Speaker 1: Guess what mango with I will So I can't remember
Speaker 1: if we've talked about this on the show before, but
Speaker 1: but you know what the Wicked Bible is, right, definitely,
Speaker 1: it's the Bible with that printing error that says, uh,
Speaker 1: thou shalt commit adultery instead of thou shalt not commit auldulter. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that one word. There's a slight difference in the meaning there.
Speaker 1: But I've always wanted to see one of these, and
Speaker 1: there are actually only a few left in the world
Speaker 1: right now, and it it took about a year for
Speaker 1: people to realize the error. But when King Charles the
Speaker 1: first caught on, he was livid. He decided to find
Speaker 1: the printers something like three hundred pounds. He had their
Speaker 1: printing licenses revoked and basically shame them out of their positions.
Speaker 1: And of course the book was immediately banned. There was
Speaker 1: this massive bonfire to collect and burn every copy of
Speaker 1: these so called Wicked Bibles, but somehow, I think ten
Speaker 1: or eleven copies managed to get through, and there of
Speaker 1: course insanely valuable now. And actually, there's one other thing
Speaker 1: I didn't realize about the book, that the adultery mistake
Speaker 1: wasn't the only air in the book. What else was
Speaker 1: wrong with it? According to the Washington Post and Deuteronomy five,
Speaker 1: it's supposed to say, behold, the Lord hath showed us
Speaker 1: his glory and his greatness, but instead it says, behold,
Speaker 1: our Lord has showed us his glory and his great arts.
Speaker 1: I mean, that does seem problematic and just like a
Speaker 1: little bit different than what it actually says, but it
Speaker 1: points to a bigger theory. So Biblical scholars used to
Speaker 1: think the Wicked Bible got its name because of one
Speaker 1: unfortunate printing air, But with this second mistake, it actually
Speaker 1: brings up the idea of sabotage. And there's all these
Speaker 1: great conspiracy theories about who could have caused it and
Speaker 1: who wanted to get these royal printers in trouble, and
Speaker 1: it it makes the Wicked story even more fun. So
Speaker 1: today's episode is about all the stories of banned books,
Speaker 1: you know, from political exposes to Ulysses two, Where's Waldo
Speaker 1: and how it got banned from prisons? So let's dive
Speaker 1: in m hei their podcast listeners, Welcome to Part Time Genius.
Speaker 1: I'm Will Pearson and is always I'm joined by my
Speaker 1: good friend Man guesh Ticketer and sitting on the other
Speaker 1: side of that soundproof glass proudly displaying his first edition
Speaker 1: Captain Underpant's book. That's our Palin producer, Tristan McNeil. So,
Speaker 1: I mean, I know, it's a cute gag from Tristan
Speaker 1: showing off how many Captain Underpan's books he has. But
Speaker 1: did you realize that in two thousand twelve, Captain Underpant's
Speaker 1: was actually the number one band book in America? No? Really, yeah,
Speaker 1: apparently the a l A or the American Library Association
Speaker 1: releases this annual list of the titles that were most
Speaker 1: challenged or banned at libraries and schools and um that year.
Speaker 1: Captain Underpan's actually beat out Fifty Shades of Gray for
Speaker 1: the time, as well as books like Thirteen Reasons Why,
Speaker 1: which you know some say glorified suicide. It also beat
Speaker 1: out classics like Brave New World and To Kill a Mockingbird.
Speaker 1: That said, I I do have to say the book
Speaker 1: does come with a warning on it that warns readers
Speaker 1: and parents of readers from the outset. It's a sturgeon
Speaker 1: General's warning, and he reads some material in this book
Speaker 1: might be considered offensive by those who don't wear underwear.
Speaker 1: That's a helpful warning. I mean, you can see how
Speaker 1: the word underpants might set off some alarm bells for parents,
Speaker 1: and it seems like it's going to be this rude
Speaker 1: book instead of actually a very sweet one. But you know,
Speaker 1: on the other hand, the word underpants is exactly why
Speaker 1: kids get excited to read the book. I mean, the
Speaker 1: only movie my parents banned me from watching was Ferris
Speaker 1: Bueller's Day Off, which I know, you know, but I
Speaker 1: still think it's weird. And obviously it's because my dad
Speaker 1: went to college at like thirteen or something and then
Speaker 1: failed out because he was working on this underground newspaper
Speaker 1: and playing in the Rolling Stones cover band and entering
Speaker 1: Jitterbug contest apparently, but ovisually he was doing everything except
Speaker 1: going to school. But my mom didn't want me to
Speaker 1: get any ideas from the movie. So did you ever
Speaker 1: actually get to see Ferris Bueller's Day Off? Yeah? I
Speaker 1: saw it like the weekend after it came out on
Speaker 1: VHS at my uncle's house. You know, it immediately became
Speaker 1: my favorite movie. Yeah, and it is a great movie.
Speaker 1: So I'm glad you finally got to see it, and
Speaker 1: I like that. We've already talked a little bit about
Speaker 1: Captain Underpant's one of my kids favorites, of course when
Speaker 1: they first discover it. But let me read you a
Speaker 1: few other children's books that have been banned that that
Speaker 1: actually kind of surprised me. And I'm going to kick
Speaker 1: it off with Winnie the Pooh, which oddly has been
Speaker 1: banned in a lot of countries. So is this because
Speaker 1: the piglet, Because I know Miss Peggy was banned in
Speaker 1: Saudi Arabia for I guess for just being a pig um.
