Some people do a lot for Banned Book Week. Some write more elegant blog posts.
This is a topic that deserves to be discussed more than one week. It should be discussed every time someone wants to ban a book. That would result in a lot of discussion. Why?
You might be surprised at the lists of books that have been banned, at least once, somewhere, by a government, a school. They include such classics as (I have read most of these, incidentally, and hope I've remained uncorrupted):
The Chocolate War
Two Mark Twain classics: The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
(more on Huck Finn later.)
Black Beauty
To Kill a Mockingbird
Flowers for Algernon
Where's Waldo?
The Call of the Wild
Charlotte's Web
The Hunger Games
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time.
Even if you don't believe books should ever be banned (I am one) some books make you think hard. How about Mein Kampf, written by one of the most evil men who ever lived? I know people whose families suffered greatly in the Holocaust. I've read the stories of many others, including adults who suffered unbelievably as children and wrote about their experiences in their old age. And, in this day and age, this type of hatred is on the rise. Yet, I don't think that book should be banned.
I think, if you hide evil, you increase its power. The spotlight of discussion should be focused on hate.
Violence? Sad, that we have mass shootings nearly every month in this nation (one of these happening in my very own community in April of 2009), but violence in books is an evil we must protect people from? (And, just ask anyone who grew up in a war torn nation about being exposed to violence.)
If you hide books that discuss bullying frankly, you ignore a problem that has gripped our nation.
How about language?
Huck Finn, with its use of the N word and discussions of pre-Civil War slavery? It makes a lot - a lot - of people uncomfortable. But, if we don't work through that part of our continuing problems with our legacy of slavery in our country, we will never truly be united.
Even memoirs get banned. How about the Diary of Anne Frank? Yes, because she dared to write in her diary, while hiding from the Nazis, about feelings arising in her due to puberty.
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| Courtesy of the American Library Association |
I invite you to read a book today, especially if you are a fellow blogger. And even if you aren't. Read one that was banned by someone, somewhere, once. Or one that, maybe, still is.
You have a long list to choose from, including some of the best books ever written.
This trend has been extended to music (remember Tipper Gore), blogs (China, Russia, Myannmar, Turkey-this list tends to be nearly endless), etc.
ReplyDeleteAh ha! Great minds really do think alike. I wrote about the same subject today. It is an important one. I'm glad to see that you agree.
ReplyDeleteSeveral of those banned boks are in the running for the Great American Read.
ReplyDeleteI'm presently reading " Reading Lolita in Tehran". Truly an eye-opener in terms of the results of book-banning!
ReplyDeleteThe English teachers really get into banned book week. Especially the AP English teacher. I wonder what they're doing this week.
ReplyDeleteI would say no book should be band. But nothing wrong with a warning label of the content.
ReplyDeleteCoffee is on
I hate the idea of banning books unless maybe if it's giving instructions on how to blow up the world or something awful like that. I always like Colette, Anais Nin and D.H. Lawrence. I can imagine they may have been banned somewhere.
ReplyDeleteI hate that those screaming for "protection" (= censorship) on Twitter have been conceded an inch, too. Really I sometimes think the best reply to anyone who wants to be protected from oh-so-hurtful words is to whip out a copy of "Turner Diaries" and read one of the gorier scenes until the idiot goes away.
ReplyDeleteI read "Turner" in 1995, doing research for a document on Timothy McVeigh. I had to tell myself "Slog through it to prove you're tough." Talk about books where the characters are hard to relate to... "We went for a Sunday walk in the park. We met some neighbors of a different ethnic group. I shot two, my buddy shot one, my girlfriend shot the woman and her baby, but the old grandfather got away." And YES, I think it needs to be in libraries. Though not necessarily available to children. Fungus dies in the light.
For Banned Book Week I'd go with Huckleberry Finn, constantly calling Jim an ugly word and resolving to go to Hell rather than betray him. You can't not like Huck Finn.
It’s a constant question, what is appropriate in a school library, in school curriculum...in our school last year the English department assigned a book to middle school students and some parents went ballistic because they wanted to shelter their little darlings from some of the topics discussed in the book. I’d rather not restrict middle schooler that way
ReplyDelete