Snopes Defending The Book Burners

March 5th, 2009 midwifetoad Posted in News | 3 Comments »

As a follow up to the previous article, I notice the following, supposedly comforting, little note at the end of the Snopes article:

A CPSC announcement issued on 6 February 2009 regarding that agency’s enforcement policy also stated that they would not “impose penalties against anyone for making, importing, distributing, or selling” certain specified items, including any “ordinary children’s book printed after 1985.”

WTF are these idiots thinking about? How many classic books have not been reprinted since 1985 and never will be? This is exactly what was envisioned by Bradbury in Fahrenheit 451. And it’s not theoretical. It’s happening.

As readers are aware, the Consumer Product Safety Commission yesterday advised thrift stores and other resellers and distributors of used goods to discard (unless they wished to test for lead or take other typically unpractical steps such as contacting manufacturers) children’s books printed before 1985 and a very wide range of other children’s products, including apparel and playthings.

I wasn’t thrilled with the exception stating that we can sell pre-1985 children’s books as long as they are pricey vintage collectibles for adult collectors. Um, great, but most of our children’s books, even our older children’s books, are sold for children to read. And read them, they do.

We ran an audit in our bookstore today. We have about 7000 books catalogued. Of our children’s chapter books, about 65% are pre-1985. Of our children’s picture books, about 35% are pre-1985. Most of these sell for under $10 and are stocked as children’s reading.

As an ethical matter, I really can’t discard our cultural heritage just because the CPSC has decreed that books published through *1984* may or may not still form a legal part of the canon of children’s literature for our culture.

So how’s it going to feel in fifty years when the Democratic administration that replaced the evil George Bush will be known as the book burners? And the mainstream press that looked on in horror at conservative culture warriors sat silent while the flames rose?

Only in America.