Haruki Murakami said, “If you only read the books everyone else is reading you can only think what everyone else is thinking.” This quote speaks eloquently to Banned Book Week. Some people only want us to think what they are thinking. They want only socially approved ideas making it on to the printed page in the hopes, I think, of producing a homogenous world where nothing threatens what they think the status quo should be. Banned Books Week stands firm against the tyranny of that mindset.
Banned Books Week began in 1982 after an increase in requests to libraries, bookstores and schools to pull certain books off the shelves. Lest you think this is a problem from the past check out this article. Since then, Banned Books Week has been an annual celebration of the freedom to read, sponsored/encouraged by schools, libraries, and bookstores determined to see our freedom of speech protected. More than 11,000 books have been challenged in the thirty years since the inauguration of Banned Books Week and that number grows every year. Banned books are an ongoing war in the censorship battle.
The ACLU says “Censorship, the suppression of words, images, or ideas that are “offensive,” happens whenever some people succeed in imposing their personal political or moral values on others.” They are quick to note that private pressure groups “can become dangerous in the extreme”.
It should be noted – and really, I shouldn’t have to mention – that there is a huge difference between warning someone to avoid a book that is poorly written and unenjoyable and trying to prevent people from reading/selling/endorsing a book with ideas/issues you find problematic. Here is how the American Library Association defines challenged and banned books: A challenge is an attempt to remove or restrict materials, based upon the objections of a person or group. A banning is the removal of those materials. Challenges do not simply involve a person expressing a point of view; rather, they are an attempt to remove material from the curriculum or library, thereby restricting the access of others.
Books come under target by all sorts, from parents trying to protect their kids’ delicate minds to the politically correct. Mostly the book banning, while possibly done with good intentions, seems to be about infantilizing the reader. It seems to say that while the banner understands the issues they are much smarter and better equipped to deal with it than the rest of us. Therefore, the book should be banned before it somehow damages those of us not smart enough to handle it. To that I say phooey!
I’ve been reading banned books before there was ever an official list of them. Huckleberry Finn (race issues, racial slurs, slurs against the poor) was probably my first. I have to chuckle when I see books like this or To Kill a Mockingbird on the list as a result of race issues because it is clear the banners either didn’t read the book or didn’t understand the book. Yes, there is racist language but neither book advocates the racism. Rather, they call attention to the injustice of a society which allowed that language and attitude to flourish in the first place.
Some bans are even more ludicrous than the above. Summer of My German Soldier and Anne Frank’s Diary have both been challenged/banned because the endings are sad. Really?
A lot of the books on the list are banned because they deal with difficult subjects. One such novel is The Chocolate War by Robert Cormier. This is the story of Jerry Renault, who refuses to participate in a school fundraiser and thus causes a mountain of problems which end in violence. Protesters have asked to have it banned because it contains foul language, physical conflict and sexual situations, something which children over the age of 12 are never confronted with in real life.
This is one of the things that truly bothers me about many of the books being banned. They are banned for things that happen in real life. Sending your child to school and then being concerned they will pick up curse words from a book is like throwing them in a pool and being worried they’ll get their clothes wet. They are most likely saturated in curse words.
The sexual situations in the book seem entirely age appropriate to me. The issue of the boy who feels guilty for looking at naked women in a magazine and the one who feels excited about touching a girl’s fully clothed breast are also something that teens and even pre-teens deal with. Sexual desire is an urge nicely entrenched in our DNA. Long before this novel was published men and boys had a desire to see naked girls and touch women’s private parts. This book taught them nothing except that it was natural to feel both excited and embarrassed by the sensations.
But personally I think the complaints about the language and sexual situations are smoke screens. Kids know about these things long before they pick up these books. I think what is at issue is that many banned books are about outliers. People who either challenge authority, as Jerry in The Chocolate War or Patty in Summer of My German Soldier did, or folks who like Huck Finn make us feel uncomfortable because they remind us that not everyone gets to (or chooses to) live in a fancy house with a loving family.
Many of these books also challenge the idea of safe places. Unless you live under a rock you know that the bullying which takes place in our school systems has come under increasing scrutiny in the last several decades. Books like Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone or The Chocolate War bring that issue to the forefront. They also show that the bullies aren’t only children. Snape and Umbridge often made Harry’s life as uncomfortable as students like Malfoy did. Brother Leon is behind many of Jerry’s problems. These books bring the issue of bad/nasty teachers into full, glorious focus. That’s a scary premise for many adults who insist that “telling a grown up” will solve all of a child’s problems.
