{"id":60501,"date":"2013-09-25T09:30:25","date_gmt":"2013-09-25T13:30:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/?p=60501"},"modified":"2013-09-25T12:21:11","modified_gmt":"2013-09-25T16:21:11","slug":"the-fearsome-captain-underpants-and-other-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2013\/09\/25\/the-fearsome-captain-underpants-and-other-news\/","title":{"rendered":"The Fearsome Captain Underpants, and Other News"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/09\/Captain-Underpants.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/09\/Captain-Underpants.jpg\" alt=\"Captain Underpants\" width=\"600\" height=\"283\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-60508\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<li>Herewith, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.mediabistro.com\/galleycat\/sample-the-most-frequently-challenged-books-of-the-year_b78240\" target=\"_blank\">the most-challenged books of 2013<\/a>. Leading the pack is <em>Captain Underpants<\/em>.<\/li>\n<li>Virgule, pilcrow, and other <a href=\"http:\/\/www.huffingtonpost.com\/keith-houston-\/post_5696_b_3976733.html?utm_hp_ref=books\" target=\"_blank\">extinct punctuation<\/a>.<\/li>\n<li>\u201cYou can imagine a modern-day Charlotte Bront\u00eb writing embarrassing confessional scenes about masturbation, Lena Dunham\u2013style, or a bit like Sheila Heti&mdash;and not understanding why other people found it all a bit much.\u201d Moira Redmond on <a href=\"http:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/books\/booksblog\/2013\/sep\/24\/sex-scenes-in-classic-literature\" target=\"_blank\">sex scenes that might have been<\/a>.\u00a0<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.telegraph.co.uk\/culture\/books\/booker-prize\/10331973\/Man-Booker-row-rumbles-on-as-Lady-Antonia-Fraser-rejects-panel-offer.html\" target=\"_blank\">Lady Antonia Fraser<\/a> has resigned from the Man Booker advisory committee following their announcement that the prize is going international.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Herewith, the most-challenged books of 2013. Leading the pack is Captain Underpants. Virgule, pilcrow, and other extinct punctuation. \u201cYou can imagine a modern-day Charlotte Bront\u00eb writing embarrassing confessional scenes about masturbation, Lena Dunham\u2013style, or a bit like Sheila Heti&mdash;and not understanding why other people found it all a bit much.\u201d Moira Redmond on sex scenes [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":178,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2512],"tags":[8809,11914,11917,11916,11915],"class_list":["post-60501","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-on-the-shelf","tag-banned-books-week","tag-captain-underpants","tag-lady-antonia-fraser","tag-moira-redmond","tag-punctuation"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v25.4 (Yoast SEO v25.4) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>The Fearsome Captain Underpants, and Other News by Sadie Stein<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"September 25, 2013 \u2013 Herewith, the most-challenged books of 2013. Leading the pack is Captain Underpants. Virgule, pilcrow, and other extinct punctuation. \u201cYou can imagine a\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2013\/09\/25\/the-fearsome-captain-underpants-and-other-news\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Fearsome Captain Underpants, and Other News by Sadie Stein\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"September 25, 2013 \u2013 Herewith, the most-challenged books of 2013. Leading the pack is Captain Underpants. Virgule, pilcrow, and other extinct punctuation. \u201cYou can imagine a\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2013\/09\/25\/the-fearsome-captain-underpants-and-other-news\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Paris Review\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/parisreview\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2013-09-25T13:30:25+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2013-09-25T16:21:11+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/tpr-hadada-roundell-logo-1.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"675\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Sadie Stein\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@parisreview\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@parisreview\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Sadie Stein\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2013\/09\/25\/the-fearsome-captain-underpants-and-other-news\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2013\/09\/25\/the-fearsome-captain-underpants-and-other-news\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Sadie Stein\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/a1aef49f81bfc540a37e03590f3bb4d9\"},\"headline\":\"The Fearsome Captain Underpants, and Other News\",\"datePublished\":\"2013-09-25T13:30:25+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2013-09-25T16:21:11+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2013\/09\/25\/the-fearsome-captain-underpants-and-other-news\/\"},\"wordCount\":89,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2013\/09\/25\/the-fearsome-captain-underpants-and-other-news\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/09\/Captain-Underpants.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"banned books week\",\"Captain Underpants\",\"Lady Antonia Fraser\",\"Moira Redmond\",\"punctuation\"],\"articleSection\":[\"On the Shelf\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2013\/09\/25\/the-fearsome-captain-underpants-and-other-news\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2013\/09\/25\/the-fearsome-captain-underpants-and-other-news\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2013\/09\/25\/the-fearsome-captain-underpants-and-other-news\/\",\"name\":\"The Fearsome Captain Underpants, and Other News by Sadie Stein\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2013\/09\/25\/the-fearsome-captain-underpants-and-other-news\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2013\/09\/25\/the-fearsome-captain-underpants-and-other-news\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/09\/Captain-Underpants.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2013-09-25T13:30:25+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2013-09-25T16:21:11+00:00\",\"description\":\"September 25, 2013 \u2013 Herewith, the most-challenged books of 2013. Leading the pack is Captain Underpants. Virgule, pilcrow, and other extinct punctuation. \u201cYou can imagine a\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2013\/09\/25\/the-fearsome-captain-underpants-and-other-news\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2013\/09\/25\/the-fearsome-captain-underpants-and-other-news\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2013\/09\/25\/the-fearsome-captain-underpants-and-other-news\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/09\/Captain-Underpants.