More news on the media event Book Burning the other day in New Mexico. Though Harry Potter was the main course on the BBQ, there were others:
Harry Potter books, though the epicenter of the burning, were not the only literature put to the flame. Other books, including novels written by fantasy pioneer J.R.R. Tolkein, “Star Wars” material and “The Complete Works of William Shakespeare” met a fiery fate. Popular fashion magazines such as “Cosmopolitan” and “Young Miss,” and various adult magazines, were also burned. Even a ouiji board was tossed on the fire.
Yeah, “Young Miss.” There’s a recruiting pamphlet of Satan for you.
What’s getting annoying about this is that the burning was clearly done as a publicity stunt, advertised in advance and with media invited. This, of course, gives the nutsos the audience they dream they deserve.
Of course, fair use allows them to do anything they want with the media they purchase. Which means they paid royalties to those publishers. So there.
Unless, of course, any of those volumes were stolen from a library. In which case, they are thieves.
Actually, what’s particularlly annoying is that it was the burning of Harry Potter books that got all the mainstream publicity. They were burning Tolkien fer Christ’s sake. Jeez.
(Via Boing Boing)