Let us revel in the diversity of literature rather than wallow in our own prejudices. The “freedom to read” is something should all celebrate.
This week, we have something special upon us. Though I wouldn’t exactly call it something to celebrate, September 21st through the 27th is Banned Books Week.
Of course censorship isn’t something to honor, so the American Library Association refers to Banned Book Week as the time to “celebrate the freedom to read”.
It’s hard to understand why we still must have these battles. To most of us, if we don’t like a particular book, or even if we find it offensive, we simply don’t read it. If we are concerned with what our children read, we monitor their books. It wouldn’t occur to us to have books removed from schools and libraries, so no one can read them.
The Office of Intellectual Freedom compiles a rough list of the reasons given for challenging books. The three most common are content that is too sexually explicit, offensive language, and material “unsuited to age group” (which strikes me as a euphemism for another category).
A much less common reason given was violence and some books are also challenged simply because of content referring to homosexuality. Others are given the vague label “anti-family” and some books are challenged because someone didn’t like their religious viewpoint.
The most challenged books are often among the best on the market. The list in recent years includes literary treasures like To Kill A Mockingbird and The Color Purple. Nobel Prize winner Toni Morrison holds the distinction of having at least two of her novels make the list: The Bluest Eye and Beloved.
Children’s books are easy targets, including classics like “A Bridge to Terebithia” (for occasional language) and “Are You There God, It’s Me Margaret” (for discussions of adolescence). In recent years, the popular series Captain Underpants and The Hunger Games have both come under fire.
Fantasy is one of the most commonly challenged genres. A few years ago, the Harry Potter series had some people worried because of references to fantasy wizardry. More recently, the Phillip Pullman series “His Dark Materials”, which began with “The Golden Compass” which later became a movie was criticized because the author was an atheist.
I’ll focus the rest of my comments on two of my favorite novels. The first, The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck is an account of the Joad family, Okie migrants to California who worked as farmworkers. The book is set in both Oklahoma and the San Joaquin Valley.
As my grandparents on both sides were dust bowl migrants, “Grapes” is of personal interest to me. But, wealthy farmers hated the novel for its frank descriptions of the difficulties of farm labor and its advocacy of labor unions. It was burned in a number of places and banned by (among others) the Kern County Board of Supervisors about an hour from where I live. Though now celebrated in the Salinas Valley where he grew up, Steinbeck didn’t feel welcome in most of California while he was alive and spent much of his adult life in New York.
The other novel which is of interest to me is Mark Twain’s classic, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Considered by many to be the greatest American novel of all time, Huck has been challenged for different reasons at different periods of our history.
Originally published in 1884, nearly two decades after the end of slavery and written brilliantly in the vernacular of its various characters, the novel involves the adventures of a young boy and a runaway slave (Jim) as they travel down the Mississippi River on a raft.
Initially, the book was challenged largely due to course language and Huck’s flippant attitude toward authority. It was only later that racists had a problem with the runaway slave theme and the book’s advocacy of Jim’s humanity.
More recently, censorship has come full circle, and criticism of Huck Finn has focused on the use of the word “nigger”. (If you’re offended by my inclusion of the word in this column, I’m afraid that’s your problem. I refuse to insult your intelligence by calling it “n-word” or anything else; we all know what we’re talking about and we need not give a single word power it doesn’t deserve.)
Huck is interesting in another aspect. The turning point of the novel (spoiler alert for those who haven’t read it), which some have referred to as the moment American literature was born, is when Huck declares “All right then, I’ll go to hell”.
It is at that moment, that Huckleberry Finn decided to ignore all he’d been taught for his whole life and help Jim achieve his freedom. While he truly believed he’d be eternally damned for his actions, he could no longer ignore Jim’s basic humanity and be complicit in his captivity.
The point is that we can overcome our history. Though slavery has been described as America’s “original sin”, we overcame it, painfully, and sometimes slowly and sadly not yet completely.
One would hope we can also overcome this history of challenging and banning books. Let us revel in the diversity of literature rather than wallow in our own prejudices. The “freedom to read” is something should all celebrate.
—An earlier version of this piece appeared in the Porterville Recorder on October 6th, 2010.
Photo: brookfieldlibrary/Flickr
hahahaha, and you call it the “Land of the Free”
banning books is ridiculous, and in this day and age, pretty much impossible, i’m pretty sure people could find a copy online if they really wanted too
I assume they aren’t celebrating the banning, but rather, commemorating it. I have a banned books shelf in my collection – it is always important to remember those things people wish to censor and why. Even if they are wrong-headed or immoral, freedom of expression is to be protected.
Do you have a copy of “The Turner Diaries” in your collection? Don’t know that it’s ever been formally ‘banned’, but I’m guessing few public libraries have a copy.
I’ve not read the Turner Diaries, but I imagine if I wanted it from a library, I could find one with it. I was able to find Mein Kampf when writing a report in high school.
there are lots of books I’d rather not read, but I have zero interest in making sure others can’t have them.
No. I suppose I overstated it by calling it a “shelf” – so far it consists of Mein Kampf and The Satanic Verses ^_^