But mostly these books challenge us to think. Do parents always have our best interest at heart? Do teachers? Is there anywhere that is truly, perfectly safe? And should we conform at any cost?
In honor of this special week we have one copy of The Chocolate War to be given away. Entering is easy. All you need to do is comment to this post by 11:59 pm on Wednesday, September 30.
A few caveats apply: Due to high postage costs, this giveaway is only open to residents of the U.S. and Canada. The winner will be chosen at random and notified by email on Friday morning October 2. So, if you enter, please remember to check your email on Friday morning.
Here’s a list of a few banned books. How many have you read? Do you have any thoughts on book banning?
In closing, I leave you with a few words of wisdom from The Chocolate War:
They tell you to do your thing but they don’t mean it. They don’t want you to do your thing, not unless it happens to be their thing, too. Don’t disturb the universe, no matter what the posters say.
-Maggie AAR
For those interested, Slate magazine this week wrote an interesting overview on banned books in the U.S. and summarizes their perspective by stating, “”This Banned Books Week, instead of hand-wringing about a nonexistent wave of censorship, let’s celebrate the obvious: The books won.”” Essentially, the article details the sharp drop in banned books overall, though where we see small localized issues of banning is largely in children’s education where parental concerns around issues of violence and sexuality come up. Interesting article as a source of comparison: http://www.slate.com/articles/arts/culturebox/2015/09/banned_books_week_no_one_bans_books_anymore_and_censorship_of_books_is_incredibly.html
No, I wouldn’t think the above scenario happens, or if it did it would be strange. But if all 11th graders are reading _The Color Purple_ except one or two students, students do know they are singled out. I taught _The Color Purple_ to high school students years ago when I interned and there are “”titilating”” scenes that the students discussed among themselves. I did feel badly for the very few left out and I think in the end, their exclusion probably caused more harm than good (i.e. heightened curiosity to know what others found so interesting, awareness of *difference* at an age where people are especially vulnerable to being stigmatized, etc.).
Great post about an important subject. I can understand concern about appropriately categorizing books, and even alerting parents to required reading books that might contain sensitive material. But it’s one thing to say,’please don’t require my first grader to read The Color Purple’ and quite another thing to say, ‘Don’t let anyone in this school read The Color Purple.’
And I’ll be checking out more of the banned books, too.
I agree. I can understand parents maybe not wanting their child to read a certain book but the need to tell everyone not to read it makes no sense to me.
And I do think schools can handle a child reading something different with sensitivity. If a parent says no to “”The Color Purple”” they can offer alternatives. The teacher doesn’t have to make a fuss about it or call the kid out about it in class. The material should simply be handed quietly to the parents or child and that be the end of the subject.
I hate to see books banned out of ignorance, fear or heaven forbid the fact they might set forth a different belief than what you have. That’s how Hitler and the Nazi’s got the idea to burn books. I’ve only read 5 of the books on the banned book list you chose…I guess I better get cracking and read some more. Great post.
I love to read Banned Books Lists. :0)
I also wanted to point out a pet peeve of mine. When my kids were in elementary school I was either the PTA President or an officer for about 7-8 years. I probably got a phone call about every two weeks from some parent wanting a certain book taken out of the library or the classroom. Not once had any of those parents actually READ the book they wanted banned. One mother was upset about her child having to read The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. Why? Because it had a witch in it. I asked her if she realized that the story was an allegory for the crucifixion and resurrection of Christ. Don’t even get me started on the Harry Potter complaints. Please read any book before complaining!!!!
Words to live by :-)
I have always loved this Stephen King quote on banned books:
“”Don’t get mad, get even… Run, don’t walk, to the nearest nonschool library or to the local bookstore and get whatever it was that they banned. Read whatever they’re trying to keep out of your eyes and your brain, because that’s exactly what you need to know.””
I would never advocate banning books, but I remember when my kids were in school (my youngest is 22) being frustrated that EVERY BOOK on the summer reading list had an at best ambiguous and at worst tragic ending. I worried that kids (not my own, who were avid readers and knew better, but those kids who would never read a book except those required for school) were getting the message that reading is boring, all books are depressing, etc. So much of it seemed designed to teach kids to hate reading. :-(
Heh. The line in our house about the entire middle and high school reading list was “”… and the dog died too.””