Speaker 1: But actually, you know, before I let you go, I've
Speaker 1: got this tangent about pigs. Did you see that Pepper
Speaker 1: Pig was banned in China? Which is just so sad?
Speaker 1: But I did see this. This was just last week, right,
Speaker 1: I didn't actually see why it was banned. So friendly.
Speaker 1: The cartoon character has been, as those say, with like
Speaker 1: laziness and slackers and also gangsters for some reason, like
Speaker 1: people who are getting Pepper Pig tattoos, which makes no sense.
Speaker 1: But the countries instead asking its citizen institune into the
Speaker 1: government created alternative. It's called Little Pig Dodo. But I
Speaker 1: got you off, so tell me a little bit more
Speaker 1: about Winnie the Pooh. Well, you were right with one
Speaker 1: of the guesses, and that that's that Some Muslim nations
Speaker 1: have banned the book because of Piglet. But you know,
Speaker 1: according to the book's enthusiast site, Bookster, it has this
Speaker 1: long history of being banned. And when Winnie the Pooh
Speaker 1: first came out, some American and Polish leaders were outraged
Speaker 1: because talking animals can, I guess, be seen as an
Speaker 1: insult to God. But the more interesting thing, and something
Speaker 1: I hadn't thought about, was that the books are often
Speaker 1: banned in communist countries, and that's for a different reason.
Speaker 1: It's because the animals are seen as representing the seven
Speaker 1: deadly sins. So if you think about it, poo is
Speaker 1: a glutton, owl is too proud. I guess you've got
Speaker 1: Piglet who's in he is and or is of course slothful.
Speaker 1: Rabbit gets a little too angry or wrathful, and who
Speaker 1: does that leave? I guess that leads us with Tiger,
Speaker 1: who is I don't know, bouncy is that one of
Speaker 1: the seven deadly sent But the books are read as
Speaker 1: trying to inspire religion, which is of course problematic in
Speaker 1: communist nations. So I mean that makes sense. But what
Speaker 1: are some of the other surprises you found? All right, well,
Speaker 1: let's see the other ones that have on the list.
Speaker 1: Are you got Ferdinand the Bull that was banned for
Speaker 1: being too pacifists and Gandhi and Franklin Roosevelt loved it,
Speaker 1: and of course Hitler called it degenerate democratic propaganda. I mean,
Speaker 1: I feel like those quotes should be on the book jacket, right, like,
Speaker 1: if it's not part of Hitler's Children's book club, that
Speaker 1: feels like it's a good thing. But what else that
Speaker 1: idea of Hitler's children's book club? All right? Well, the
Speaker 1: one that surprised me the most. And you'll remember this
Speaker 1: from reading it to your kids as as like babies,
Speaker 1: even as brown Bear, brown Bear, You remember this book, right, yeah, definitely.
Speaker 1: Well that this was a rare case where a book
Speaker 1: was banned by accident. Yeah, I mean, I was about
Speaker 1: to say, it's hard to imagine it being banned for
Speaker 1: introducing colors and animals to kids. Well, the story is
Speaker 1: that someone on the state Board of Education in Texas
Speaker 1: was doing their research and googled the author's name. His
Speaker 1: name is Bill Martin and confused him with a different
Speaker 1: Bill Martin who had written a book called Ethical Marxism.
Speaker 1: So that's why there's not quite the juicy story behind it.
Speaker 1: I was hoping they had been offended for some ridiculous reason,
Speaker 1: but they're just so many interesting ones on this list. Also,
Speaker 1: one of our favorite authors or kids authors, Shel Silverstein,
Speaker 1: his book A Light in the Attic, was banned in Wisconsin.
Speaker 1: So this is confusing to me because I mean, it
Speaker 1: would make sense to me if The Giving Tree was banned,
Speaker 1: because you know, the hero of that book is so selfish,
Speaker 1: but a lightened attics just so good. Oh, no kidding it.
Speaker 1: And I you'll remember this poem when you hear it.
Speaker 1: But this is the offending poem, and and you can
Speaker 1: decide for yourself. It's called how not to have to
Speaker 1: dry the dishes. It goes like us, if you have
Speaker 1: to dry the dishes, such an awful, boring chore. If
Speaker 1: you have to dry the dishes intead of going to
Speaker 1: the store. If you have to dry the dishes and
Speaker 1: you drop one on the floor, maybe they won't let
Speaker 1: you dry the dishes anymore. So basically, you know, parents
Speaker 1: were worried about kids breaking their china, I guess, or
Speaker 1: having kids manipulate their way out of chores or something.
Speaker 1: It's just so weird that this was banned for that.
Speaker 1: I mean, it's ridiculous, right, Like, don't we want mischievous kids,
Speaker 1: like not too mischievous, but you want a little Zanian
Speaker 1: nous and creativity and the kind of kid who laughs
Speaker 1: at poems like that. Also, I do think if you're
Speaker 1: gonna take things so literally, shouldn't we be stopping kids
Speaker 1: from fables about like mice taking thorns out of lions
Speaker 1: pause because you really shouldn't be touching lions pause, Or
Speaker 1: from like watching things like Honey, I shrunk the kids
Speaker 1: because shrinking your kids isn't great parenting. You're right, it's
Speaker 1: really not a good idea if you're a parent. I'm
Speaker 1: glad that we've learned that now that we're both parents.
