Banned Books Week 2009: Plenty of dust kicked up already
By Marjorie Kehe | 09.28.09
It’s autumn. You know the routine: School starts, leaves fall, and people start fighting about banned books. Why should 2009 be different from any other year?
Banned Books Week, primarily sponsored by the American Library Association, takes place this time each year and one of the ways you know it’s here is that you start seeing a lot of stirring manifestos on readers’ rights. The interesting thing, however, is that as a society we simply don’t agree as to what those rights are – particularly when it comes to school libraries.
Some parents don’t want the reading choices of their children to be censored by other parents – but those other parents say they do have the right to keep certain books away from their kids.
If you read Huffington Post today, you’ll see a prime example of the kind of hard choices schools must make these days. Huffington Post is championing Ellen Hopkins, author of novels “Glass” and “Crank,” which are based on her daughter’s past addiction to crystal meth. Hopkins, who was banned from speaking at an Oklahoma middle school because the school questioned the appropriateness of her subject matter, says she has heard from thousands of readers (including middle schoolers) that her books have helped to turn them away from drugs. Which is exactly why some other parents don’t want them banned.
Huffington Post has published a poem by Hopkins called “Manifesto.” It begins:
To you zealots and bigots and false
patriots who live in fear of discourse.
You screamers and banners and burners
who would force books
off shelves in your brand name
of greater good.
Read more at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/john-lundberg/a-poem-highlights-banned_b_300302.html
For the other side of the case, however, see Friday’s Wall Street Journal. An editorial by Mitchel Muncy argues that there are actually few if any banned books in this country (if banned means “something like ‘made dangerous or difficult for the average person to obtain.’ “) As Muncy points out, “If a book isn’t available at one library or bookstore, it’s certainly available at another. Not even the most committed civil libertarian demands that every book be immediately available everywhere on request.”
As for the ALA, Muncy adds, “There’s something odd about a national organization with a $54 million budget and 67,000 members reacting so zealously against a few unorganized, law-abiding parents whose efforts, by any sensible standard, are hopelessly ineffective.” (Ineffective because the vast majority of the books that parents complain about and hope to see removed from their children’s schools do not end up being removed.)
To complain about parents who challenge books, Muncy argues, is to complain that a group of law-abiding citizens are exercising their own right to free speech and thought.
Probably the the truth of the matter is that both sides of this fight are fortunate to have as many articulate and impassioned spokespeople as they do. Let’s hope that will continue to be the case for many generations to come, – because that’s at least how long we’re likely to continue arguing about this.
Comments
2. auggiesnows quality used books | 09.28.09
owning a used bookstore , we always are trying to be on top of the issues surrounding books. banned books..ugh!
I recently read a young adult book called “Lillys Ghost” by Laura Ruby. I always try to read some young adult as well as adult so I can suggest books to my customers. I really enjoyed this book and am looking foward to more books by her. I always try to suggest a book pertaining to the season/holiday so being that Halloween is coming up I picked this and young adults as well as adults will enjoy this read. It would make a fun movie!! It has a little bit of make you laugh..make you cry and ect. All in all a fun read. Happy Book Reading!
3. B | 09.28.09
To Jean:
Children ARE permitted to read the Bible in school. Every school I’ve been in has a Bible in the library. They just can’t be forced to read the Bible.
4. halo | 09.28.09
I saw 1 movie that CONVINCED me never to do heroin. “Trainspotting”. When my niece is 16, I will let her watch it like I did. I had no idea what I was getting into when I popped it into the VHS player, but man, I never forgot it. To this day, I still credit “Trainspotting” and the late Jim Carroll’s “Basketball Diaries” for making NEVER EVER want to do heroin.
However, it is not up to me or libraries to make decisions on what kids should or should not read. Parents gave birth to these children. Parents are the appropriate people to make the decisions on whether their child is “old enough” to read these books and make decisions.
The ideal situation is that parent and kid read the book together.
My parents didn’t know that “Trainspotting” would change me so much. But it did.
5. Ginger | 09.28.09
Jean Chartrand - Children *are* permitted to read the Bible in school. They can carry it and read it. And most public libraries–including school libraries– carry copies of the Bible. So while you comment is cute, it is hardly accurate.
As for Muncy’s comments in the article. Wow,talk about oversimplification and misdirection: “To complain about parents who challenge books, Muncy argues, is to complain that a group of law-abiding citizens are exercising their own right to free speech and thought” - Muncy is confused. The complaints aren’t about the fact that people are challenging books — but the content of their challenge. No one can reasonably expect to publicly voice their opinion and expect the constitution to protect them from people responding in kind. People can’t expect a call for book-burning (see West Bend, Wisconsin this past summer) to go unanswered.