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/09\/Captain-Underpants.jpg\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2013\/09\/25\/the-fearsome-captain-underpants-and-other-news\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"The Fearsome Captain Underpants, and Other News\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/\",\"name\":\"The Paris Review\",\"description\":\"The best prose, interviews, poetry, and art. Since 1953.\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#organization\",\"name\":\"The Paris Review\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/tpr-hadada-roundell-logo-square.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/tpr-hadada-roundell-logo-square.png\",\"width\":696,\"height\":696,\"caption\":\"The Paris Review\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/parisreview\/\",\"https:\/\/x.com\/parisreview\",\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/parisreview\"]},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/a1aef49f81bfc540a37e03590f3bb4d9\",\"name\":\"Sadie Stein\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/147299ffa10db51f1ff44a626a9211650a1c11f8fc07d102ab48e63ab3be037b?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/147299ffa10db51f1ff44a626a9211650a1c11f8fc07d102ab48e63ab3be037b?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Sadie Stein\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/author\/sstein\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"The Fearsome Captain Underpants, and Other News by Sadie Stein","description":"September 25, 2013 \u2013 Herewith, the most-challenged books of 2013. Leading the pack is Captain Underpants. Virgule, pilcrow, and other extinct punctuation. \u201cYou can imagine a","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2013\/09\/25\/the-fearsome-captain-underpants-and-other-news\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"The Fearsome Captain Underpants, and Other News by Sadie Stein","og_description":"September 25, 2013 \u2013 Herewith, the most-challenged books of 2013. Leading the pack is Captain Underpants. Virgule, pilcrow, and other extinct punctuation. \u201cYou can imagine a","og_url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2013\/09\/25\/the-fearsome-captain-underpants-and-other-news\/","og_site_name":"The Paris Review","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/parisreview\/","article_published_time":"2013-09-25T13:30:25+00:00","article_modified_time":"2013-09-25T16:21:11+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1200,"height":675,"url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/tpr-hadada-roundell-logo-1.png","type":"image\/png"}],"author":"Sadie Stein","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@parisreview","twitter_site":"@parisreview","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Sadie Stein"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2013\/09\/25\/the-fearsome-captain-underpants-and-other-news\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2013\/09\/25\/the-fearsome-captain-underpants-and-other-news\/"},"author":{"name":"Sadie Stein","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/a1aef49f81bfc540a37e03590f3bb4d9"},"headline":"The Fearsome Captain Underpants, and Other News","datePublished":"2013-09-25T13:30:25+00:00","dateModified":"2013-09-25T16:21:11+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2013\/09\/25\/the-fearsome-captain-underpants-and-other-news\/"},"wordCount":89,"commentCount":0,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2013\/09\/25\/the-fearsome-captain-underpants-and-other-news\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/09\/Captain-Underpants.jpg","keywords":["banned books week","Captain Underpants","Lady Antonia Fraser","Moira Redmond","punctuation"],"articleSection":["On the Shelf"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2013\/09\/25\/the-fearsome-captain-underpants-and-other-news\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2013\/09\/25\/the-fearsome-captain-underpants-and-other-news\/","url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2013\/09\/25\/the-fearsome-captain-underpants-and-other-news\/","name":"The Fearsome Captain Underpants, and Other News by Sadie Stein","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2013\/09\/25\/the-fearsome-captain-underpants-and-other-news\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2013\/09\/25\/the-fearsome-captain-underpants-and-other-news\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/09\/Captain-Underpants.jpg","datePublished":"2013-09-25T13:30:25+00:00","dateModified":"2013-09-25T16:21:11+00:00","description":"September 25, 2013 \u2013 Herewith, the most-challenged books of 2013. Leading the pack is Captain Underpants. Virgule, pilcrow, and other extinct punctuation. \u201cYou can imagine a","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2013\/09\/25\/the-fearsome-captain-underpants-and-other-news\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2013\/09\/25\/the-fearsome-captain-underpants-and-other-news\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2013\/09\/25\/the-fearsome-captain-underpants-and-other-news\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/09\/Captain-Underpants.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/09\/Captain-Underpants.jpg"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2013\/09\/25\/the-fearsome-captain-underpants-and-other-news\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"The Fearsome Captain Underpants, and Other News"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/","name":"The Paris Review","description":"The best prose, interviews, poetry, and art. Since 1953.","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#organization","name":"The Paris Review","url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/tpr-hadada-roundell-logo-square.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/tpr-hadada-roundell-logo-square.png","width":696,"height":696,"caption":"The Paris Review"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/parisreview\/","https:\/\/x.com\/parisreview","https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/parisreview"]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/a1aef49f81bfc540a37e03590f3bb4d9","name":"Sadie Stein","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/147299ffa10db51f1ff44a626a9211650a1c11f8fc07d102ab48e63ab3be037b?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/147299ffa10db51f1ff44a626a9211650a1c11f8fc07d102ab48e63ab3be037b?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Sadie Stein"},"url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/author\/sstein\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60501","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/178"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=60501"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60501\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":60543,"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60501\/revisions\/60543"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=60501"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=60501"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=60501"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}