Speaker 1: But it feels like, you know, when you look at
Speaker 1: the breakdown of the types of books that have been banned,
Speaker 1: especially kids books that have been banned, you can break
Speaker 1: them down in a couple of ways. Some of the
Speaker 1: bands are about the type of kid that you want
Speaker 1: to raise. Obviously, a good communist who's banning Winnie the
Speaker 1: Pooh is trying to protect future generations from what they
Speaker 1: see as the shackles of religion, I guess. And it's
Speaker 1: the same with Shell Silverstein or Captain Underpants. And you know,
Speaker 1: whether right or wrong, their parents who want to raise
Speaker 1: a certain kind of good kid who's never exposed to
Speaker 1: any rude ideas. But then there's another type of book
Speaker 1: that gets banned, and that's a little bit more about
Speaker 1: these difficult conversations. So how do you mean, Well, there
Speaker 1: was this interesting article in the Atlantic and it was
Speaker 1: written by Paul Ringel, who's a history professor, and this
Speaker 1: from back in two thousand and sixteen. But he was
Speaker 1: talking about about fifty two percent of books that were
Speaker 1: banned or challenged in the ten years prior to two
Speaker 1: thousand and sixteen were what you'd label as diverse content.
Speaker 1: Now these are books like The Hate You Give or Wonder,
Speaker 1: which you know about race, or religion, or gender, sexual orientation,
Speaker 1: many cases, even disabilities. But you know, he points out
Speaker 1: that this isn't a new issue. Parents have always been
Speaker 1: wary of having difficult conversations with their kids. In the
Speaker 1: eight hundreds, there was this magazine called Juvenile Miscellany, which
Speaker 1: I guess was kind of like the highlights of the
Speaker 1: Cricket magazine of its time, and it was filled with
Speaker 1: stories for children, and it was distributed mostly in New England.
Speaker 1: But you know, then started running these anti slavery stories
Speaker 1: which really worked to humanize the slaves. And this was
Speaker 1: in the eighteen thirties, and immediately the readership dropped. Then
Speaker 1: the magazine folded about a year or so after that,
Speaker 1: I think, and as he puts it quote, the outcome
Speaker 1: had a chilling effect on other publications. Everyone was scared
Speaker 1: of talking about issues of slavery, even though this audience
Speaker 1: is actually in the Northeast. But his point was that
Speaker 1: the publishers have always had this divide. You know, do
Speaker 1: you write to please your kid readers while encouraging them
Speaker 1: to think about the larger world, or do you please
Speaker 1: the parent and stay in this comfy, rble safe zone.
Speaker 1: And then the case of something like shel Silverstein, isn't
Speaker 1: having a conversation about how to read. You know that
Speaker 1: you don't just trust something because it's imprinted. It seems
Speaker 1: like that's a good conversation to have pretty early in
Speaker 1: a kid's life. Yeah, it's a good question, and I've
Speaker 1: actually heard a similar argument that the reason it took
Speaker 1: so long for books like Corduroy or Ezra Jack's Keith
Speaker 1: Snowy Day to break the color barrier and children's books
Speaker 1: with African American heroes was that publishers had actually been
Speaker 1: hesitant to publish anything that made parents feel uncomfortable. But
Speaker 1: during the era of civil rights, those worries were breaking down. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and actually, while we're talking about race, let's let's take
Speaker 1: a second to talk about Huck Finn, which, of course
Speaker 1: you know we've known has been on the band Books
Speaker 1: list over the years. And it's funny how this book
Speaker 1: caused controversy from the very beginning, and for very different reasons.
Speaker 1: At first, Mark Twain's classic was banned for being too
Speaker 1: progressive and humanizing slaves, and it was also banned for
Speaker 1: having low class language and conquered Massachusetts librarians called the
Speaker 1: trash and said it was suitable only for the slums.
Speaker 1: Then people in Missouri thought it showed them as backwards
Speaker 1: talking as well, and then, you know, you fast forward
Speaker 1: later in the fifties, then Double A CP raised the
Speaker 1: issue of how many times rachel slurs are used in
Speaker 1: the book, and eventually it got banned for being racist.
Speaker 1: So I love The Adventures of Huckleberry Fin. I I
Speaker 1: think when I read it, I was just so taken
Speaker 1: with this idea of um, I don't know, like an
Speaker 1: unreliable and mischievous storyteller and who just pulls you through
Speaker 1: an adventure. And it was just so funny and unpretentious
Speaker 1: to me and totally different from everything else I'd read.
Speaker 1: But I just saw this thing in g Q. They
Speaker 1: put out a list of twenty one books you don't
Speaker 1: have to read, and it's kind of a read this
Speaker 1: not that for classic literature. And Katie Weaver, who we
Speaker 1: love from our mental flast days and is one of
Speaker 1: my favorite writers. She she made a really smart point,
Speaker 1: she writes, quote, the worst crime committed by the Adventures
Speaker 1: of Huckleberry Finn is that it makes first time Twin
Speaker 1: readers think that Twain wrote tedious meandering stories. He did,
Speaker 1: as is evidenced by this his book of Tedious Meandering Stories,
Speaker 1: but he also wrote a lot of richly entertaining meandering
Speaker 1: stories that are not constrained by the ham fisted narration
Speaker 1: of a fictional backcountry child or suffused with his sweaty
Speaker 1: imitation of a slave talking. Alternatively, read Frederick Douglas's firsthand
Speaker 1: account of slavery, which is equal parts shocking and heartbreaking.
