I’ve had a difficult time deciding where to go with this post. The Sexual Life of Catherine M. isn’t really a banned book and I ended up more on a tangent of what next week’s ALA-sponsored Banned Book Week is about than actually reviewing the book.
The more I think about Banned Book Week and what I’ve decided to read this month, the more I’ve realized that, in the United States at least, there really is no such thing as a banned book anymore. Even the Wall Street Journal confirmed it with a poignant article on the subject.
I started my college career majoring in journalism and the lessons on censorship have always stuck with me. Mitchell Muncy points out the definition in the start of his article: censorship is government repression–it comes in the form of a politician threatening a newspaper to keep certain details quiet or preventing a printer from running copies of a book that makes the authorities look bad. And it’s happened the world over as governments have tried to control their image and their people.
So when a parents’ group writes to the local library trying to get rid of a book, it’s not censorship. Muncy goes on to explain that, as much as librarians hate it, the ability to question access to books by the public is actually very important in the process of democracy. I often see articles bemoaning the lack of parenting that goes on, so why are we condemning the parents who are taking an active role in their children’s education?
Ultimately, yes, there are certain books that clearly do not belong in a school library. But a public library is a different matter. When the New York Times ran an article on the Brooklyn Public Library and their decision to pull TinTin au Congo from the general shelves, many people overlooked the fact that it was not done on the whim of a librarian. The decision was made by many people and the book is still accessible, just not out in the open. Dealing with challenged books is something all libraries have to do at some point or another and it is not always an easy decision to make.
There was a link in small print included in the article; you could see complaint and response letters that addressed various themes and the access of certain books. On first reading, the liberal minded laugh at how sensitive people are. But with a further look, there is material that is offensive to different races, genders, and religions and material that is inappropriate for children. I still believe these books should be accessible, but the people who the material hurts are just as entitled to their indignation.
I grew up in Vermont and during the late 90s the state became the first to allow civil unions between same-sex couples after the State Supreme Court decided that same sex couples were entitled to the same benefits and protection as heterosexual couples in the case of Baker v. State. While the decision to do so was being discussed by politicians, a group of protesters camped out front of the capital in an attempt to prevent the law from passing.
Except the protesters were from the Westboro Baptist Church…in Kansas. Vermonters scratched their heads wondering why on earth people from Kansas had any right in telling us how to live. Similar to the recent protest in front of Brooklyn Tech, Westboro Baptist only sent five protesters who were outnumbered by counter protesters. In both cases, the counter-protesters advocated love and tolerance over hate and discrimination.
Similarly, local communities know what is best for them and what belongs at their public library. Librarians are not omniscient–there are too many books out their and it is not right for the power of deciding which books are appropriate and which are are not to lie in the hands of just the librarians (see also the response regarding libraries labeling books with a rating similar to movies). The ability to submit concerns brings awareness of controversial material to the librarians awareness and make decisions based on the community’s needs.
Through this awareness, books can be moved to safer places. I wrote a letter to the Brooklyn Public Library asking about The Anarchist Cookbook, a book with much controversy around it. One must ask the librarian to see it because it is an at risk book, just like the nursing text books that one must also ask for. These books are regularly prone the theft, keeping them in the library and requiring requests for them is a compromise to allow accesses without incurring the financial liability of replacing them.
It is also with diligence of community members that books inappropriately shelved can be moved to safer area. In the letters linked above, a father was outraged that a comic featuring an incestuous and abusive relationship with rather detailed drawings was housed on a new books shelf rather than being placed in a more sexually themed area. The cover and title belied the content within and while helping his daughter choose a book came across the book.
Banned Book Week seems less a celebration of books that should be read despite, and sometimes particularly for, their controversial content. It seems at times to have created an angry mob intent on storming the walls of anyone who dares to question the content of a book anywhere. There are places where some books are simply not appropriate, but no book is truly banned in this day of internet shopping. Even those on a small budget can purchase used copies for relatively little.
It may be different elsewhere, but for those of us living in the United States, let’s be happy our process works. We as individuals dislike when someone tries to belittle our beliefs, so why should we harangue others for theirs? What we find acceptable may not be the same as someone else. They are entitled to have their voices heard.
Which is exactly what Banned Book Week is to me. It’s getting suppressed voices out there–whether it be the community members who feel a book disparages their religion or an author who felt the need to write about her sexual experiences in detail. The ability to say what we want without repercussion is a relatively new phenomenon. For centuries government and/or religious institutions controlled the press. We should celebrate our ability to have our dissenting voices heard without being drowned out by those who believe differently or succumbing to pressure from other self-interested groups.
Welcome to Stacked! If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to the StackedBlog RSS feed. Thanks for visiting and come back soon!
Related posts:
- BPL “Support Our Shelves” The quarterly Brooklyn!! newsrag made its way into my inbox...
- Library Funding Exhibit A Last week I wrote about the Brooklyn Public Library’s “Support Our...
- A Warning – Banned Book Month Once upon a time when I was a little girl,...
Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.
{ 2 trackbacks }
{ 15 comments… read them below or add one }
This is a very interesting post and I truly enjoyed reading it!! In fact, I am going to come back and read it in the morning when I am not quite so tired! I’m thinking I may highlight this on my weekly wrap-up post. Would you mind?
.-= Tif´s last blog ..The Boy in the Striped Pajamas by John Boyne =-.
Tif – I had to re-read it a few times and I wrote it! There was so much I wanted to say without writing a disgustingly long essay – I hope it all does make sense! And please, do go ahead and link it.
Rebecca – It’s definitely important that people remember public libraries and school libraries really are too different things. And that the roll of requirements of being a librarian in a school library are quite different from that of a public library. I’d like to believe all students should have access to anything they want to read, but it is such a touchy area. What one child can handle another might not be able to and the first should have access. Thinking more about it, a smaller school whould have a smaller budget for books, but the nature of knowing everyone would mean that the school could have more controversial books because the librarian would “theoretically” know which students would be a good fit with which books.
Interesting points. I saw the WSJ article and thought that had good points too.
I agree with these sentences: “Ultimately, yes, there are certain books that clearly do not belong in a school library. But a public library is a different matter.” I suspect there are plenty of people who would suggest that choosing not to put a book in a school library would be censoring it from students. But I think librarians have to make choices *somewhere*.
.-= Rebecca Reid´s last blog ..Snow Flower and the Secret Fan by Lisa See =-.
What a wonderfully thoughtful article. Thank you very much for posting it!
i found this google map mash-up very interesting.
http://bannedbooksweek.org/Mapofbookcensorship.html
I’m okay with challenging a book in schools. I don’t think it should be banned, but the challenge forces a dialogue to create a safe environment for students while pushing them to think for themselves. Like in Marcelo’s post about Huck Finn – challenging books makes parents and educators evaluage precisely why a specific book is being taught and how it can shape students into being better people.
Public libraries on the other hand shouldn’t have to deal with challenges – there are so many different mind-set’s and opinions out there – by nature of being a PUBLIC library, it needs to cater to all people. I did state that a community has the right decide what is best for it, and I stand by that – but it also must take into consideration the minority voice. In the case of banned book week, I feel too many bloggers are ignoring the minority voice that says books should be challenged or banned which was the inspiration for the post.
As for the map – at first I was suprized at how many challenges took place in New England, it took me a moment to realize part of that has to do less with view point and rather deals more with population.
Well, I think it also depends on what is meant by “Banning” a book. Removing a book entirely is different, imo, from simply placing it in a different section or restricting access according to age (with parental approval). In the latter the book is still available, provided certain criteria are met. For instance, I loved “America” which has been challenged because it contains a lot of profanity and child sexual abuse. It was wonderfully written, probably one of the best books I’ve ever read, but it was also deeply disturbing. I would find this book in a middle school or elementary school to be inappropriate for those age groups.
However, if parents were okay with a child reading it (I can’t imagine they would be, at least for that age) but it could still be available by requesting from the librarian with a parental signature or something. The parent would be aware, and they could talk to the child about the subject matter, why bad things happen to kids sometimes, why they should be careful talking to strangers, etc.
Like I said, it’s an extreme example, but the point remains. The book is not imo appropriate for that age, but it is an incredible book nonetheless. The book is still available, but only to certain age and with parental approval. I would not really consider that “banning” so much as “restricted access.” Restricting access is not necessarily the same as completely removing the materials.
This is the stickiest of sticky issues. I agree on the marked differences between choosing appropriate materials for a school versus restricting content in a public forum such as a public library. Schools are necessarily controlled environments for pedagogical reasons and that has been repeatedly underlined by the US Supreme Court.
And the WSJ is also correct inasmuch as the application by citizens to have books moved, removed or segregated is the right of a citizen to seek redress of perceived grievance — a right every bit as sacred as the freedom of speech. And sometimes the two will collide, the one becoming restrictive of the other.
Rights are not absolute and definition and boundaries are usually defined as your rights stop where they begin to impinge upon the rights of another. You right to swing your fist stops when your fist impacts my nose. For similar reasons not all speech is protected inasmuch as you can’t shout “Fire” in a theater. The trouble is that outside of the realm of theater-shouting there’s no good way to indicate where your speech has impacted my nose… so to speak.
As a citizen of this country, I have the legally-protected right and ability to obtain a copy of anything online (within the bounds of copyright law which is a whole other issue). But this ability to get it doesn’t negate the ability of a community to censor. A theoretical path around a roadblock doesn’t make the obstacle cease to exist.
The trouble is the inherent conceit that there are people out there who ‘know better’ and deserve a role in choosing for me and for my child what they can or cannot see, hear and read. Within a school curriculum that makes a certain kind of sense, but a public library is a public forum. And any effort by authorities to restrict the contents of the stacks or remove items and place them behind a curtain not for fear that they will be stolen and incur additional costs to replace, but for fear of what reaction they might provoke… that stigmatizes those authors and those books and those who dare to read those books. The act of crossing into the restricted section becomes an open act in defiance of the perceived mores of the community rather than a private act of self-education. This is embolden some to read the banned material, yes, but it is not for them that we argue. It’s for those who will be warned away, their minds and ideas unchallenged by the forbidden volumes behind the curtain, their education and erudition stunted by lack of intellectual oxygen.