As for this: “67,000 members reacting so zealously against a few unorganized, law-abiding parents whose efforts, by any sensible standard, are hopelessly ineffective”, he is, once again, oversimplifying the efforts of some very organized book-banning efforts organized through religious organizating.
I have a hard time understanding why so many people have a problem with a week dedicated to the First Ammendment.
6. david lee ballard | 09.28.09
Why is it that people of a particular political slant can’t differentiate between “not permitted” and “not compelled”? It’s entirely permissible for students to read The Bible, or The Koran, or The Bagavad-Gita in their own time on public school property. It’s not permissible for them to be COMPELLED to do so at school, or to be INDOCTRINATED into a particular religious ideology BY the school administration.
7. Chimbley Sweep | 09.28.09
@1
“Why is it that school children are not permitted to read the Bible in school”
1. Children can read the Bible in school, as long as it isn’t during class time when they are supposed to be doing something else. Same goes for comic books or any other reading materials.
“…but so many, later in life, are encouraged to read the Bible in prison.”
2. Because prisons are staffed by Christians and they provide the bible for free. Also, because most of the people in prison were Christians when they went in. (Cue the no true scotsman argument.)
9. Ree | 09.28.09
To Halo-
Watch Requiem for a Dream. Add it to your list of anti-drug movies. I had seen trainspotting when I watched this one for the first time and found myself not even being curious about drugs.
To everyone else-
LET the kids read! How many kids read now? My nieces and nephews think you are killing them if they have to read. Many of my good friends, who are professionals, like nurses and pharmacists and therapists, don’t like to read. Encourage your children to read, no mattter what the book. Oh yeah, and the Bible never hurt anyone. If nothing else, maybe the ten commandments will stick.
10. Baylor | 09.28.09
Censorship in books is alive and well in the USA. Just look at the history and future of comics.
Look at the market share of graphic novels in other rich countries (Japan, France, etc), and compare that to the USA.
11. Jason Kennerly | 09.28.09
In the United States, “banned book” is really just industry lingo for “We tried to get this into a school curriculum knowing that someone would object, for the sole purpose of generating controversy that will inevitably lead to sales.”
The “censorship” that some claim is “alive and well” in the USA .. isn’t. The simple fact of the matter is that people get upset when they can’t get government to foot the bill to bring something to their kids in school, or when some corporation asks an author to change their writing, and the author complies all too willingly - because they’re also cashing checks from said corporation.
To compare the above types of activity to the actual censorship that occurs under totalitarian governments is somewhat of a slap in the face to the very concept of freedom of speech.
In the United States, pretty much the only things that are actually censored are classified documents, and pornography involving children or actual murder. When ideas are suppressed here, it is done so by much more subtle, and generally acceptable, means, like buying the author off.
12. Christina Campbell | 09.28.09
Of ALL the groups wishing to censor books in any fashion, I find it very interesting that the American Library Association wants to do this.
I guess next teachers will not want to teach because the kids might open their minds.
Yes, the Bible should be read in schools as we watch our society’s mores and morality circle down the drain. I don’t mean any Religion should be taught but just that since Church attendance is down, ideas like the 10 Commandments should be taught for the common good. Just like the Constitution, The Declaration of Independance etc. It’s the IDEA that helps society keep safer. If we have to to placate the liberal folks (who in my humble opion) are slowly destrying this country, then let’s teach the Bible as Literature. Many parts such as Song of Soloman or Songs are good examples of poetry that can be traced back thousands of years and can be compared with other forms and types of Lit. all thru the ages. It does have value even if it’s used only for that.
13. NP | 09.29.09
I’m not a parent, but I am a teacher. I think that if parents are so concerned about their kids mental development, they should talk to them, show an interest in what the kid’s ideas are. Too many people don’t think. Its not just an American thing, a modern thing, or even a young person thing, but it is a bad thing. If people’s mental processes are fostered from an early age, they will come out alright most of the time. Reading books that challenge their views will make them stronger, not corrupt them.
14. Rick Cain | 09.29.09
The idea of banning books is simply to force others to ascribe to a political or religious agenda. Its not a matter of looking at “both sides” of the controversy, its about powerful forces that want to tell you what to think.
