[HPforGrownups] Liberal Bans, Re: Hi everyone -- banning the books

[Kemper]

No: HPFGUIDX 159678

> > Kemper earlier:
> > Who would Dumbledore ban? (Horcruxes, anyone?)
> > Who would Harry ban? (Maybe T. Riddle. But then what's next? A. Frank?)
> > Who would Hermione ban? (Maybe... anything Severus Snape wrote under
> > the pseudonym of the Half Blood Prince. But what about Samuel Clemens
> > and his sobriquet?)
>
> montims:
> I'm sorry - I don't understand - why would Harry ban Anne Frank, or Hermione
> ban Mark Twain? I would add, not wishing to be provocative or anything, and
> willing to be corrected, that I feel the banning is more of an American than
> a British thing, for whatever political or religious reason. Do they try to
> censor books as much in Britain?


Kemper now:
It's not that Harry or Hermione would ban Anne; it's that banning one
book makes it easier to ban others.  So starting off with what seems a
legitimate and righteous ban, sets the ground work to ban for reasons
less reasonable.

So the book on Horcruxes is banned, but why not the book that tells
Hermione the magical words to kill someone, Avada Kedavra?  I don't
think there's canon to support that Hermione actually read the
Unforgivables in a book, but come on.  She's Muggle-born and reared,
how is it that she knows of the curse and not Harry?  I don't want to
hear the lame excuse that he's not curious.  Hermione is a voracious
reader.  She spends a bit of time in the library where I'm sure she
not only studies hard but picks up a book or two.

Which gets me thinking... would she have read it in the All Ages
section or the Restricted section?  What age does a student need to be
to read from the Restricted section?

Back to Hermione knowing the curse.... She knows the language
necessary for the curse.  Which is nearly the same as a junior high
school or senior high school having a book about guns along with an
actual gun, unloaded of course, and a box of ammo write next to it.
Hermione probably naturally understood for the curse to work you would
have to aim your wand at your intended victim.

After we read that Hermione knew about the Avada Kedavra while in
Crouch!Moody's Unforgivable lesson, we know that throughout the rest
of the series she (and her classmates) bring an unloaded weapon to
school all the time.

But that's cool.  Hogwarts doesn't seem to have a culture of violence,
so even if the wand was loaded it wouldn't be used.

Or for those of you who are pro-NRA (I happen to love the Second
Amendment and guns but appall the NRA) and don't appreciate gun
metaphors, replace 'gun' with 'bow' and 'ammo' with 'arrows'.

So... why wasn't the book with the Avada Kedavra banned?  It seems a
pre-req for the Horcrux.

Kemper, pleased as punch for bring this thread back to HP