It's Banned Books Week here in the U.S., where underpant superheroes and hog warts are somehow destroying society. For a bit of reflection on how far we've come, though, here's an article from The New Republic in the 1930s, an interview with the book censor himself. Of course he found them titillating, but the children! He's protecting children from smut! The more things change, the more they stay the same - although today 'banned books week' is in a sense about how far we've come, because the books aren't being stopped at the border anymore, intercepted in the mails, it's the individual shelves in a school or library where the battle rages on.

Pic via.