Banned Books Week: Still Needed in the U.S.

This piece was co-authored by Chris Finan, President of the American Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression.

For a country that venerates its First Amendment guarantee of freedom of speech, the United States tries to ban books with alarming frequency.

Stick a pin in each place where there's been a challenge to a school or library book, and you'll have a map of the United States that looks like a hedgehog in need of a haircut.

This year already, challenges have been reported from Montana to Indiana to Texas, in high schools and libraries, and from classics like Toni Morrison's The Bluest Eye, to newer books like Brent Hartinger's The Geography Club and Chris Crutcher's Chinese Handcuffs.

This February in West Bend, Wisconsin, a local couple filed a petition calling for the Library Advisory Board to remove or label several Young Adult titles, including Francesca Lia Block's Baby Be Bop and Stephen Chobsky's The Perks of Being a Wallflower, because they felt that all the books in the young-adult section that dealt with homosexuality were "gay-affirming." The couple also requested that the library build a collection of books by "ex-gays" in order to achieve an ideological balance.

As this debate raged on, four members of the library board were not reappointed because of accusations that they were "promoting the indoctrination of the gay agenda." Then the Christian Civil Liberties Union Milwaukee branch filed a lawsuit against the city of West Bend, complaining that the mere presence of some of the young adult books in the library caused "mental and emotional harm" to the elderly plaintiffs. The CCLU seeks $30,000 in damages per plaintiff, the mayor's resignation, and the removal of the books for a public burning (literally!).

As the late, great, and much-censored author Kurt Vonnegut would say: And so it goes.

In 1982, booksellers, librarians, and publishers launched Banned Books Week in response to threats of censorship like this. During this year's event, which will be held from Sept. 26 to Oct. 3, hundreds of bookstores and libraries will mount displays and sponsor events designed to remind Americans of the precarious state of our most precious freedom -- the freedom to read, write, think and say whatever we want. (A list of these events can be found on the Banned Books Week website).

There were more than 400 book challenges in 2007, 513 reported in 2008 and an on-going count in 2009, according to the American Library Association. The most frequently challenged book on the ALA's list for the last three years was And Tango Makes Three, a children's book that tells the true story of two male penguins at the Central Park Zoo who found an abandoned egg, hatched it, and nurtured the chick. Mark Twain's The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn still ranks as one of the most commonly challenged books because of its racial epithets. Just recently, Elizabeth Scott's Living Dead Girl was challenged by the parent of a young teen because she felt the story of a kidnap victim was too graphic for adolescents.

Of course, parents have certain rights to direct their children's education. What we oppose is the effort of one parent or a group of parents to make decisions about what other people's children may read. The First Amendment gives all parents the right to make choices about their children's education.

In our diverse society, it is inevitable that people will be offended by something they see, read or hear, and that some will respond by advocating the suppression of what they dislike. Demands for censorship come from both ends of the political spectrum and all points in between.

Nor should we expect this situation to change. It is a measure of the health of our democracy that people feel free to protest. But because the fight over books will continue, so must the battle against censorship. Banned Books Week offers everyone an opportunity to join the effort to save the books -- all of them.

Free speech will remain free only as long as we are willing to fight for it.

Joan Bertin is Executive Director of the National Coalition Against Censorship and Chris Finan is President of the American Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression, both located in New York City. Together, they are co-directors of the Kids Rights to Read Project, which responds to book challenges and bans and provides support, education, and advocacy to people facing book censorship.

Comments

[Mischa3]

As one of those authors invited to speak at the Banned Books event in Chicago Sep 26, may I say that the ALA campaign applies not only to literature available in US schools but, in my experience, to unpublished literature also.

My invitation was based on my old blog*, which was established to promote my novel pre-publication. Hosted by Blogger/Google, the blog remains hidden to online visitors, as Blogger/Google placed it under an interstitial.

I strongly take issue with this interference with readers’ right to choose, not to mention the high-handed judgement on my work. As a British/New Zealand author, I find my work falling under judgements made by a US company, which are in turn based upon Blogger/Google’s Terms of Service raised under American law. Though living outside US law, my work is judged by a company with unchallenged reach beyond its borders.

This is not a diatribe against American laws and values: I’m a staunch supporter of America, politcally and socially. My point is that the ALA’s campaign includes the broader issue of writers’ freedom to pen what they desire, and still have an unrestricted audience.