15. Ellen Hopkins | 09.29.09
Thank you for a reasoned article that opens discussion. My concern is when no discussion is allowed. I spoke at Hillsdale Baptist Church, near Norman, instead of doing the school visit. Not one member of the book review committee, nor the superintendent, nor the “concerned parent” bothered to come hear me, or to open a dialogue with me. Discourse is hugely important. The problem with book challenges is that often the challenger doesn’t want discussion, but rather acquiescence. Generally, with reasoned discussion, they change their minds.
16. Matt J. | 09.29.09
[to the moderator: this may be a duplicate post. I cannot tell for sure because of the very poor error messages from WordPress]
Ginger says:
I have a hard time understanding why so many people have a problem with a week dedicated to the First Ammendment.
Which I answer:
You are having a hard time understanding it because your prsmise is false. It is NOT “dedicated to the First Amendment”. All the so-called “banned books” the ALA whines about are ALREADY in full possession of their first amendment rights.
But contrary to the ALA’s marketing propaganda, that right does NOT include being in a SCHOOL library. Nor presented in the school auditorium. The ALA is exercising their constitutional right to be very sly and deceptive here.
17. RoxaneG | 09.29.09
Most books are challenged by people who have not actually read the book. They hear about the book and have a knee jerk reaction to the subject matter or content. Some books gain a cachet due to having been challenged or banned. My students regularly ask for banned books because they want to discover what it was that caused such a ruckus. By reading some of those books, they begin to see just how illogical and emotional many of the arguments against books have been throughout the years. Looking at banned books and the history of such books becomes a lesson in civics, culture and tolerance. It shows just how far we’ve come and just how much farther we need to go.
18. Matt J. | 09.29.09
NP-
You admit that you are not a parent, and then show a reckless ignorance most parents recognize right away. No, they do NOT “come out alright[sic] most of the time”. On the contrary: most kids go through a phase when they are quite impervious to reason, and most suggestible only when the suggestion is the worst possible idea.
If YOU were well read enough, you would recognize this from that classic of children’s literature, the original (not Disney) version of Pinocchio.
The reason the book is a classic is not because the author’s rather simplistic morality is right, but because he DID reveal abiding truths. That so many are so easily diverted from a good way of life IS one of the abiding truths he revealed.
That said, I have to make it clear: recognizing these truths does NOT mean supporting banning the books that have been banned. But it DOES mean recognizing the travesty that the ALAs campaign really is.
19. Ginger | 09.29.09
Matt J writes: ” All the so-called “banned books” the ALA whines about are ALREADY in full possession of their first amendment rights.”
Banned books already have First Ammendment Rights? A book has a right to be in a school auditorium? Books have a right to be in a library? Sorry, first ammendment rights are granted to people, not books, so I am not sure what your premise is supposed to be.
I have no problem with a Bible in a library - like Christina Campell writes there are good lessons, histories and poetry in the Bible. In fact, I would argue against a parent or community member who wanted to exclude the Bible from a library. But if you wanted a library to carry the Bible as the sole religious text, I would object.
I went through a early teen phase questioning my religion; various religious texta in the library allowed me to examine my beliefs and the beliefs of others. My loving parents trusted me in the library, talked to me about what I read. They didn’t live in fear of books. They trusted their child, their own parenting (I decided that Christianity was the best path for me). And so I see the library as a safe place to explore many options. I would rather my children explore issues via books –fiction and non-fiction–selected by smart librarians than have them forced to find information on unedited interenet blogs.
20. Rogue Medic | 10.02.09
Banning Books is about limiting free speech. That is the whole idea behind banning books. Some people do not like the ideas of other people. They are willing to fight to prevent anyone from being exposed to ideas they do not like.
Banned Books Week does celebrate free speech. Students need to be protected from censorship. Banning something - ideas, drugs, whatever, only makes it more attractive. The idea that banning books is a good thing is as defective as the logic behind any other prohibition.
21. Steve R. Marquardt | 10.06.09
The predominant sponsor of Banned Books Week, the American Library Association, supports “freedom to read” worldwide, except in Cuba. ALA refuses to join the global human rights consensus for release of Cubans who’ve formed independent libraries, then sentenced to 20 years in prison. ALA’s “Book Burning in the 21st Century” website refuses to post news about ongoing police raids, beatings and Cuban court orders to burn entire library collections, including biographies of Martin Luther King, Jr and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. For more details, see the “Friends of Cuban Libraries” and “Cuba451Letters” websites on the Internet.
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1. Jean Chartrand | 09.28.09
Why is it that school children are not permitted to read the Bible in school, but so many, later in life, are encouraged to read the Bible in prison.