mofo was they very painstakingly cut out little rectangles of the exact size and shape of the word.  It was so precise that at first glance it looked like the stereotypical censorship/redaction markings you see in government documents, but if you ran your fingers over it you can feel that it was actually tape.  On some pages other patrons had tried to pull the tape off.  If they managed not to tear the paper you could clearly see the stain the electrical tape left on the paper.

I could go into a lengthy diatribe about why someone cannot respect someone else's property and feels the need to mark it up or in some form deny others access to material that they found objectionable, but what absolutely stumps me is the simple fact that this person is apparently so incredibly offended by profanity yet is perfectly fine with with the gore and graphic violence of this story.  Let me state my bias here, I don't find zombies fascinating, intriguing, or worth my time.  However, our patrons obviously enjoy it--as our circ stats show--and I wouldn't dream of depriving them of their enjoyment and if I catch you, you mofo, I can guarantee that zombies will be the least of your worries!
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  • 13 comments

jackieblue92

January 17 2013, 02:12:23 UTC 5 months ago

Wow! What an asshole! Some people definitely have way too much time on their hands.

evrymemry

January 17 2013, 02:19:29 UTC 5 months ago

Man, that is some dedicated censorship right there. If I weren't so pissed off, I'd almost be impressed.

syhira

January 17 2013, 02:28:35 UTC 5 months ago

Sounds like something my mom would do, if she were a bit less sane. She vehemently hates the word "fuck", so much that one time when I was talking on the phone to a friend, and was in a COMPLETELY DIFFERENT ROOM, she heard me say something like, "That fucking sucks", and poked her head around the corner, shook her finger at me and scowled.

nialla42

January 17 2013, 02:53:04 UTC 5 months ago

At least your censor used clean cut black tape to black out naughty words. We had one just scribble with a black pen to the point of tearing into the paper in places in an entire series of manga rated 16+. It wasn't even the f-word, they were blacking out words like damn and hell.

I'm surprised someone didn't mention the markup of The Walking Dead previously, though I guess they either thought they'd have suspicion fall on them or they may have thought the library did it.

genre_savvy

January 17 2013, 03:42:56 UTC 5 months ago

That is a level of dedicated asshattery I've never encountered before. And I went to a junior high school where the media specialist defaced any book cover with even a hint of boob with a black Sharpie.

unhipster

January 17 2013, 03:57:37 UTC 5 months ago

Wow, that's going to a lot of work to be an asshat.

silveradept

January 17 2013, 04:57:57 UTC 5 months ago

Ugh, fantastic. Someone so offended by a word that they'll deface the book, but apparently unfazed by the copious violence and other adult situations. Those kind of people always make my tilt my head slightly and say "Eh?" If you're going to be a censor, some consistency in your standards would be appreciated...

pilferedvino

January 17 2013, 15:00:07 UTC 5 months ago

I love 'the walking dead' how dare they !!!

aisling178

January 17 2013, 15:49:29 UTC 5 months ago

Wow, that's a new one... Patrons never cease to amaze me. Not often in a good way

takiaizawa

January 17 2013, 16:49:33 UTC 5 months ago

Wow. When people get offended by the content in our books, they just steal them. No blacked-out words, no ripped-out pages. The controversial books just disappear.

My coll dev professor in library school told us a story about an anonymous patron in his regional library with some degree of artistic talent who checked out all the local copies of Maurice Sendak's In the Night Kitchen and drew pants on the little boy in all the scenes where his bare bottom was visible. It's the kind of "radio edit" censorship that doesn't really work: everyone over the age of kindergarten knows what the missing sound or image or word is supposed to be, turning the whole exercise into some kind of pandering "think of the children!" nonsense or a pathetic attempt to be risque and naughty.

glhansen

January 17 2013, 20:42:22 UTC 5 months ago

Killing people and abusing the corpses is fine, but there better not be any boobs or bad words.

hemenwaykid

January 18 2013, 01:07:27 UTC 5 months ago

I had a friend who used to run into variations of this when she worked at Blockbuster: parents were super-concerned about sex in movies, but not at all concerned about gore and violence. "Is Resevoir Dogs okay to show my 8-yr-old?" "Um, it's super violent and has lots of bad language." "Yes, but does it have any sex?"

I used to work at a CD store and would get variations of this, notably one parent who insisted on buying the edited version of Eminem's Slim Shady LP for her 11-yr-old son; and another who refused to buy any kind of Blink-182 for her 14-yr-old because of the parental advisory sticker. People are silly.

nessasky

January 18 2013, 10:19:02 UTC 5 months ago Edited:  January 18 2013, 10:20:34 UTC

Why would you even... just... what's the point?

Here, our graphic novels are treated atrociously, but they're never censored. Basically every time a patron takes out a graphic novel, they crack the spine so badly that the pages slip out. I was really looking forward to re-reading the 2006 run of The Runaways, a fun little Marvel comic series, so I borrowed it and I opened the second volume and two thirds of the pages fell out. I was not a happy bunny. And I'm really gentle with my books, so why can't these people be? :(

Oh, we've also had the manga issue cropping up, but only from parents whose kids took out an inappropriate manga (to the point where we have to tell kids and parents at the desk that most manga have age ratings on the back for a reason).