I also can't understand where they get the homosexuality. Unless people are enough of prudes to actually take the "Shire? GAY?! But that will lead them to Sam's house!" jokes that are so often referred to, there are no homosexual or bisexual characters in LotR (and besides- what's wrong with it?!). Is it just me, or does anyone see a frightening return of Puritan ideals in society, judging by what is being said about the Lord the Rings...?

on the contrary...my school encourages works of Tolkien, my english teacher even gives out xtra credit for reading them cuz they're classics

but...your school's a freak (erm, your principle might make more sense...)

@Furry-footed Flatfoot the Hobbit
The place that seems to ban most books is the US. Books like To Kill a Mockingbird, Animal Farm, Catcher in the Rye, Lord of the Flies to name a few. In all cases, especially the one with LOTR, I feel this is a needless form of censorship and goes against your right of freedom of expression. Your principal has no right to tell you what books you can and can't read in school. It is not offensive material nor is it promoting hate or violence. I think you could fight this and win and I know you would have the support of everyone on here.

That sux man idk wat id do if my principle banned lotr they are the best bboks ever!

Good lord, I go to a school in a MUSLIM country! Really strict and all.We're forbidden to talk about any other religeon than islam except in RE and French, which muslim students dont take. But they dont Ban books! Banning Noughts and crosses is even stupider than Banning Tolkien! and these are schools in the US? The country famed for free speech?!

dude if they ban Tolkien they ban CS Lewis and then they can ban Pilgrims Progress and then on to the rest such as Frank Peretty. These all have "demons" in them but they are on the evil side so you should let your principle know about the "demons" Peretty or Pilgrims Progress. And yes give him that wonderfull book of Finding the Lord in the Lord of the Rings. I do think that your mother might help you in this and do it for you. she seems to be on your side. Have talk to the guy on these matters. I do not think it is good to read books when you need to pay attention. But to ban them with such an excuse ad that is begining to sound like Creon in Sophoclese Antigony. So have someone like mom talk some dende to him and then write a letter to the paper and then call up the radio station he listens to and see if you can get air time.

What!!!!
That's insane!!!!
Your school is nuts, why should fiction books be banned from schools? It's just like that whole Harry Potter=Witch Craft=Wiccanism which apperently is evil.
I have a friend who is Wiccan, he's not evil or crazy or nothing, he's normal but it's his religion, he believes in different things. I don't know if someone has already sujested this, but write a petition, get some attention, actually sit this guy down and get him to read the book. After all, it's hypocricy to judge something so harshly when you havn't researched it.

W-O-W!!! OMG!!! HOW DARE YOUR PRINCIPAL BAN TOLKIEN??? Wow, my English teacher ENCOURAGES me to read more LOTR and write more journal entries on it. When I was supposed to memorize a poem for a project, he said memorizing a LOTR poem was a good idea. I don't know, but all the schools in my state allow, even encourage Tolkien.

How can anyone be so anti-Tolkienistic??? I didn't even realize how terrible people can be until now! [img]smilies/eek.gif[/img]

I can't believe this! It is utterly wrong and I completely agree with Ainaserkewen. It's all about the bogus debate about Harry Potter! GRRR! [img]smilies/mad.gif[/img] [img]smilies/mad.gif[/img] [img]smilies/mad.gif[/img]
Thankfully, my school isn't banning any books. They even have it on Accelerated Reader. They want us to read it! I hope your argument suceeds. I'm rooting for you. [img]smilies/wink.gif[/img]

Cherie

due to the seemingless millions of LotR fans, if this "banning" becams nation, none the less WORLD wide banning(for example Harry Potter) i have strong conclusions of Riots and Protest of this Unconstitutional act.

In my opinion, the literature and characters in LotR(including demons or black creatures created by Tolkien) actually inspire one to write. And the language used in the books actually teaches.

The only thing in my opinion to match LotR is Dune, and Frank Herbert and Tolkien could have been close friends if they hadnt lived 50,000 miles away from eachother.

If Tolkiens writing is to be banned then why is not Beatrice Sparks books to be banned? her books are full of drugs, satanicism, and suicide.

This may have gotten off topic, im sorry.

