Not because of the author himself but because of the content of his books.
Manpooper on
Good for him. I mean, what he’s written is the kind of stuff that’ll keep you up at night so I’m not all that surprised.
ssjlance on
I wonder if it’s for the content in his books, or if it’s because he’s a dirty liberal and it’s the conservatives who fight ideologies they disagree with in order to push their own ideology in its place.
Who am I kidding, it’s both.
Anybody here ever read IT and remember how they escape from the sewers when children? That’s a content reason.
IT opens up with the senseless murder of a gay man at a fair and has a strong undercurrent the whole way through about bigotry and discrimination. That’s a political reason.
IAmThePonch on
I’ve said it before and ill say it again, it will be a very funny day when these book banning weirdos discover not just what extreme horror novels are but how surprisingly popular they are
murderedbydeath2 on
I feel like he would be proud of this lol I would in this era.
HeartoftheSun119 on
They don’t want to give children nightmares 😄
HaxanWriter on
If only he were banned for his terrible writing….
DIABOLUS777 on
So much for ‘Freedom’.
You can have guns but not make believe…
unlovelyladybartleby on
That’s funny because I live in the only Canadian province that is actively banning books and my kid is reading Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redepmtion in school.
He was a little taken aback by all the graphic rape depictions but is determined to avoid prison, so I’m calling it a win.
He also used the story to support his argument that our next family tv show should be Shameless.
FloridaGatorMan on
Make sense considering he writes pretty gory horror books primarily aimed at adults. Also makes sense considering that one scene from IT might land him somewhere on the list alone.
amigo1974 on
If you i understand your banned. Ahhahhhah
frenchezz on
Some of y’all haven’t read Stephen King and it shows. SOME of his books are 100% inappropriate for middle schools and questionably appropriate for high school. This has nothing to do with politics, but about the themes and events that occur in the story not being age appropriate.
_afflatus on
A Clockwork Orange is the most banned book, but of SK’s 87 titles, Carrie and The Stand was listed. They get banned for LGBTQ content, race mention, sexual content, and violence. Sarah J. maas and jodi picoult are also banned
DarkAres02 on
I can at least see “It” being banned
Unlucky_Walk_7583 on
Impressive accomplishment Mr. King!
Kon-Tiki66 on
Damn shame. Although, when I was reading his books at 12, they were my mom’s after she finished them. No way I would have found them at school.
Electrical_Aside7487 on
He banned one of his own books.
seasidepeaks on
Obviously this wave of censoring is more related to politics than any sort of concern for students. And given the free speech aspect of it censorship must be rejected.
That said, I do struggle with the idea of letting children consume horror media (including books). I enjoyed some of them growing up, and even now. But I don’t think they are good for a young mind. Marinating a child’s brain in thoughts of fear or violence feels destructive to me, like a soft form of viewing violent footage of the real world. We ought to shelter them from the world at that age, until they are adults. The world itself will expose them to enough cruelty and horror, why feed them more through books?
Of course I am being hypocritical here, for I enjoyed stuff like *LOTR* and the *Hunger Games* as a youngster, and there’s plenty of violence and serious themes in those books (heck, even *Harry Potter*, which I read as an actual child, has some of that). But maybe that was bad for me and my generation too.
gadget850 on
He is just that good.
Karsa69420 on
To quote King himself “You owe it to yourself if the powers that be ban a book you need to read it to find out what they don’t want you to know” or something along those lines
juniorlax16 on
I tried to check out Stephen King’s Christine from my elementary school library. I was 8 or 9. The librarian made me read it out loud to ensure I could read it and understand it.
That’s the day we found out I had pink eye and I never got to actually read the book.
MindYourManners918 on
Somewhat ironic, because as an adult, I love reading, and I very much have Stephen King to think for it. If I wasn’t reading his stuff as a teenager, I probably wouldn’t have read any books at all unless they were forced upon me.
There’s no question a lot of his books have inappropriate language and content. They really shouldn’t be in school libraries. They’re just not appropriate. That’s fine.
