"I never knew a girl who was ruined by a book. " -- James Walker

This is adieu, everyone. This shall be my final blog post on this subject. I have enjoyed writing about this issue because over the years, it has been placed on the back burner and no one really thought about it. Hopefully, someone got enjoyment from this blog and hopefully someone who didn’t know a lot about book banning became informed by reading my blog posts and my reading lists and my extra things like my profile essay and my newsletter.

Throughout this semester, I have written about the issue of book banning. I chose this issue because it is something that is close to my heart and it is also something that needed to be bumped into the spotlight because it is very important. I started out knowing that not many people knew about book banning and if they did, they only knew the bare minimum and it was most likely wrong information.

I wrote about the different reasons why books are challenged and then are banned. I also talked about real life stories where book banning was taking place and how it was affecting the community over all.

I also did two blog posts that focuses on two authors that I believe are amazing and are widely known by almost everyone: J.K. Rowling and William Shakespeare. Both of them have had works that have been banned at one point or another and J.K. Rowling has even spoken about her thoughts on the whole idea of book banning and how it pertains to her and her books (Harry Potter).

I also wrote a post that dealt with a certain work, Spring Awakening by Frank Wedekind. I mainly decided to write about that play because it has a long history of being banned due to the sexual content and the other adult themes that it contains. This play is amazing and I believe that everyone should read it at one point in their life but others didn’t seem to think so. Over the course of 100 years, the book was banned. That speaks levels about why books are banned.

I did enjoy writing about this topic but I don’t think I will be doing any more posting in this blog space. I feel like I’ve equipped enough information for anyone to look at who has questions about book banning. There are 16 annotated links in my Required Reading List that deal with book banning in some way. There are also a Fact Sheet and Newsletter that both deal with book banning and there is a Profile Essay that is about Dr. Rudolph Almasy, and English professor at West Virginia University. He teaches banned books regularly and he knew a lot about this issue.

So, I hope that more people come and read this blog and I hope that after they have read it, they will leave with a new view on book banning. I also hope that if they didn’t know a lot about book banning, they leave here with more knowledge about this issue and I hope that they spread it around to their friends and family. So, thank you to everyone who has read this blog and enjoyed it and thank you to everyone who has yet to read this blog and enjoys it once they do.

"Did you ever hear anyone say, 'That work had better be banned because I might read it and it might be very damaging to me'?" -- Joseph Henry Jackson

I decided to talk about a playwright this week. He is one of my favorite playwright’s because of one specific work that helped shape me into the person I am today. Frank Wedekind is that playwright. Wedekind was a German born playwright and his most famous work is Spring’s Awakening. Wedekind is associated with Expressionism because of his writing which criticized bourgeois attitudes, particularly geared towards sex. He is also credited as a major influence to Epic Theatre.

Wedekind’s first major work is Spring’s Awakening or Frühlings Erwachen in German. This play was written in 1891 but wasn’t performed until 1906. Spring’s Awakening is a play that is about material that some teenagers go through in their lives. This play has a subtitle that says, A Children’s Tragedy. That should already have you clued in by saying, “Wait a minute, tragedy? What?” Well, this play is very much a tragedy, but it carries a message with it.

The play is about a group of German students who are growing up in a sexually oppressed town. The focus is mainly on two of these children, Melchior and Wendla. They are about fourteen years old and they also become sexually involved, even though they know they shouldn’t be. The parents of these teenagers do nothing to tell them about sex or pregnancy or anything like that.

That is what Wedekind was trying to show. He was trying to show that it’s stupid to not inform your children of important things such a sex and pregnancy.

The other characters in the book also become involved in some type of sexual way. There are two boys, Hanschen and Ernst, who express their feelings toward each other, there are also Georg who had a romantic dream involving his mother, and poor Moritz is ‘plagued by horrid dreams’ as he puts it.

Moritz is another crucial character. He is the third main character and while the story mainly focuses on Melchior and Wendla, Moritz is a key character who shouldn’t be ignored. He struggles with fantasies that he doesn’t know how to deal with, he struggles in school and he struggles at home. He doesn’t know what to do and he ultimately ends up making the wrong decision.

This play deals with themes like sex, pregnancy, homosexuality, abortion and suicide. These themes weren’t very well thought of during the 1890’s and early 1900’s, which is why this play has been banned countless times. This play is crucial to my issue because, while during the time period it was written, it was very edgy and seeing as it was making fun of the German society of the time; it is so very relevant to my issue and to today in general.

I first read this play in 2006 after I had seen the musical Spring Awakening, which is based on this play. It is a rock musical that carries the same story, with a slightly different ending from the original play. I fell in love with this musical and with this play. I was sixteen when I read it and saw the musical and I have to say that it did have a profound effect on me. It was relevant to me when I read because I was sixteen and it is still relevant now. I think that every teenager should read it because, while at some points it can seem a tad melodramatic, it is very poignant and well written and has an excellent message.

"There is nothing more frightening than active ignorance." -- Goethe

So sorry that the previous had been deleted. I honestly don't know how that happened because I normally don't edit my posts once they're up, but somehow, this one was gone when I came to look at my blog. So, I'll try my best to fill it with a meaningful post.

