Celebrating the freedome to read The Booknerds Hangout: Banned and Controversial books was organised at Best Buddy Resto Cafe which incorporated works of Indian and western authors. The books to be discussed included Chittakobara by Mridula Garg,War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy,Twilight by Stephanie Meyer,The Boys by Garth Ennis among others. The Booknerds community sat down to discuss the impact of these books on their lives as well as on the society as a whole.
Rohan Raj, co-founder, set the scene for one of the most in depth discussion with so many divergent views. Rohan initiated the session reminiscing the books read in 2019, he summarized in a few words the Booknerds journey so far. As the series of introductions began everyone talked about their preferences of books in 2019 and put forward their views about controversial authors and books.
Moving on everyone was asked about their perception on banning books ,however even for fun, not everyone was on the same page, many were of the perception that no books should ever be banned. Lead discussant Srishti Srivastava spoke about War and Peace and the controversy surrounding it in early 2019 wherein a judge asked an activist to explain why he had a book “about war in another country”.
She said that it is an epic novel in the truest sense of “epic”. Stretching over a period of several decades, it masterfully describes the history of Russia from the end of the 18th century and into the first third of the 1800s. At more than 1600 pages, it is definitely one of the longest novels out there, but unlike many much shorter books, its length is well justified.
Snehi Singh spoke vocally about how the Twilight Series got removed from libraries across United States for being sexually explicit and promoting a religious viewpoint
She said, Even the most diffident teenage girl couldn’t conceive of Bella as intimidating; it’s hard to imagine a person more insecure, or a situation better set up to magnify her insecurities. Bella’s vampire and werewolf friends are all strong and fierce as well as nearly immortal, and she spends the better part of every novel alternately cowering in their protective arms or groveling before their magnificence.
Arpit Sharma spoke about The Boys,a comic book that has also been adapted into a highly successful TV show on Amazon Prime which was banned in Qatar for obscenity.
He added,The Boys takes place in a superhero universe inspired by both Marvel and DC Comics. However, this world is a considerably darker place than the type of universes that usually appear in comics by either of those mainstream publishers.
Rohan spoke about Chittakobara by Mridula Garg and how the author’s content which was way ahead of its time resulted in her arrest for obscenity and was deemed legally actionable under The Obscenity Act (U/S 292 IPC).The three pages found “legally actionable” dealt with the anguish of a woman, who is a mechanical participant in the sex act with her husband.
