Comments on: You Are Not Allowed to Read this Book

By: Ross

Ross — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 17:20:06 +0000

The color scale should be changed to discrete, separately identifiable colors: blue, yellow, green, red, purple or orange. The 4’s and 5’s are running together and I cannot distinguish between them sometimes. I also think state lines should be added. Interesting graphic and great cause but the details need work.

By: You are not allowed to read this book « Kristin Nicole

You are not allowed to read this book « Kristin Nicole — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 18:56:34 +0000

[...] is an interesting graphic highlighting censorship around the country from the NCAC, that I found here (where you can see the image at [...]

By: Midday open thread | The Latest Liberal Blogs

Midday open thread | The Latest Liberal Blogs — Sat, 17 Oct 2009 20:07:36 +0000

[...] FlowingData has a cool map of where banned books and challenges to the bannings have taken place across the United States. [...]

By: Kevin

Kevin — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 13:41:13 +0000

The problem with book challenges is they often highlight and promote the focus of the challenge. Witness Salman Rushdie’s “Satanic Verses.” Or that “The Earth, My Butt, and Other Big Round Things” is now on my Amazon wish list (I like to reward creative titles).

I’m not sure I buy the population-lead-to-challenges argument. Texas may have more people than Montana, but does it actually have more potential book titles? The more likely effect is that, assuming each “challenge” is specific to a school system or library system, more populous states may offer more venues in which to lodge a challenge.

By: Peterk

Peterk — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 20:00:38 +0000

rather than titling it “Mapping book censorship” a more accurate title would be “mapping book challenges” rarely is a book censored or banned in this country. one can find a copy somewhere

By: Mike Anderson

Mike Anderson — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 17:41:38 +0000

@Stefan:

Good observation! I suspect that the variation you’ve noticed is essentially random and could be handled by using a Poisson model with a mean of rp, where r is the national average “ban rate” and p is the state population. Sounds like a good problem to give my statistics students…I’m off to the NCAC website for more data.

By: Stefan Lasiewski

Stefan Lasiewski — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 17:26:34 +0000

Texas, New York and Florida are 3 of the 4 most populous states. Since these states have the greatest number of people, it stands to reason that they have the greatest number of book challenges.

Texas’ population is 24 times greater then Montana, so it makes sense that Texas has more book challenges then Montana.

My argument doesn’t always make sense when comparing other states. Oregon stands out (27th state in terms of population, but top of the list for number of book challenges).

Also, maybe some of these states didn’t have any book challenges between 2006-2009, because some books were already banned before 2006.

-= Stefan

By: Stephanie Osan

Stephanie Osan — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 17:14:52 +0000

The Perks of Being a Wallflower is also misspelled.

The map reads “Berks” instead of “Perks.”

By: Ensaio (mÃnimo) sobre a preguiza » Enlaces varios

Ensaio (mÃnimo) sobre a preguiza » Enlaces varios — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 14:46:28 +0000

[...] 7. Un mapa da censura en Estados Unidos. [...]

By: Nathan

Nathan — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 13:52:14 +0000

@Mike – you’re totally right. i’d go a step further, and not even bother color-coding states or counties and just keep it at the city-level with pointers. The color-coding in itself is kind of weird.

I think this is one of those graphics that is communicating a worthy cause, but the extremity is a bit exaggerated.

So how else can we improve this map? I can think of quite a few other ways.