But if teachers and parents want their kids to enjoy reading, hand them a Stephen King book.
thecelcollector on
I love his books, but a number of them aren’t appropriate for schools.
Jarita12 on
I don´t think it has anything to do with his books. I mean, yes, there are horrors and there is some disturbing stuff in some of them but it is obvious people banning his books have never read any REAL disturbing horror books. I think it may have something to do with his political views.
I bet at his age, he could care less, crying at home with his millions 😀
IrishUpYourCoffee on
Love him.
GraniteGeekNH on
Writers were proud of being on Nixon’s Enemy List. I suspect King feels the same about this.
PygmeePony on
I hope he’ll put that on his books. It’ll be a badge of honor.
Tuscon_Valdez on
Probably because he wrote a book where a group of 11yr olds run a train on their friend to defeat a cosmic monster
gorginhanson on
Because he wrote a book that a lot of school shooters were caught with.
Constant-Horror-9424 on
It’s gotta be mainly “rage”right.
harrisonlaine on
I read The Shining when I was in elementary school and nothing about me has changed…
Ok, I’m transfem now but not because of Stephen King.
YakSlothLemon on
Makes sense. King’s books has been challenged since the 80s.
In the debate about whether the high school library needs to cater to popularity, or use its limited budget to promote quality (award winners, nonfiction related to course material etc) King will often lose out.
His language and the graphic sex scenes also make him eminently questionable/challengeable for high school. (Remembering that schools act in loco parentis so have a different burden than public libraries.)
There’s also always a reasonable argument about whether high school libraries should use their limited budgets to pay for books that are available right down the street in the public library.
anarchyusa on
Does the ending of IT not concern anyone?
gukakke on
Probably because of all the weird sex scenes he puts in them.
ECV_Analog on
Makes sense.
* He has a ton of volume.
* Horror is easy to ban and lean on “but the children”
* The American right have become censorship-happy in recent years, and they’re angry he doesn’t love their Dear Leader.
letsnotfightok on
Kids are being taught to read still?
mrva on
i got hooked on stephen king when i was about 12 reading pet semetary. some of his stuff may not be appropriate or whatever. i don’t read his stuff much anymore, but that man gave me a love for reading that i still have. so there’s that.
once again, parents need to parent, and not slough off that responsibility to our public institutions.
Optimal-Bag-5918 on
The book *IT* has an orgy scene involving 12-year-olds… It’s not about the horror… a lot of his books are extremely inappropriate for children and young adults
38 Comments
Not because of the author himself but because of the content of his books.
Good for him. I mean, what he’s written is the kind of stuff that’ll keep you up at night so I’m not all that surprised.
I wonder if it’s for the content in his books, or if it’s because he’s a dirty liberal and it’s the conservatives who fight ideologies they disagree with in order to push their own ideology in its place.
Who am I kidding, it’s both.
Anybody here ever read IT and remember how they escape from the sewers when children? That’s a content reason.
IT opens up with the senseless murder of a gay man at a fair and has a strong undercurrent the whole way through about bigotry and discrimination. That’s a political reason.
I’ve said it before and ill say it again, it will be a very funny day when these book banning weirdos discover not just what extreme horror novels are but how surprisingly popular they are
I feel like he would be proud of this lol I would in this era.
They don’t want to give children nightmares 😄
If only he were banned for his terrible writing….
So much for ‘Freedom’.
You can have guns but not make believe…
That’s funny because I live in the only Canadian province that is actively banning books and my kid is reading Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redepmtion in school.
He was a little taken aback by all the graphic rape depictions but is determined to avoid prison, so I’m calling it a win.
He also used the story to support his argument that our next family tv show should be Shameless.
Make sense considering he writes pretty gory horror books primarily aimed at adults. Also makes sense considering that one scene from IT might land him somewhere on the list alone.
If you i understand your banned. Ahhahhhah
Some of y’all haven’t read Stephen King and it shows. SOME of his books are 100% inappropriate for middle schools and questionably appropriate for high school. This has nothing to do with politics, but about the themes and events that occur in the story not being age appropriate.