Speaker 1: While Jim, the affable slave friend of Huck Finn exclaims
Speaker 1: things like lawsy as mighty glad, Frederick Douglas makes observations
Speaker 1: like I love the pure, peaceable, and impartial Christianity of Christ.
Speaker 1: I therefore hate the corrupt, slaveholding women, whipping cradle plundering,
Speaker 1: partial and hypocritical Christianity of this land. I mean, I
Speaker 1: condenced to writing some And she goes on to talk
Speaker 1: about how amazing the plot of narrative of the life
Speaker 1: of Frederick Douglas is. But uh, it's a smart point
Speaker 1: that we too often tell this like slave with the
Speaker 1: smile type story to kids and our cultural reference point
Speaker 1: for a slave who's escaped as Jim from Huck Finn,
Speaker 1: instead of this unbelievably eloquent and really powerful Frederick Douglas. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's a great point, and I do love Katie's writing.
Speaker 1: That's a that's a really really powerful quote from that.
Speaker 1: But I actually want to talk about an equally important
Speaker 1: book and one that might be seen as as powerful
Speaker 1: and that not surprisingly mango, it's Where's Waldo? So, but
Speaker 1: before we chat about why you can't read it in prisons,
Speaker 1: let's take a quick break. Welcome back to Part Time Genius.
Speaker 1: We we're talking banned books and specifically Where's Waldo? Now? Well,
Speaker 1: I do have to confess. One of my favorite little
Speaker 1: stories from our friend Jake Rosson is on the Where's Waldo?
Speaker 1: Topless beach scandal? And every time I see a Where's
Speaker 1: Waldo book, I think about that. But I don't think
Speaker 1: this is what you were talking about when you said
Speaker 1: Waldo was banned to prisons. Now that the Walldo that
Speaker 1: got banned at prisons was Where's Waldo? Santa Spectacular? But
Speaker 1: tell me what is this topless candal? It's really delicious.
Speaker 1: So apparently it started when some kid in East Hampton,
Speaker 1: New York got a Waldo book out of the library
Speaker 1: and found that one of the tiny women in this
Speaker 1: big beach scene was topless. She's a sunbathing on her
Speaker 1: stomach and lying on top of her top and this
Speaker 1: kid with an ice cream cone kind of touches the
Speaker 1: cone to her back, so in the pic she's captured
Speaker 1: arching her back up in shock. Yeah, I can see
Speaker 1: why parents might have been a little concerned by this,
Speaker 1: but I'm curious to know how much breast is little
Speaker 1: Johnny seeing here. Well, from my initial reading, I thought
Speaker 1: it was just a little side boop, but apparently there's
Speaker 1: definitely some nipple in there as well. And according to
Speaker 1: Jake's reporting, the kid was quote as quote being disgusted
Speaker 1: and upon finding not Waldo, he kind of immediately ran
Speaker 1: to tell his mom, but not before showing it to
Speaker 1: his younger brother first. But anyway, the mom got the
Speaker 1: book banned from American libraries and bookstores, which is reasonable,
Speaker 1: I guess, but I had forgotten this. The books are
Speaker 1: actually from or Oh, that's right, He's what's he called? Here?
Speaker 1: Is Where's Wally? Right exactly? And you know, nudity and
Speaker 1: topless sunbathing isn't exactly controversial there. So while Where's Waldo
Speaker 1: was on the top of this books list throughout the nineties,
Speaker 1: right next to Howard Stern's Private Parts, Where's Wally actually
Speaker 1: got to keep hanging out with the topless woman on
Speaker 1: the beach, And of course it wasn't long before she
Speaker 1: covered up for American audiences. But tell me about this
Speaker 1: Santa Spectacular because I'm super curious. Well, I'm glad you
Speaker 1: took us on that on that tangent. I never thought
Speaker 1: the word side boob would be said on Part Time Genius,
Speaker 1: but we managed to to pull that off. But when
Speaker 1: you talk about this one, actually the band in Texas
Speaker 1: prisons was based less about a war on sand and
Speaker 1: it was more about the fact that the book came
Speaker 1: with stickers. Apparently, stickers are banned in prison for a
Speaker 1: number of reasons. First, you can you can make band
Speaker 1: aids with them, which is a problem because jails want
Speaker 1: to know about injuries, both major and minor, that are
Speaker 1: going on there. And also, stickers are an easy way
Speaker 1: to cover up a camera or a glass, and that
Speaker 1: might keep the guards from looking at you, So it
Speaker 1: makes sense for the prison to ban them. But the
Speaker 1: author was partially pointing out the absurdity of the fact
Speaker 1: that books like mine comp and The Holy Book of
Speaker 1: Adolf Hitler they're considered acceptable literature while being seen with
Speaker 1: a copy of Where's Waldo Santa Spectacular will land you
Speaker 1: in solitary. I love that you could be a badass
Speaker 1: in jail for just smuggling in a copy of Wear's
Speaker 1: Waldo And speaking of smuggling, uh, I know, we wanted
Speaker 1: to talk about my favorite story of all time, how
Speaker 1: Ulysses by James Joyce got to the US, and this
Speaker 1: involves one of our favorite publishers, Bennett Surf. That's right.