I talked to my Libraian at my university know about this. she has looked into this and all she can find are good things about Tolkien. My grandmother says that its these little legalistic christain schools that do this kind of thing and that among other things is why i hated the private scholl i went to. but anyway she said that was the whole legalizime issue. But still you must protest if we have to me and my cohorts here will find any school banning Tolkien and we will send a letter with the signatures of almost my entire campuse, plus main campus and most of my church and freinds! this cannot be alowed to endure!!!!!!!!!!!! these evil people must be stopped or it eill take over the world. Just like those people who were saying that ROTC was bad, this gets me sooooooo madddd!!!!!!!!!

i read noughts and crosses for thereading group (literary fans) and it is not graphic. there is one sex scene that is not detailed at all, and just basically states they had sex. how foolish

as for harry potter... it has wonderful morals, like the lord of the rings, just put more simplistically. it does not support the 'black arts', its all white magic fighting evil.

as for lord of the rings... dont get me started. Aran, i think you should put together a petition. something like "we believe the lord of the rings to be a non-sexist, non-racist, unevil book. we demand you read it before condemning it, as it has wonderful morals. jrrt was a devout catholic...blah blah"
you get the idea. we would all sign it.
p.s., Aran, whats your full name? i remember coming across it somewhere... and what does it mean? i know aran means king or royalty

or complaim to a teacher who likes it (just thought of this). surely any decent librarian would love the lord of the rings? or english teachers

i keep getting more ideas, im on a roll! you live in america, right? inform your teacher that america is the land of freedom, and you should have the right to do whatever you want. put that on the petition you are making.

i know that lots of people here at my school would sighnit heack i think the state would sign it, well those who are literate. I could get the whole of Sante Fe involved.

Demonology? They better sure as heck not let kids read Harry Potter than, that'd be worse than LOTR! This guy sounds like a basket case, does he have any affiliation with a group called ATI (Advanced Training Istitute)? This sounds like something they would do! Grrrr. Go on strike if all else fails, have him stick that in his pipe and smoke it! [img]smilies/mad.gif[/img]

I must say that I'm extemely distressed that in a such an advanced country as the USA, schools are banning inoffensive books. (By this I mean both JRRT and JKR).

The only advice I can give you is to change schools, because if they're so shortsighted as to imagine that these books could harm their students, they obviously have such a weak grip on reality that their teaching abilities must be seriously suspect.

Naturally, this is of little use if you are a schoolkid, (and I'd encourage you to learn whatever you can while you're there). However, I'd imagine that if you could mobilise the support of school governors and parents and present well-supported arguments to them (see various threads about LoTR and Religion on this site for examples), reasonable people should come around to our view.

I must say this issue really makes me angry. Any book contains the thoughts of an individual human being and is therefore worthy of respect, or at least a fair assessment from society. Fair enough, if they have 'adult' themes, they should not be available to minors, but Lord of the Rings contains nothing illicit in my view (and the views of the vast majority).

In my book, Religious fundamentalism presents an infinitely greater danger to the world (9/11 etc) than any fantasy fiction. (Btw. is the word fundamentalism derived from fundament + mental?)

What next, are they going to burn Farenheit 451 ?

I can’t believe what I have just read! A school ban one of the best books in the world? I do not understand! My teachers encourage me to read Tolkien books no matter how many times I have read his books. His books are imaginative, creative, amazing literature and tons more! It should be a law that every person must have a Tolkien book on their bookshelf! Well that’s what I think…. [img]smilies/wink.gif[/img]. I still don’t understand why a school would ban such an educational book. I learn more from Tolkien that I actually do at school. I still can’t believe it.

I can just see it on Jon Stewart... "In a stunning fit of irony, schools nationwide decided to burn a book about book burning." :rolleyes:

Does anyone know if there actually have been any cases of burning LotR? I sincerely hope not, though I know that HP has been burned by some, and the two seem to be put into the same category by these same types of people.

Well luckly for me my school(or old school I graduated last WEDnesday go me woohoo) was full of Tolkienists and teachers are to however then we have teachers of english nontheless claiming because its fantasy it has no credibility as literature and is for only children....

I showed one of them this site they claimed we overcomplicated the story then handed me an essay on the meaing of to be or not to be in a modern world of 10 or more paragraphs...anyone say hypacrit?

Oh my Gosh! what a nightmare you just went through! I was beginning to think your principal was morgoth himself!

At my school (it's a christian school ) LotR is used in examples during english, is allowed for book reports, and I have been asked to explain things about it during class, and my teacher had a big paper written out about why harry potter is truly evil and LotR is not. LotR is encouraged to be read here! :)

I live in North Carolina also.. 30 minutes or so north of Charlotte.