Sincerely,
Mischa KK Bagley.

https://www.blogger.com/blogin.g?blogspotURL=http%3A%2F%2Ftheconfessionofthepantherwoman.blogspot.com%2F

[rjmiller]

I propose that we ban the Bible, or preferably burn it. It is far too violent for children to be able to read. It contains fratricide, children torn apart by bears, a man slaughtering people with a jawbone, raining fire on a town, mass infanticide in Egypt, genocide, and the destruction of nearly all life on Earth (twice). That's not to mention the clearly homoerotic and polyamorous relationship between a certain man and his group of male followers.

Should our children be exposed to such disturbing imagery?

[arkady62]

It's already been challenged many, many times.

[BoyInBOYCOTT]

Thankfully books online seriously hobbles the bigots who try to ban books. information and Ideas no longer are contained only in physical buildings.

VIVA la vie Boheme

[Paulied]

All of those people who are so fond of throwing around words like Fascist or Nazi while carrying pictures of the President with a Hitler moustache to these "value voter" summits and book burning extravaganzas would do well to google "entartete Kunst" (degenreate art). Then we can talk.

[noneIn2008]

Put an end to the government indoctrination centers and allow school choice. Parents then can choose their libraries along with their schools.

[iconoclast6]

SO, what you really mean is, privatize schools and libraries, so that those who can't pay can look forward to an inadequate education and no access to information. Happy you could clear that up.

[UtahGirl90]

The required reading my high school and junior high was made up of banned books. I may not have actually liked all of the banned books that I read but at least I read them. I don't want to be forced to read every banned book ever written but I at least always want the option to read them. Censorship was a big issue to my sophomore year English teacher. She keeps of list of banned books posted in her classroom and encourages students to read the books on that list. If I find something offensive in a book, movie, or song, I know that other people don't find it to be so and I have no right to tell them what they should and shouldn't read, watch, say, think, write or believe. We all deserve the right to chose for ourselves. Banning books takes some of that choice away.
Everyone has a way of expressing themselves and not everyone is going to agree with that form of expression. But we should at least be tolerant of our differences. You don't have to like someone or support them but you should at least respect them, if not for their beliefs, opinions or views, then respect them for the courage they had to stand up and say what they feel, think or believe. Banning anything is disrespectful to those that put so much time, effort and heart into their writing or whatever other medium they choose the express themselves through.

[SafeLibraries]

Bertin and Finan repeatedly and purposefully mislead the American public in community after community, and this recent letter from them is more of the same.

See, for example:

Leesburg, FL, Misled by NCAC and ABFFE; Both Write Letter Filled with False and Misleading Statements; Kids' Right to Read Project Misleads, and

Facts Disprove ALA Statements Regarding West Bend, WI; ABFFE, NCAC, and Others Similarly Incorrect.

Regarding Banned Books Week, no books have been banned in the USA for about half a century, so these resources may also be of interest:

"Banned Books Week and the ALA," by Dennis Ingolfsland, The Recliner Commentaries, 4 August 2009.

"'Censors' Are So Scary," by Annoyed Librarian, Library Journal, 6 October 2008.

"Finding Censorship Where There Is None," by Mitchell Muncy, Wall Street Journal, 24 September 2009, p.W13.

"National Hogwash Week," as coined by Thomas Sowell.

"US Libraries Hit Back Over Challenges to Kids Books," by Sara Hussein, Agence France-Presse [AFP], 6 September 2009.

[Samson1]

Please note, "safelibraries" is a book banning organization with a"value voters" agenda. It is anti gay, and provides much misinformation. Google it, go to safelibraries.org and read it, but you might want to take what they say here with a whole lot of salt.

[SafeLibraries]

Please note, "safelibraries" is

a book banning organization FALSE

with a"value voters" agenda. FALSE

It is anti gay, FALSE

and provides much misinformation. FALSE - EVERYTHING SAID IS SUPPORTED WITH RELIABLE SOURCES, AS OPPOSED TO SAMSON1'S COMMENTS THAT ARE ALL AD HOMINEM IN NATURE.

Google it, go to safelibraries.org and read it, TRUE - BUT THE BLOG LINKED AT THE TOP HAS NEWER INFORMATION- CONSIDER SUBSCRIBING

but you might want to take what they say here with a whole lot of salt. TRUE, BUT SO SHOULD THE ALA/ACLU/NCAC MISINFORMATION ABOUT HOW LEGALLY KEEPING MATERIAL FROM CHILDREN IS SOMEHOW ILLEGAL JUST BECAUSE THEY SAY SO AND HAVE THE POWER TO SPREAD THAT MESSAGE FAR AND WIDE.