Speaker 1: So Bennett Surf is the publisher who founded Random House,
Speaker 1: and we've talked about him a couple of times. He's,
Speaker 1: of course the guy who bet Dr Seuss that he
Speaker 1: couldn't write a book with less than fifty words. We
Speaker 1: mentioned that before and that the book ended up being
Speaker 1: Green Eggs in Ham, But actually before we talked about
Speaker 1: this anymore, can I tell you my favorite Bennett Surf fact? Definitely?
Speaker 1: So Bennett Surf loved writers and he liked hanging out
Speaker 1: with them and talking to them about literature, and he
Speaker 1: actually liked make edits. He once pleaded with iron Ran
Speaker 1: to cut the John Galt speech, and I love her
Speaker 1: response to this, She said, would you cut the Bible?
Speaker 1: Which is just kind of like peaque iron Ran. But
Speaker 1: my favorite fact is that he loved Gertrude Stein and
Speaker 1: he would publish her books just a kind of be
Speaker 1: in her orbit. And Surf enjoyed big personalities and challenging authors,
Speaker 1: and he even admitted in his introduction to her book
Speaker 1: the book was called Geographical History of America or the
Speaker 1: Relation of Human Nature to the Human Mind. It's quite
Speaker 1: a long title, but this is how his intro to
Speaker 1: the book starts. I must admit, frankly, I do not
Speaker 1: know what ms Stein is talking about. I do not
Speaker 1: even understand the title. That's ridiculous. Apparently she was fine
Speaker 1: with it, and they had this relationship that was pretty playful,
Speaker 1: and when he asked her to explain the line arose
Speaker 1: as a rose as a rose, she just responded, Bennett,
Speaker 1: you're a very nice boy, but you're rather stupid. And
Speaker 1: I just always kind of was amused by that quote.
Speaker 1: But let's talk about the Ultimate band Book, which is
Speaker 1: of course Ulysses definitely. So this telling is based on
Speaker 1: a story I worked on in Metal Flass with my
Speaker 1: pal Lucas Adams. But I'm gonna try to keep it
Speaker 1: as quick as I can. So Surf, as you listeners
Speaker 1: have probably figured out by now, is this charismatic and
Speaker 1: savvy and really energized character and he's trying to make
Speaker 1: a name for his new company, Random House, and Ulysses
Speaker 1: has been around for a while, but it gained a
Speaker 1: reputation for being obscene. A Harvard professor at the time
Speaker 1: it claimed that the work showed that Joyce was quote
Speaker 1: in an advanced stage of psychic disintegration, and places like
Speaker 1: Quarterly Review talked about the book like it was trying
Speaker 1: to destroy Western civilization. And of course all of this
Speaker 1: baffled James Joyce right like he was a little irritated
Speaker 1: that he had written this masterpiece and poured all his
Speaker 1: effort into this and he just couldn't make any money
Speaker 1: off it. When it was being serialized in the US,
Speaker 1: the courts banned it on similar obscenity grounds. The New
Speaker 1: York Society for the Suppression of Vice had actually set
Speaker 1: up this court case against it, and it made it
Speaker 1: so that just owning a copy of the book was
Speaker 1: this arrestable offense. I mean, this is crazy, right for Joyce,
Speaker 1: it was just this book that he couldn't get anyone
Speaker 1: to take on anyway. In the famous indie bookstore in
Speaker 1: Paris called the Shakespeare Publishing Company starts publishing the book
Speaker 1: in this light blue cover, and to be seen with
Speaker 1: these books was kind of a thing for the literarty.
Speaker 1: So if you wanted to read the book in the US,
Speaker 1: you'd have to go there or sneak a copy over.
Speaker 1: And it was kind of fun and illegal. But if
Speaker 1: the Postal Service got their hands on the book, they
Speaker 1: were under strict orders to burn it immediately, and you
Speaker 1: could actually get arrested for owning a copy if you
Speaker 1: really flaunted it. So it progresses like this for a while,
Speaker 1: and then about ten years later in two and this
Speaker 1: is when Surf is really launching Random House. He's hanging
Speaker 1: out with this brilliant lawyer friend of his name, Morris Ernst,
Speaker 1: and Ernest is talking about how disgusted he is with
Speaker 1: censorship and the censorship of this book in particular, and
Speaker 1: Surf immediately hatches a plan. He really smells opportunity for
Speaker 1: his little company, so he thinks, what if he can
Speaker 1: get Earnest to represent him in court. He paid the
Speaker 1: court fees, and if Ernst wins, he gets a cut
Speaker 1: of the royalties. So he proposes this to Earns and
Speaker 1: Earns degrees and now he just has to get James
Speaker 1: Joyce on for so he writes this letter on why
Speaker 1: Joyce should take a chance on him, and of course
Speaker 1: Joyce is delighted because he hasn't made a cent off
Speaker 1: this thing in England or in the US. And just
Speaker 1: one little detail here that's just so funny to be
Speaker 1: When Surf meets Joyce in Paris, Joyce shows up in
Speaker 1: a sling and foot and head bandages and also this
Speaker 1: eye patch over his left eye, and Surf didn't know
Speaker 1: what was going on. He actually didn't realize that Joyce
Speaker 1: always wore the eye patch, but the rest of the
Speaker 1: injuries were fresh. And apparently when Joyce had heard the
Speaker 1: news about this Masterfiees getting published or possibly published in America,
Speaker 1: he was so giddy that he accidentally walked right into
Speaker 1: traffic and got slammed by a taxi cab. Anyway, he
Speaker 1: still somehow makes it to Paris, where Surf makes a
Speaker 1: deal with him. He's going to give him dollars and
Speaker 1: you know, royalties whether or not they win the court case.
