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They are banned somewhere and the library is open in Portugal.

If they were banned in Portugal it would run afoul of the legal system, and probably be closed down, obviously.

But if the criteria of being in the library - that the book be banned somewhere in the world; that's a reason to visit the library in of itself.

Though I think there's going to be a lot of garbage, one need only remember that Life of Brian (the Monty Python movie) is banned in the Vatican. (along with a bunch more).

Sometimes just seeing what is banned and where is a sort of art in of itself.

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> one need only remember that Life of Brian (the Monty Python movie) is banned in the Vatican.

I can find no confirmation of this, or of any ban since 1966 (and that is assuming that the index of forbidden books had legal force in the Vatican).

> But if the criteria of being in the library - that the book be banned somewhere in the world; that's a reason to visit the library in of itself.

Is it worth a visit to a physical location? A lot of those books are ones I could see on a list and order online. Its not really that interesting if a book as been banned somewhere very authoritarian, nor am I that interested if schools in one area somewhere were not allowed to have a book in their libraries. On the other hand reading down this list is very illuminating, and often astonishing:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_books_banned_by_govern... I am still scrolling down it, but Austria, Australia and China are all fascinating.

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One thing to note about this list is that it mostly seems to be books which were _banned at some point_. It's also terribly incomplete; while they got unbanned a while back, at one point Ireland banned _thousands_ of books, for instance.

(Some but not all country grids do list unbanned dates.)

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The notes column also sometimes explains current status.

Some historical bans and the reasons for them are very interesting too.

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Life of Brian is banned from public screening in parts of Germany on Good Friday. https://www.bbc.com/news/blogs-news-from-elsewhere-23227452
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Good Friday is a "quiet holiday" in North-Rhine Westphalia (and other areas), which involves restrictions on various kinds of entertainment: https://lexmea.de/de/gesetz/feiertg-nrw/6 So it's not that Life of Brian in particular was banned, but the activist group in question picked it intentionally for their screening to protest against the holiday.
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In Germany you're not allowed to mow your lawn with a motorised mower or to recycle glass bottles on Sundays either.

"Banned" feels like a slightly clumsy word to use to describe restrictions such as these.

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I think I'll make showing that on Good Friday a tradition now.
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Actually the article title is shit clickbait because it IMPLIES those books are banned in Portugal.

The museum is in Portugal. It is not specified where those books are banned.

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I think it's just a poorly written title. I doubt millions of people will click on the link specifically to learn which books Portugal banned vs to learn about that Dua Lipa is doing. A better title would be "Dua Lipa opens library in Portugal for banned and censored books."
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I did not get that implication. I simply thought it was a library that contains books that have been banned from some context that happens to be in Portugal.
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> article title is shit clickbait because it IMPLIES those books are banned in Portugal

People on this site have some really bizarre ideas about what constitutes "clickbait".

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People who litter the comments with worthless complaints about titles are one of the most annoying things about this place.
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The same people who think "banned" and "censored" books must be completely banned and censored in all places to have earned that title instead of just at one point in the past.
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At least one of those were literally banned back when Portugal was a dictatorship though, which wasn't all that long time ago.

I think though the library is supposed to be a general, worldwide collection of books that were censored/banned anywhere in the world, the physical location of the library just happens to be in Portugal. That's how I understood the article at least.

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Isn't it good marketing though? If I'm a young person looking to read something on the edge, maybe it's not banned where I am but if it was banned somewhere else, that's intriguing. If the consequence is more people reading, I would argue it's far from inconsequential.
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