Just a few comments on different parts of what you said:
1. Battlefield Earth has already sunk under its own shittiness. If you were to ban or censor it, it would just arouse interest in something that will be out of print as soon as Scientology dies out (it's likely that a new challenge to its tax status will sink it eventually; once the tax dodge is gone the religion will be unfunded and disappear).
2. Nietzsche as mandatory reading would be fun to see. I doubt it will happen, though. He's far too controversial. Imagine little kids in Mid-America telling their parents they're reading a book called Der Antichrist.
3. I think Foucault's Pendulum is a fun book, but it is nearly inaccessible to the majority of the population of the planet due to its esoteric subject nature.
1. Battlefield Earth has already sunk under its own shittiness. If you were to ban or censor it, it would just arouse interest in something that will be out of print as soon as Scientology dies out (it's likely that a new challenge to its tax status will sink it eventually; once the tax dodge is gone the religion will be unfunded and disappear).
2. Nietzsche as mandatory reading would be fun to see. I doubt it will happen, though. He's far too controversial. Imagine little kids in Mid-America telling their parents they're reading a book called Der Antichrist.
3. I think Foucault's Pendulum is a fun book, but it is nearly inaccessible to the majority of the population of the planet due to its esoteric subject nature.
Political correctness is the pettiest form of casuistry.
ἡ δὲ κἀκ τριῶν τρυπημάτων ἐργαζομένη ἐνεκάλει τῇ φύσει, δυσφορουμένη, ὅτι δὴ μὴ καὶ τοὺς τιτθοὺς αὐτῇ εὐρύτερον ἢ νῦν εἰσι τρυπώη, ὅπως καὶ ἄλλην ἐνταῦθα μίξιν ἐπιτεχνᾶσθαι δυνατὴ εἴη. – Procopius
Ummaka qinnassa nīk!
*MySmiley*
ἡ δὲ κἀκ τριῶν τρυπημάτων ἐργαζομένη ἐνεκάλει τῇ φύσει, δυσφορουμένη, ὅτι δὴ μὴ καὶ τοὺς τιτθοὺς αὐτῇ εὐρύτερον ἢ νῦν εἰσι τρυπώη, ὅπως καὶ ἄλλην ἐνταῦθα μίξιν ἐπιτεχνᾶσθαι δυνατὴ εἴη. – Procopius
Ummaka qinnassa nīk!
*MySmiley*
Censorship, promotion of books and dissemination of ideas.
05/02/2010 05:15:17 PM
- 1455 Views
Tough Subject, censorship
05/02/2010 07:24:39 PM
- 959 Views
I think I would be worried if a school had more than one copy of Mein Kampf
06/02/2010 06:30:08 PM
- 878 Views
I was mostly just using it as an example, since it was what the article talked about
06/02/2010 10:20:08 PM
- 918 Views
I actually ran into this in high school.
05/02/2010 08:33:10 PM
- 1103 Views
I found that we covered a lot about American Indian issues in US History.
06/02/2010 06:23:16 PM
- 893 Views
Anyone interested in German history in particular and European history in general should read it.
05/02/2010 08:47:14 PM
- 1068 Views
I think jane austen and the brontes would be good to leave in
06/02/2010 03:44:10 AM
- 803 Views
I read a great number of books I don't necesarily agree with, so I'm on your side.
06/02/2010 06:19:21 PM
- 899 Views
Hmm.
05/02/2010 09:11:13 PM
- 939 Views
It's interesting that many of the most influential books are hardly ever read.
06/02/2010 06:15:19 PM
- 875 Views
Love the survey.
05/02/2010 09:42:29 PM
- 1054 Views
Interesting. Do you really think that Nineteen Eighty-Four is plausible?
06/02/2010 10:13:56 AM
- 899 Views
Re: Censorship, promotion of books and dissemination of ideas.
05/02/2010 11:09:41 PM
- 1024 Views
Nietzsche as mandatory reading - that's a fun idea.
06/02/2010 06:00:29 PM
- 948 Views
Re: Censorship, promotion of books and dissemination of ideas.
05/02/2010 11:47:08 PM
- 1019 Views
I agree with most of that. But to quote our eminent Camilla...
06/02/2010 10:30:15 AM
- 1002 Views
Re: I agree with most of that. But to quote our eminent Camilla...
06/02/2010 12:25:37 PM
- 922 Views
I agree on the Shakespeare (and mentioned that below).
06/02/2010 05:54:50 PM
- 899 Views
Re: I agree on the Shakespeare (and mentioned that below).
06/02/2010 06:05:48 PM
- 1008 Views
I don't think high school students need to discuss possibilities for staging.
07/02/2010 01:36:03 AM
- 841 Views
nice post
06/02/2010 01:27:23 AM
- 868 Views
Re: nice post
06/02/2010 01:29:34 AM
- 878 Views
A lot of people think von Clausewitz is important.
06/02/2010 05:51:44 PM
- 809 Views
More than Sun Tzu? *NM*
06/02/2010 08:31:44 PM
- 329 Views
Sun Zi was relatively unknown in the West until recently.
07/02/2010 01:30:06 AM
- 856 Views
Sure, but he could still have influenced world history by influencing Asia... *NM*
07/02/2010 01:35:17 AM
- 362 Views
Doubtful.
07/02/2010 01:41:01 AM
- 874 Views
In many ways, books are like automobiles or power tools...
06/02/2010 11:08:01 AM
- 1036 Views
The interesting thing, to my mind, is that the BBC article talks about "Lebensraum".
06/02/2010 04:46:34 PM
- 872 Views
And nary a thing about Alois Hitler, no?
06/02/2010 05:52:50 PM
- 1076 Views

I have yet to see a literature teacher in schools teach history through literature.
07/02/2010 01:33:57 AM
- 889 Views
But yet I know several history teachers who have done this
07/02/2010 10:38:49 AM
- 987 Views
Viewing history through a literary prism is usually an injustice to the study of history.
07/02/2010 03:16:30 PM
- 953 Views
No, the opposite: viewing literature through historical lens is what I'm interested in
07/02/2010 03:31:04 PM
- 932 Views
Hmm.
06/02/2010 11:33:02 PM
- 901 Views
I will answer yiour survey but may I ask a question first? What did you think of Steinbeck?
07/02/2010 06:20:52 AM
- 847 Views
The Grapes of Wrath was required in Sophomore English in HS. And I loved it.
07/02/2010 03:25:55 PM
- 935 Views