A Clockwork Orange is the most banned book, but of SK’s 87 titles, Carrie and The Stand was listed. They get banned for LGBTQ content, race mention, sexual content, and violence. Sarah J. maas and jodi picoult are also banned
I can at least see “It” being banned
Impressive accomplishment Mr. King!
Damn shame. Although, when I was reading his books at 12, they were my mom’s after she finished them. No way I would have found them at school.
He banned one of his own books.
Obviously this wave of censoring is more related to politics than any sort of concern for students. And given the free speech aspect of it censorship must be rejected.
That said, I do struggle with the idea of letting children consume horror media (including books). I enjoyed some of them growing up, and even now. But I don’t think they are good for a young mind. Marinating a child’s brain in thoughts of fear or violence feels destructive to me, like a soft form of viewing violent footage of the real world. We ought to shelter them from the world at that age, until they are adults. The world itself will expose them to enough cruelty and horror, why feed them more through books?
Of course I am being hypocritical here, for I enjoyed stuff like *LOTR* and the *Hunger Games* as a youngster, and there’s plenty of violence and serious themes in those books (heck, even *Harry Potter*, which I read as an actual child, has some of that). But maybe that was bad for me and my generation too.
He is just that good.
To quote King himself “You owe it to yourself if the powers that be ban a book you need to read it to find out what they don’t want you to know” or something along those lines
I tried to check out Stephen King’s Christine from my elementary school library. I was 8 or 9. The librarian made me read it out loud to ensure I could read it and understand it.
That’s the day we found out I had pink eye and I never got to actually read the book.
Somewhat ironic, because as an adult, I love reading, and I very much have Stephen King to think for it. If I wasn’t reading his stuff as a teenager, I probably wouldn’t have read any books at all unless they were forced upon me.
There’s no question a lot of his books have inappropriate language and content. They really shouldn’t be in school libraries. They’re just not appropriate. That’s fine.
But if teachers and parents want their kids to enjoy reading, hand them a Stephen King book.
I love his books, but a number of them aren’t appropriate for schools.
I don´t think it has anything to do with his books. I mean, yes, there are horrors and there is some disturbing stuff in some of them but it is obvious people banning his books have never read any REAL disturbing horror books. I think it may have something to do with his political views.
I bet at his age, he could care less, crying at home with his millions 😀
Love him.
Writers were proud of being on Nixon’s Enemy List. I suspect King feels the same about this.
I hope he’ll put that on his books. It’ll be a badge of honor.
Probably because he wrote a book where a group of 11yr olds run a train on their friend to defeat a cosmic monster
Because he wrote a book that a lot of school shooters were caught with.
It’s gotta be mainly “rage”right.
I read The Shining when I was in elementary school and nothing about me has changed…
Ok, I’m transfem now but not because of Stephen King.
Makes sense. King’s books has been challenged since the 80s.
In the debate about whether the high school library needs to cater to popularity, or use its limited budget to promote quality (award winners, nonfiction related to course material etc) King will often lose out.
His language and the graphic sex scenes also make him eminently questionable/challengeable for high school. (Remembering that schools act in loco parentis so have a different burden than public libraries.)
There’s also always a reasonable argument about whether high school libraries should use their limited budgets to pay for books that are available right down the street in the public library.
Does the ending of IT not concern anyone?
Probably because of all the weird sex scenes he puts in them.
Makes sense.
* He has a ton of volume.
* Horror is easy to ban and lean on “but the children”
* The American right have become censorship-happy in recent years, and they’re angry he doesn’t love their Dear Leader.
Kids are being taught to read still?
i got hooked on stephen king when i was about 12 reading pet semetary. some of his stuff may not be appropriate or whatever. i don’t read his stuff much anymore, but that man gave me a love for reading that i still have. so there’s that.
once again, parents need to parent, and not slough off that responsibility to our public institutions.
The book *IT* has an orgy scene involving 12-year-olds… It’s not about the horror… a lot of his books are extremely inappropriate for children and young adults