Speaker 1: And Joyce is over joyed. So Surf has this Ace
Speaker 1: lawyer and he is the blessing of the novelist. But
Speaker 1: here's where things get absolutely bonkers. So Surf now has
Speaker 1: to do the worst and most important smuggling job in
Speaker 1: the world. He and Ernest want to bring the book
Speaker 1: back to the US, but they need to be caught
Speaker 1: with it so that they can start a court case
Speaker 1: over it. And so this is unbelievably planned out like
Speaker 1: the book World's Oceans eleven. First, Surf and Earnest look
Speaker 1: for a favorable judge, someone with an artsy bent, who
Speaker 1: you know, might be in favor of the arts and
Speaker 1: would rule and favor of the arts. They need an
Speaker 1: intellectual and they find it in this judge named John M. Woolsley.
Speaker 1: And then they have to locate the specific port to
Speaker 1: get caught at so that they can get that judge.
Speaker 1: So somehow they figured that out, but it turns out
Speaker 1: he's on vacation, so they actually have to delay till
Speaker 1: he's back. But then they don't just want to give
Speaker 1: him a book, right, They want to stack the deck
Speaker 1: a little. So they take a copy of this light
Speaker 1: blue book from Paris and they start pasting in as
Speaker 1: much critical praise in the book as possible. Inside the covers,
Speaker 1: they actually attached praise from Ezra Pound and Ford Madox
Speaker 1: Ward and all these other giants of literature and critics
Speaker 1: who loved the book. And as Surf put it, by
Speaker 1: the time we were finished, the covers were bulging, and
Speaker 1: now all they have to do is find a terrible
Speaker 1: smuggler and pay him to get caught with the book
Speaker 1: at customs, which sounds easy, but here's where it gets hilarious.
Speaker 1: So the smuggler has this book in his suitcase. He's
Speaker 1: getting off of the right port, but it's so hot
Speaker 1: and there's so many people on this summer day at
Speaker 1: customs that the officers are just waving people through. And
Speaker 1: this was not the plan. This guy had been paid
Speaker 1: explicitly to get caught, and if he goes through customs,
Speaker 1: his whole journey to Paris and back would have been
Speaker 1: for not so he starts making a fuss. He tells
Speaker 1: the inspector, I insist you open the bag and search it,
Speaker 1: and the officer is just like, it's too hot, and
Speaker 1: so the smuggler starts confessing. He says there's something in
Speaker 1: there that's contraband, and I insist that it be searched.
Speaker 1: So they just keep bickering, and the officer finally does
Speaker 1: it and finds this copy of Ulysses and he sort
Speaker 1: of just shrugs him through. And then the smuggler says,
Speaker 1: I demand that you sees this book, and while the
Speaker 1: officers tell him, look, it's a hundred degrees in here,
Speaker 1: and I'm saying, you can just go through some motherlers
Speaker 1: going on about what the officers duties are, and what
Speaker 1: the officers duties are as an American official and laws,
Speaker 1: and finally he just keeps ranting for such a long
Speaker 1: time that the manager comes over, and of course, you know,
Speaker 1: the supervising official also just wants to get this over with.
Speaker 1: He wants the irritating passengers to go through, but uh,
Speaker 1: he keeps complaining. And finally they realized this dude isn't
Speaker 1: going to stop, and then they impound the book. And
Speaker 1: the case was pretty breezy, right, very it took just
Speaker 1: two days. And you know this Judge Wolseley read the
Speaker 1: book and all the criticism, and then he actually consulted
Speaker 1: two of his friends were also fans of literature, and
Speaker 1: while he said the book wasn't easy to read or understand,
Speaker 1: he wrote, quote, each word of the book contributes like
Speaker 1: a bit of a mosaic to the detail of the
Speaker 1: picture which Joyce is seeking to construct for his readers.
Speaker 1: He also called Ulysses a sincere and serious attempt to
Speaker 1: devise a new literary method for the observation and description
Speaker 1: of mankind, and you know, in remove this ban on
Speaker 1: the book. Welsley's point was that the average readers should
Speaker 1: be given access to books like ULYSSI is because it's
Speaker 1: only the normal person that the law is concerned with,
Speaker 1: which is pretty important, right. I mean, it's often the
Speaker 1: squeaky wheels on these extreme ends who get the judgments
Speaker 1: and the laws passed. But Wilsey was deciding for the
Speaker 1: you know, I guess the normal person. Yeah, I mean,
Speaker 1: it's amazing how fast Surf also jumped on this decision,
Speaker 1: like he had the printing press raid to kick on
Speaker 1: ten minutes after they got the verdict. And the case
Speaker 1: actually got appealed, but it one two to one in
Speaker 1: circuit court. And Joyce, for his part, was super excited.
Speaker 1: You know, the fact that this case one in America
Speaker 1: meant that the floodgates would open, and he knew England
Speaker 1: wasn't gonna be far behind. In fact, Surf actually said
Speaker 1: that Joyce was so excited he thought he might emigrate
Speaker 1: to the US, but then it turned out he was
Speaker 1: too afraid to get on a boat to make the
Speaker 1: journey and as for the case itself, it actually ended
Speaker 1: up being this landmark judgment that was cited in future
Speaker 1: obscenity cases, including Tropic of Cancer. I mean, that's funny
Speaker 1: because I read this New Yorker story about Walter Minton.
