The Forbidden Library Monday, March 19, 2007

I was going to find a news article to deal with this week...and instead, found this:

The Forbidden Library Go ahead and click it--it'll open in a new window. Essentially, this is a list of banned and contested books.

I have to say, I've never really understood the idea of banning a book. The ideas contained within aren't just going to go away because the book isn't on the shelf anymore.

Wouldn't that be nice? Let's just take the book down, and pretend that the N word never existed. Let's pretend white people were never cruel, evil bastards to an entire other race of people. Yep. Taking Huck Finn off the shelves could rewrite history. (Whatever. Feel the sarcasm.)

It amazes me, some of the names on that list. Zilpha Keatley Snyder's The Egypt Game, which I devoured as a kid. (I've also bought about five copies--one for my sister, for my oldest son, and copies for me which have been loaned, borrowed and 'borrowed' by others.) John Bellairs, who still scares the crap out of me, and his books are for tweens. Roald Dahl is on there twice, once for Charlie and the Chocolate Factory!

As a fantasy reader/writer, I need to point out how many of those books are argued about for encouraging belief in 'magic'. Because, yknow, believing in something otherworldly is a really stupid thing to do. (I'm behaving and not pointing out the underlying base of most religions. Really, I'm not.)

I have to say I love that the creator of this site includes links-to-buy for each of these books...but that may just be my morbid sense of things...(which I blame on reading books banned for their 'morbid themes'...at least three on that list ;) )


As someone who works as a librarian in my real life, I'm completely opposed to censorship when it comes to reading. Yeah, stick an AGE label on it if you don't want the little kids to read it, but DO NOT remove it from shelves. I always figured if you can start an argument, you must be doing something right. You hit a hot button, made people listen and take notice. made them THINK and talk about what they think.

Also, as someone with a history degree, let me tell you that even if you take it off the shelf, even IF you write about, say Christopher Columbus and paint him as a perfect little hero, it still doesn't make it so. People are nasty, evil, bad. And people are good, wonderful, and self-sacrificing. And these are all the same people. People are people, and books are just words...until you let them be something more.

My thought: let them be.



First off, I've never agreed with book banning. There are certain books that I don't feel are appropriate to be required reading for kids -- depending on age -- but I feel kids ought have free access to read them should they so desire.

I've had an unconventional experience, though. I was home-schooled and allowed full access to my parents' library. I grew up reading books with extremely controversial elements; for instance, Piers Anthony's Incarnations of Immortality novels, which in addition to raising a lot of questions about religion, also contain a fair amount of graphic sex. Or Marion Zimmer Bradley's Darkover novels, where homosexuality and polyamory are considered "normal." Or Mercedes Lackey's Diana Tregarde novels, which feature a Wiccan heroine....

You see my point.

I don't feel that I was "harmed" in any way by reading these books. If anything, they gave me a greater understanding of the outside world (in comparison with my extremely sheltered environment) and respect for different lifestyles and cultures.

I think it's foolish to try to get books banned because they either represent something in the past that was offensive, or because they don't coincide with your personal theology. For the first, sticking your head in the sand isn't going to erase the past. For the second, well, I'm pagan; somehow, I highly doubt that a conservative Christian's opinion of what's "appropriate" is going to coincide with mine. I wouldn't want my (theoretical) child subject to their definitions of propriety.

My opinionated 2c, as always. ;)



Okay, I'm not just hopping on the bandwagon here because it's after midnight and I should be asleep. Actually, I'm pretty darned coherent at the moment, so figured now was as good a time as any. So... Here's my two cents.

No, I do not approve of book banning. Yes, I do feel some material is appropriate or NOT appropriate for age groups. But here's where I get to go off... THAT'S THE PARENT'S RESPONSIBILITY.

Um... Hello? I have a 5 year-old son who can read every word I put on this screen. I have to be careful when I'm working or brainstorming that I don't let it get too brassy, steamy or graphic. Because I'm not ready for him to be reading it. I have that control. Someone decrying a book for "graphic language" and banning it is absurd! Who on this earth saw one thing wrong with the Narnia books? I mean, really. I read those so many times I wore out the spines. And I know I've had them since I was younger than 10.

Now, I'm not trying to say some puritan zealot hypocrit of literature watchdog-ism isn't going to come right back at me and say that it was inappropriate for me at that age. This is where I can stand. MY PARENTS GAVE ME THE RIGHT. No one else. There was nothing wrong with those particular books, and many others on that so-called banned list, then nor now that would keep me from letting my son read them if he was interested in them.

Libraries are for "public" education, "public" entertainment, "public" research. When books are banned, you take away the public aspect of all of that, and make it *that really bad word that America was soooo not founded on*. If you don't know it, go to the library and look it up! Oh, but you know what, someone probably banned that too.

Okay, I'm calming down here. I will say that most people have a wide and varied idea of what is "graphic" "gory" or "explicit". Books are written, abounding in variety, to suit anyone who cares to read. Sadly many don't. What's worse, people who are on the committees who do the banning, don't read widely, take on one opinion as the heresy of the day, and lump an entire generation, genre, or quality into the decision to ban.

I'm not agnostic, nor pagan, but I don't attend a church. I believe in god, his teachings, the commandments and heaven and hell. Should I demand all christian teachings be banned because I'm worried/afraid/conceited enough to believe that alone will ruin/sway/traumatize my child? Golly, what a power trip...