Malaysia Says No To Scary Books

[dArKeR]

Malaysia will restrict the importation or publishing of books judged to be too scary because they could be a bad influence, a minister said.

The restrictions would apply to books with elements of mystery, fantasy, the occult and superstition that were "calculated to entertain by frightening" the reader, Deputy Home Minister Chor Chee Heung was quoted as saying Thursday in The Star newspaper.

"These materials will create an unhealthy picture on the minds of the readers, and influence them by such far-fetched ghostly stories," Chor was quoted as saying.

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2003/11/06/world/main582352.shtml

[DisgustipatedinCA]

1. There goes "A Charge to Keep" and "Who's Looking Out for You"

They probably weren't big sellers in Malaysia anyhow.

[Sequoia]

2. and "Frankenstein", "Dracula" and

"The Haunting" to name another few. All Steven King books you can be sure.

[Sick of Bullshit]

4. No Harry Potter, either

Will "It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown" also make the list?

[Tom Yossarian Joad]

5. There goes the Bible

[dArKeR]

7. LOL you nut!!!

[saigon68]

9. NICE COUNTRY !!!!

I'm surprised that assholes in charge of this country don't just order lobotomys for the population.

I imagine certain paintings like Guernica by Picaso are banned too. What an evil place to live.

[omshanti]

12. it's NOT an evil place to live

I'm from Malaysia, and it is one of the most wonderful places to live. I can't help it if our government does idiotic things from time to time. (any more than YOU can help the American government being idiotic)

[Voltaire99]

3. A tragedy!

From the oral tradition to the present, a good scare has been an indispensible means to impart life lessons to children (and serve as a reminder to adults).

Clearly, with a real-life bogeyman like Mahathir Mohamad in power, the Malayasians have a lot to worry about. This kind of state censorship just deepens the darkness.

[smallprint]

6. kick

[zwielicht]

8. reminds me of fahrenheit 491...

i'm afraid they will have to open a new section for the 21st century at ala.org/.../Book_Burning/20th_Century/

well, we've got mass-media censorship for that task...

i think progressive politics maybe should focus much more on psychology - just think newspeak and so on.. it's very strange that "scary" books lead ahead of political ones in lists of banned books!

did any of you read "the new inquisition" by robert anton wilson? i started reading it lately, but after the first chapter, which is really great - about fundamentalism, book-burnings, neurosemantics and how some things become "unthinkable" - i stopped reading because he started to talk about strange phenomena (and the fight against investigations of them) all the time. now, after reading this, i think i'll finish it...

[0007]

10. Maybe the Brits dropped off a copy of "The Pearl"...

when they were there and the Malaysians can't find anything to match it.

[omshanti]

11. GREATTT.... every time my country is in the news,

it is something extremely embarassing.
I can't believe this latest crap from the overzealous Malaysian censorship board.