Speaker 1: He was the publisher at Putnam and he was responsible
Speaker 1: for publishing Tropic of Cancer as well as Lolita and
Speaker 1: quite a few other important books. And when he was
Speaker 1: about to publish Norman Mailer, Bennett Serf actually called him
Speaker 1: up and warned him not to publish the books because
Speaker 1: he was afraid the censors would come down on everybody
Speaker 1: as a result. And of course Minton, who was in
Speaker 1: the same mold as Serf, actually took out an ad
Speaker 1: for the book that said the book six publishers refused
Speaker 1: to bring you. It's kind of funny how cyclical this
Speaker 1: stuff is. But anyway, we we've got a few more
Speaker 1: stories to get through. But before we do that, let's
Speaker 1: take a quick break. Welcome back to Part time Genius.
Speaker 1: So Mango, one of the things I've been thinking about
Speaker 1: a lot is how would you ban a book you
Speaker 1: actually just give it so much more attention. And yeah,
Speaker 1: we we did this story a while back on this book.
Speaker 1: It was called the Minute Book of the General Council
Speaker 1: of the International Working Men's Association, and you know that's
Speaker 1: a long title, but it was actually supposedly seen as
Speaker 1: this foundational document of Karl Marx and this group. It
Speaker 1: ended up somehow getting locked up in this British library,
Speaker 1: was protected by this very strict British librarian for years,
Speaker 1: and people just kept obsessing over how important this book
Speaker 1: was and they couldn't get their hands on it. And
Speaker 1: you know, they thought I would actually show you how
Speaker 1: to start revolutions and how to turn capitalists into socialists,
Speaker 1: and instead, when it was finally revealed to the public,
Speaker 1: what was in it, it just ended up being this
Speaker 1: like little balanced book of accounts. It was a ledger
Speaker 1: for the club essentially, and it was totally anti climatic.
Speaker 1: But when the uss are finally published it, you know,
Speaker 1: no one paid attention to it. I mean, it's interesting
Speaker 1: to hear what's been happening in Hong Kong. I don't
Speaker 1: know if you heard this episode about this from from
Speaker 1: The Daily, one of our our favorite podcast. I mean,
Speaker 1: I love The Daily, but I actually haven't heard this one. Well,
Speaker 1: there's this publisher there that have been publishing books on
Speaker 1: the sex lives and seedy gossip about ministers, and it
Speaker 1: was all nonfiction, I believe, and he had some cover
Speaker 1: by operating from Hong Kong, which has of course been
Speaker 1: part of China since nine but it has that British
Speaker 1: legacy there, so just like Surf, he'd figured out which
Speaker 1: ports were important, though he was actually smuggling and was
Speaker 1: getting like of the books through. But when he published
Speaker 1: a book about the President's extra marital affairs, he and
Speaker 1: his colleagues were kidnapped in the mainland for months I
Speaker 1: think it was, And it's a crazy story and eventually
Speaker 1: he gets out and starts operating again from Taiwan. But
Speaker 1: it's just so good and it's also an amazing reminder
Speaker 1: of how good we have it here. But anyway, before
Speaker 1: we close out the show, I wanted to tell you
Speaker 1: one quick story about Judy Bloom. So, I mean, Judic
Speaker 1: Boom is my favorite. Like I actually just got my
Speaker 1: son hooked onto Super Funch series partially because he was
Speaker 1: missing New York City and those books actually talk a
Speaker 1: lot about the city and moving and also what it's
Speaker 1: like to have a ridiculous and irritating younger. But are
Speaker 1: you going to talk about are you there? God, it's me, Margaret, Well,
Speaker 1: that's definitely part of it. So so Judy Balloons had
Speaker 1: a few books that have been banned, but that's probably
Speaker 1: her most famous because it talks about puberty and getting
Speaker 1: your period. And I read this story in the Times
Speaker 1: where she talked about why she thought the book was banned,
Speaker 1: and she said, quote, I think the feeling was if
Speaker 1: my child doesn't read this, my child won't know about it,
Speaker 1: and it's not going to happen to my child. And
Speaker 1: I used to get up there on stage and say,
Speaker 1: I have news for you. Your kids are going through puberty,
Speaker 1: whether you like it or not, So why not help them.
Speaker 1: It's going to happen whether they read my books or
Speaker 1: no books or someone else's books. Man, I love that. Again,
Speaker 1: it does go back to that difficult conversation, those things
Speaker 1: you try to avoid with your kids. Yeah. But the
Speaker 1: funniest part is that when people come to visit the
Speaker 1: bookstore she founded in Key West, it's called Books and Books.
Speaker 1: She takes great pleasure in pushing banned books onto them.
Speaker 1: As she told The Times, it's my new thrill as
Speaker 1: a bookseller to put that right e book into the
Speaker 1: hands of someone who appreciates what it's saying, which is
Speaker 1: what she said after she'd sold a couple of book
Speaker 1: about two male penguins who hatch and raise a baby
Speaker 1: bird together and it's called and Tango Makes Three. I
Speaker 1: like that she's still out there fighting for ben books.
Speaker 1: What a superhero. Well why don't we end on that note.
