This week is not only Banned Books week,it is the 25th anniversary of the American Library Association's(ALA)having this annual event to remind folks of their right to read freely. Kind of sad,if you think about it. Book banning and challenging is still going on today,with the likes of Harry Potter,Toni Morrison,The Great Gatsby and Judy Blume in the crosshairs of the Book Police.
Most of this is done under the"We must protect the children!" banner-protect them from what exactly? Most of the reasons cited for banning are "offensive language","sexual content",racism,sexism,disrespect to adults,references to homosexuality and "the stranglehold of humanism on life in America."
While I would agree with presenting certain ideas to young people according to their age group,two important things are left out of the debate. One,that most kids are exposed to these notions early on and may only have a partial knowledge(or worse,total misinformation)of the subject and two,how will they know that there are bad things in life if they're never allowed to see and judge for themselves?
Of course,alot of this is really about control-freedom of thought is just down right scary to some people. Is it a coincidence that the majority of tolitarian regimes go after artists first? I don't think so. Mob mentality is a dangerous thing,which is why one of the best villians created by the newer generations of Star Trek was the Borg-"resistance is furtile!". That certainly sounds like a battle cry shouted towards librarians,teachers and booksellers who only want to provide the public with a wide selection of reading material.
If you would like more info about Banned Books Week,please click the title link above. BBW ends on September 30 but the fight for your right to read is forever on going. Here's someone who can say this better than me-take it away,Bob!:
Great minds think alike. I will look into The World According to Garp.
ReplyDeleteoffensive language","sexual content",racism,sexism,disrespect to adults,references to homosexuality
ReplyDeletehmm, that covers a fairly large portion of the early parts of the Bible. Let;s see, other interesting words and concepts the Bible taught me before I was nine years old:
prostitution, adultery, masturbation, incest, genocide, infanticide, killing everybody who disagrees with you, religious fanaticism,
the list goes one, I'm just going to see if I still have a Bible, then I'll be back.
Like not keeping score in Little League and obsessive hand sanitizing, we've taken our children and turned them into dolls. As a result, we've become a nation of whining pu ... uh, wimps.
ReplyDeleteThanks,guys-PCD,you'll love TWATG,it's one of my all time favorites!
ReplyDeleteDavid,you make good points about the Bible which happens to be a frequent banned book(along with the Koran and other religious text).
Jake,yep,we have us here quite a few wussies-thanks,Yuppies!