[iconoclast6]

So then, your ideal American society, is one in which a) All literature and entertainment must be appropriate for a six-year-old child, and b) All popular culture must reflect a conservative, capitalist, Ch.ris&tau­;iαn world view? I'm happy you could clear that up.

[SafeLibraries]

Iconoclast6, I never said that. And your statements about me are incorrect. In reality, this blogging medium that allows shorts clips of information makes communication difficult. If you and I were in the same room and could discuss the issues back and forth, I am certain you and I would argue on quite a lot of things, and politely agree to disagree on others.

[COPerez]

Burning books might be the one crime that I'd agree deserves capitol punishment.

[GraceNotes]

Darn it, I meant or an ex-gay. When I try to be quick and witty, I sometimes hit the wrong key.

[Jonny38103]

Keep fighting, Joan - while we have heard about speaking truth to power, sometimes you have to speak truth to stupid.

[Thabit]

Even Ron White knows "YOU CANT FIX STUPID"

[morris108]

Homosexuality in our society and Judaism, Neturei Karta

www.youtube.com/watch?v=rKk3griwkpw

Is the Gay Agenda a NeoCon one?

www.youtube.com/watch?v=qNqEt0ciN9w

[Rmath]

Sarah Palin has tried her hand at book banning. And in Minnesota, our very own public embarrassment, Michele Bachmann, is also a proponent of banning certain books.

People like these live in a fantasy world. They rush to rescue the abstract "institution of marriage" and their hearts cry out in pain where patriotic symbols like the flag are worn on the knees of a pair of blue jeans, but they won't lift a finger to defend freedom of the press.

[sociocanuck]

When I took my MLIS I had the opportunity to take a course on Intellectual Freedom (and censorship, its antithesis) in which we explored a great deal of banned or 'about to be banned' literature, and got to know the reasons behind the challenges (as you point out rightly, people way overstepping their bounds by insisting on what other people couild read) and their remedies.

Libraries deal with a lot more than just banned books, though: as long as it has a film or music collection, anything 'iffy' in there could be a target, too. While I worked in my local library there were vary few actual challenges, but since my neighbourhood has a very large old consewrvative population there were quite a few 'edits' to materials thought unsuitable.

One of the more amusing was someone who found a C.S. Lewis theological treatise offensive for daring to mention women: they crossed out every occurrence of 'she' in the whole book.

[iconoclast6]

My wife, a managing librarian, was told by her director that she should not add "Brokeback Mountain" to the collection. After all, "this is a heavily Chris.tiαn city!" She went ahead and did it anyway, and now she's fighting a challenge of "And Tango Makes Three." I also have a MLIS...I've never used it, but if I do, and someone challenges something on my watch, look out! I have a very good role model.

[been2there]

Please stop calling the right-wing­nut-religi­ous paranoics Christian! The are crazy.

[Mindbullet]

I graduated from Lindale High School in Lindale Texas in 1997. In 1996 Harper Lee’s "To Kill A Mockingbird" was banned from the Lindale,Tex. advanced placement English reading list because the book "conflicted with the values of the community." I was in the class being "protected" by parents and in no way did I identify with their religion based paranoia. There were many other books banned at the time to include: Rudolfo Anaya's "Bless Me, Ultima" as well as Art Spiegelman's "Maus.". The greatest teacher I ever knew was Mrs. Sue Platzer, my advanced placement English teacher. She was made a scapegoat by the community for teaching her class books from the nationally established AP English suggested reading list. I am sad to say that she resigned from her position during my senior year. I remember one of the last classes we had with her she presented us with a gritty and rather profane poem composed during and about the horrors of World War II. The point of the lesson that day will be with me forever. In the art of language sometimes profanity is necessary to express the profane nature of a situation. And no situation is more profane than war. Meaning is not found in words alone, but rather in how we use them. And so I use my words to protect the rights of future generations to have access to whatever books their academic pursuits desire.

Thank you Joan for your insightful voice.

[sunnyroller]

Mindbullet,

I was a student of both Mr. and Mrs. Platzer, class 0f 1990. I hate to here she had to resign. She was an amazing teacher, who really pushed us and made us strive for excellence!
I appreciate your thoughtful comments and am glad to see Mrs. Platzer acknowledged for her impact.

Sunny

[sunnyroller]

Well wouldn't it be lovely if I had paid more attention to my proofreading skills since high school. I meant to type hear rather than here. Yikes, how shameful!