Banned Books Week is October 1st - 7th

When I was in high school in the early 60’s, Catcher in the Rye had been banned since 1951. The book was condemned for revealing teenage rebellion, having vulgar language, and disrespecting parents. It did! That’s why I liked it. When Holden Caulfield said “Sometimes I act a lot older than I am—I really do—but people never notice it. People never notice anything,” I identified, and I shared his anxiety over everything. (How did I get a copy of the book? The librarian at the Carnegie library in downtown Atlanta got me one, as well as Franny and Zooey.)

According to PEN America, in 2021 requests to ban books numbered 729. In 2022 there were 1,269 successful requests to censor books in libraries and schools.

Books are not banned for sloppy writing, bad grammar, or inaccurate facts. I think they are banned because they are about something the public cannot yet acknowledge or finds uncomfortable to acknowledge.

Stories featuring identity struggles with race or LGBTQ+ are today’s chief targets: Gender Queer: A Memoir; The Perks of Being a Wallflower; Me and Earl and the Dying Girl; This Book is Gay; The Absolutely True Story of a Part-time India; The Hate U Give; and All Boys Aren’t Blue. In 2023 Ellen Hopkins wrote three banned books, including Tricks (2009), the most banned book in 2023. Her young adult (YA) books are about teens struggling with drug addictions, stealing, mental illness, and prostitution. Health officials, doctors, therapists, and schools all agree that these are real critical problems, along with teen suicide. Hopkins’ books are written in verse.

Way back in 1928 the first lesbian romance, The Well of Loneliness by Radclyffer Hall, was banned and the author hauled into court. The book is now a classic.

After the Civil War, the United Daughters of the Confederacy went into schools and libraries demanding that books which did not show sympathy to the “lost cause” be removed from the shelves.

Many still banned books challenge fixed attitudes about race: The Color Purple, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, To Kill a Mockingbird, The Bluest Eye.

The history of banning books gives perspective on some motives behind censorship.

In the 15th century printing of biblical scriptures in the vernacular of the people was unacceptable to the Papal authorities. Then William Tyndale, who translated the New Testament from Greek, was burned at the stake in 1531. It was once illegal to read the Bible in English. The Church preferred that congregants be kept in the dark about what Jesus actually said.

But by far the longest and most banned book of all time is George Orwell’s 1984 published in 1949. It was specifically banned in Vietnam and in the Soviet Union. People were against the book by only hearing that it was pro-communism. the same as people today are against books with a non-binary heroine or hero or both, without reading the book.

In 1984 there is no freedom of speech and expression. The totalitarian Party shapes words and events to serve its own needs. Individuals are not allowed to keep records of their past, including photographs. The ZINN education project now is defending the right of students to know the banned history missing from textbooks. Long before Facebook and Alexa and FBI surveillance, everyone in 1984 is watched by Big Brother. They engage in a world war solely to maintain the status quo. Citizens are afraid of speaking or writing what they think, let alone entering into discussions with others. Thought police condemn certain words and subjects in public and in schools so that the citizens begin to censor themselves. Soon most cannot think at all.

During the first week in October consider how free speech includes books and songs and art. In addition to saying Let Freedom Ring, proclaim also Let Freedom Read.

PROMPT:

Have you read any banned books such as Morrison's The Bluest Eye or Grapes of Wrath which was banned during the Depression? Did you see how they might have bothered some people?

Is there any book that you think Middle Schoolers should not read today? Why?

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