The public library is the central storehouse of ideas. Whether or not we can find other ways to obtain a copy of a given book or magazine in irrelevant. The removal or segregation of written material within a public library is an act of the government to enforce the opinions of some upon the whole. That is what makes it censorship and takes it from a citizen seeking redress of grievances into the realm of the government endorsing an opinion and acting as the arm of that opinion, ideology or person.
.-= Scott Perkins´s last blog ..Fahrenheit 451 =-.
I don’t think it necessarily stigmatizes authors to place age appropriate material in the correct section. I wouldn’t want “The Illustrated Karma Sutra” for instance, placed in the kid’s section. Also, I don’t think that a restricted section would be some back room with glass walls or something, but it could simply be asking the librarian to fetch that book for you. I’ve gotten interlibrary loans by asking the librarian to get materials for me. I don’t think, in theory anyway, it would be much different.
It’s not trying to remove materials completely as a form of censoring unpopular ideas, but rather simply making sure that age appropriate material is not given to underage patrons.
As a parent, I do the same thing at home with my own books. I HAVE the books and materials, but I don’t give my son access to them. Right now, he watches “Much Ado about nothing with me” but I wouldn’t let him watch “Othello” until he was older because the material in the video isn’t appropriate for his age. But that’s within my own home, not dictating what other people can allow their kids to do.
I really don’t think it’s the same thing as banning or censoring ideas. Restricting access could also simply be materials are only checked out by a minimum age or with parental approval. It’s not REMOVAL of those materials,but simply placing them on a higher shelf or whatever, and obviously the people of the community would decide or challenge which books fit that criteria.
As far as whether or not there are other ways of obtaining the material, I agree that’s not the issue. But even if it was, the public library is paid for with MY tax dollars, I have a shared interest in those books, they were bought with (at least partially) my money, so I should have every right to check out what I want whether or not someone else likes my reading choices.
As far as it causing people to not want to check out the materials, that might be true but I sort of doubt it. If you read lists of previously banned books, most of them read like a best seller/classics list. In fact, when I want to find a good book,a lot of times I’ve been known to look up what’s been banned or challenged and check it out. :)
ganymeder – I’m just going to address your last paragraph – Yes, people may avoid checking out books from a restricted area. Think of how jokingly people make reference to being on some government mast list for checking out anti-government related books or something like The Anarchist Cookbook. We know it’s not true but there is a niggling feeling in the back of our brain of “what if”.
My next “Banned Book Week” review is of Mein Kampf – even though I requested that book online it was a slightly unnerving experience that I intend to write about as well as having to ask to see The Anarchist Cookbook. Based on my experience, I can definitly see how someone with a nervous constitution or concerned with appearences might definitely avoid asking for or checking out such materials.
As for the Best Seller/Classics list appearence of the banned book lists – most are only 100 books long. It makes the most sense for anyone creating a list to showcase the most popular and well known of titles. There are plenty of lesser-known books that feature something objectionable but which aren’t going to be the example most (if ever) used.
Christina,
I would have thought that the Banned Books list mostly listed the books according to how often they were banned or challenged, not necessarily how popular they are now. So if the Bible were in the top 10, it would be the top 10 because it (and 9 others) have been challenged the most historically. Though I realize that different lists use different guidelines and don’t reflect the same things. I still stand by my general statement though that most of them do read like classics and bestsellers. Whether or not its because they were banned/challenged in the first place is a different matter.
Is it alright for me to link to this article in my own blog? I’m writing a review of a challenged book in honor of BBW and would like to link to interesting BBW articles at the end of it…
I don’t believe most lists are actually stating how they determine which books to include. You could be right, I’d be curious to see an actual notation by the various sorces.
And go ahead and link – the more discussion the better!
Thanks!
Yeah, I *might* research that later, but I have quite a bit to do right now so I also might not. At least right now. :)
Tomorrow I will probably post my review for BBW with links at my blog, if you are interested. http://www.ganymeder.com
I am reviewing “America” by E.R. Frank- a challenged book in my area. I’ve also requested 2 other books from my local library but I’m still waiting for them to come in.
Of course, it makes sense!!! I just linked back to it from my little post. Feel free to check it out . . . http://tiftalksbooks.blogspot.com/2009/09/celebrating-books.html
.-= Tif´s last blog ..Sunday Synopsis: September 27, 2009 =-.
I shared on my blog about my experience several years ago with finding questionable material in the children’s section at my library and what I did about it. I now wonder if it would have been considered a book challenge, though it was certainly not my intent to be a neighborhood censor or have the book banned.
.-= Shauna´s last blog ..Banned Books Week =-.