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Stavropol Prosecutors Seek to Ban Nabokov in Schools ...
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Stavropol Prosecutors Seek to Ban Nabakov in Schools
21 November 2013 | Issue 5261
The Moscow Times
Metro Goldwyn Mayer
American actress Sue Lyon starred as the titular character in Stanley Kubrick's 1962 film adaptation of Nabakov's novel.
Prosecutors in the Stavropol region have demanded that local schools dispose of books by early 20th century Russian poet Sergei Yesenin and "Lolita" author Vladimir Nabokov, alleging that their works frighten children and breed crime.
Nabokov's "mysticism" and Yesenin's "hooligan poems" are breeding "fear of the dark, ghosts, nightmares and creating problems in communication with peers," spokesman for Stavropol regional prosecutors Kurbangali Sharipov told RIA Novosti Thursday.
"In our country today, if you look at crime reports, children aged nine to 12 commit robberies. What, in your opinion, do you think they have read a lot?" Sharipov said.
The demand of the prosecutors was a result of a check at regional school libraries, which discovered books that are "not compatible with the tasks of the education process" because they contain "erotica, mysticism, horrors and hooligan poems," Sharipov said.
Apart from Russian classics, prosecutors banned works from several modern foreign writers, including U.S. author Danielle Steel, French novelist Juliette Benzoni and contemporary U.S young adult fiction writer Sharon Creech, who is Newbery Medal-winning author of "Walk Two Moons."
In addition, prosecutors demand that schools dispose of humorous fairy tales by Russian author Sergei Silin and modern science fiction by Ukrainian author Andrei Levitsky.
"School students are too young to read such books," Sharipov said.
The measure met with acidic remarks from bloggers, one of whom wanted to measure the IQ of the prosecutors. However, despite readers' fears of censorship, prosecutors have the legal right to ban the books under the auspices of the federal law "On Protection of Children From Information Causing Harm to Their Health and Development," which took effect last year.
Under law, information can be banned for distribution among children if it contains pornography or "can potentially elicit desire" to take drugs, drink alcohol, smoke, gamble, engage in prostitution or beg.
Nabokov's Lolita, which appears on many lists as one of the greatest books of all time, caused controversy after its publication in the 1950s for depicting the sexual obsession of an adult man with a 12-year-old girl, while Yesenin's work glorified drinking, playing cards and general vagrancy.
The information outlawed for minors also includes that which "prompts" them to commit suicide, justifies violence, "denies family values" or contains obscene language.
The Moscow Times
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