Every year, the last week of September is dedicated to celebrating the freedom to choose what to read. It seems crazy that in this day and age books would be challenged by the censors but, alas, they are.
And just a small disclaimer before you read this article: there are some books that are not age appropriate and I fully understand not having explicit, sexual or otherwise, books within reach of any 9 yr. old who happens along – actually, I’m pretty sure you could be charged for that under ‘contributing to the deliquency of a minor’ or something. You can check with your local authorities for that information. But for all intents and purposes, this post is primarily dealing with taking the power to make decisions away from those who are deemed competent and mature to decide for themselves.
So, who are these evil censors that have the power to decide for others? Every time a book is removed from a shelf in either a library or school classroom, that qualifies as book banning. This is done locally as well as nationwide. This is not being done by some secret organization of trained officials bent on keeping people in the dark – these are your teachers or your librarians, on their own or directed by local government, deciding what is appropriate for you to read based on the books’ content or perceived controversial subject matter.
And this is not limited to the US – all around the world, books are banned by other countries and authors persecuted or exiled.
Sometimes books are banned for using certain words that were in use during the time period the story is set in but are generally viewed as being ignorant and offensive today. One such book has been To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee. That was one of my favorite books growing up and I have wonderful memories of discussing it in my freshman English class.
As a class, we acknowledged that some of the comments made by characters were racial slurs and that’s just how things were back then, but, as a society, we’ve progressed and can look back and see where mistakes were made and how those kind of views are negative and hurtful.
What we did not do is make excuses or say that it was ok – it was a fact of life, a part of history, and we moved on. And we did not run around calling people names or using those phrases just because we had read it in a book.
Is that what people are afraid of? That impressionable youths will read something that’s considered to be “not very nice” and will be corrupted and get into drugs or become part of a gang? That they’ll be influenced by a certain author’s views and begin advocating anarchy and mailing bombs to officials?
George Santayana’s quote is never more true than in this case: Those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it.
Book banning is not just aimed at kids. Libraries are frequented by people of all ages. If they aren’t carrying something because they deem it to have a corrupting influence on others, then that book will not be accessible to anybody, unless they are forced to purchase it.
So, now I open this up to my readers: should decisions like this be up to others or should each person be capable of deciding for themselves what to read?
And that’s the way a good book should be, no?