Speaker 1: But before we go, let's get in a fact off
Speaker 1: and instead of just doing it on banned books, how
Speaker 1: about we opened it up to all banned things. All right,
Speaker 1: let's do it. Well. I think we all remember that
Speaker 1: George H. W. Bush hated broccoli. But what I've forgotten
Speaker 1: was the statement he made about banning broccoli from being
Speaker 1: served on Air Force One. And here's what it said.
Speaker 1: I don't like broccoli and I haven't liked it since
Speaker 1: I was a little kid and my mother made me
Speaker 1: eat it. And I'm president of the United States and
Speaker 1: I'm not going to eat broccoli anymore. Also, apparently he
Speaker 1: just used to shovel down junk food. I saw this
Speaker 1: in the Time Times, but they described the food he
Speaker 1: ate as everything that quote can be procured at baseball games,
Speaker 1: fast food joints or seven eleven, beef, jerky, nachos, tacos,
Speaker 1: chili ree, fried beans, hamburgers, hot dogs, barbecue, ribs, candy, popcorn,
Speaker 1: ice cream, and cake. Actually that makes me hungry just
Speaker 1: reading that quote. But when Peggy Noonan saw him eat,
Speaker 1: she described it like an embarrassed teenage boy. And on
Speaker 1: a few occasions he tried to eat something healthy like yogurt,
Speaker 1: he'd quote spice it up with butter fingers. That's pretty amazing.
Speaker 1: And I had no idea he was such a poor eater.
Speaker 1: Slash also my eating soulmate. But exactly, I actually remember
Speaker 1: when he said that thing about broccoli, and I feel
Speaker 1: like his poll numbers in my fourth grade class just
Speaker 1: shut up immediately. So here's one about divis and butt head. Basically,
Speaker 1: they got banned early in the show from shouting fire
Speaker 1: because people thought the cartoon was leading to arson cases,
Speaker 1: so to avoid the sensors, they would shout words like
Speaker 1: fryer instead. Oh gosh, that's so ridiculous. Al Right, Well,
Speaker 1: according to The New York Or, China has a band
Speaker 1: on time traveling books and movies because it quote disrespects history. Also,
Speaker 1: if you're in Beijing, you should be where there's a
Speaker 1: height limit on dogs, so keep your pets under fourteen inches. Also,
Speaker 1: if you don't have permission from China's government, you can't
Speaker 1: reincarnate their mango. Just keep that in mind. Got it.
Speaker 1: So no hot tub time machine, no traveling with a
Speaker 1: great day, and no reincarnation to actually feel it's like
Speaker 1: the hot tub time machine part. That's the hardest for me.
Speaker 1: So here's what I like. When the Soviet Union was
Speaker 1: still a thing, comedians had to run all their jokes
Speaker 1: by the Department of Jokes. It was actually called the
Speaker 1: Humor Department of the Censorship Apparatus of the Soviet Ministry
Speaker 1: of Culture, and they would cut any joke you said
Speaker 1: about politics, religion, or sex, which meant that most routines
Speaker 1: were based on animal jokes. I just love the idea
Speaker 1: that if you're really trying to carve out like a
Speaker 1: career as a comedian, you'd have to have like a
Speaker 1: tight five on hamsters. All right, Well, here's something else
Speaker 1: that I had forgotten. The n C double A at
Speaker 1: one point banned the slam dunk basically because they wanted
Speaker 1: to keep one player from scoring. It was actually called
Speaker 1: the lu al cinder rule, and it was introduced just
Speaker 1: to keep Kareem Abdul Jabbar from scoring. There's an article
Speaker 1: in Cracked about this, and as they put it, n
Speaker 1: C double A officials claimed that they were simply banning
Speaker 1: a non skillful shot, while Kareem saw it as a
Speaker 1: racist attempt to stop black people from invading the game.
Speaker 1: And it's Crack rightly points out that might sound far
Speaker 1: fetched until you remember that this was a mere three
Speaker 1: years after the Civil Rights Act. Um, and that's interesting.
Speaker 1: And you know, I can't beat a Kareem fact I.
Speaker 1: I think you have to take home today's trophy. I
Speaker 1: think we probably all understand that you really cannot be
Speaker 1: a Kareem abdul Jabbar fact. So thanks so much. I
Speaker 1: kind of knew that was gonna be my winner today.
Speaker 1: But I'm sure there are plenty of great facts about
Speaker 1: banned books or anything that was banned in general, and
Speaker 1: we would love to hear those from you. As always.
Speaker 1: You can email us part time genius at how stuff
Speaker 1: Works dot com or call us on our two seven
Speaker 1: fact hotline one eight four four PTG Genius. We also
Speaker 1: love to hear from you on Facebook or Twitter. But
Speaker 1: thanks so much for listening. YEA, thanks again for listening.
Speaker 1: Part Time Genius is a production of how stuff works,
Speaker 1: and wouldn't be possible without several brilliant people who do
Speaker 1: the important things we couldn't even begin to understand. Tristan
Speaker 1: McNeil does the editing thing. Noel Brown made the theme
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Speaker 1: does the exact producer thing. Gay Bluesier is our lead researcher,
Speaker 1: with support from the research Army including Austin Thompson, Nolan
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Speaker 1: what you heard, we hope you'll subscribe, And if you
Speaker 1: really really like what you've heard, maybe you could leave
Speaker 1: a good review for us. Do we do? We forget
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