Over the semester I've included blog posts about many different things but they all relate to book banning or censorship of books in some way. I feel now that I may end up repeating myself several times, but that just proves the urgency of this issue. Book banning is wrong and shouldn't be used as a means of censorship. I do understand that some age groups shouldn't read certain books, but I also feel that the person should decide if they want to read it or not, not someone else.

There are many books that I've read and after I've read them, I wish I hadn't picked them up at all. Then, there are still so many books out there that I haven't had the pleasure, or displeasure, of reading.

I guess, it just comes down to this: if you want to read a book, you should be able to read it, no matter what someone else says. Some people don't believe that is good though. They want to decide what books are suitable for their children to read. That's not right. No one should be incharge of something like that. It's not like when you're in high school and you have to read certain books because the teacher has them set in the curriculum. It's when someone just decides that a book that is being taught isn't 'right' or 'suitable' for their child to read and petitions for it to be taken out of the schools or the libraries or something like that.

Book banning is not something that should be taken lightly. It is a very serious issue and most people don't know that. They don't know that teachers have lost their jobs over it or that children can be taken out of school because of it. There are other consequences to this issue and none of them are good.

People believe that they are banning books for a good reason but ultimately, it just hurts the people who are not allowed to read them and potentially enjoy them.

"The most common examples of book censorship are in schools and public libraries." -- Herbert Foerstel

This post is going to be about libraries and book banning. I realized that I haven't really covered that area in this blog yet and I'm quite shocked at myself for not including it sooner. This is going to be a summary on an article that I read a few days ago from TIME titled, "Banned Books: A School Librarian's Perspective". Now, most of you probably thought about public libraries when I mentioned the word above, but school libraries are the ones that are more likely to ban books because, while public libraries do have a big percentage of children, schools (excluding colleges and universities) are for children exclusively. With schools like elementary, middle/junior high, and senior high, comes teachers and a school board that are very concerned with what their students read throughout their years at the school.

Sharon Coatney, a school librarian, wrote this article and spoke about her experiences with this one school in particular, an elementary school. The school was in a rural area as well, so that can be taken into account when thinking about why this happened.

She had arrived at her new teaching job to find that the library was in a cage… well, the books that were part of the library were locked in a cage inside of a study hall. The library was only ‘open’ for about two days out of the week. She was a bit… shocked to see that the school had literally locked the books away in a cage and she was also shocked because the kids didn’t have much access to the books that the school had. They only could look at them on maybe two days out of the week.

When Banned Books Week arrives, she thinks about how much her school library has been censored. The books that are in there are there according to the school district’s policy which states that “books must be age-appropriate and related to our school district curriculum”.

Sharon Coatney also has had to ban books as well as expand the school’s collection. She doesn’t call it banning though, she refers to it as ‘selection’. She has to look after the well fare of all of the children who go in and out of her library and make sure that they are protected, but not sheltered.

She also talks about whenever a parent asks for a book to be removed from the library. She states that seeing as the parents are paying for the school in some way and that their child attends the school, they do have a right to ask for a book to be banned. All school libraries have a procedure that is followed when this query comes up and she describes it as a very civil process that I respect. Too often you hear about the banning of books that doesn’t really end in a civil way. It could end with a teacher being fired or the school being sued or something else that is equally wrong.

When a book is removed it can be because of many reasons, the initial criteria wasn’t met, the school board doesn’t deem it fit, and other explanations like that. Mrs. Coatney does go on to say that some parents complain about a book, (she mentions Bridge to Terabithia by Katherine Paterson), that they actually think about the entire situation and not just their own personal situation. If they don’t want their child to read it, they stop and think about the other children.

After reading this article, I’ve realized that some people have to ‘ban’ books in order to maintain that natural order the schools need and want. I still believe that everyone should have the right to read anything they want to read, but I do understand that in certain situations, you need to hold off on certain reading materials for certain people.

“Dreams are true while they last, and do we not live in dreams?” -- Alfred Lord Tennyson

Children. Children are wonderful. They are literally the future of the world. We are damaging their future by challenging and ultimately banning books. Due to challenging and banning of books, more and more children aren’t allowed to read certain books. Granted, I agree when it comes to parenting to restrict what your children read depending on their age, but, once they reach that age of eighteen, they’re pretty much free to read whatever they want. Personally, I think the age is nine because at that point in my life, my mother had no say in what I was reading at that time. But, children are the most important people in the world. They’re going to be the future and they have to live with the consequences of our actions.

I don’t have any children, but my cousins do. One is only seven months old, so she can’t read yet, but her parents do read to her. I know they’re not picking up “In Cold Blood” by Capote and reading that to her. I do believe that there are books that are good for certain age groups, but once a child reaches that age where they want to read whatever they want, the parent needs to let them try it. This situation is very complex because it does depend on the values of the parents and I’m not saying this way is right and that way is wrong because, like I said, I don’t have any children, but I do believe that certain books are appropriate for certain ages.

My other cousins have two children who are going to be nine and seven this year. Now, I don’t see them as much as I’d like to, but their parents are pretty liberal when it comes to what their children read. They pretty much let them read whatever they pick up or whatever they get as gifts. Most parents wouldn’t do this. I do know some parents that wouldn’t let their kids watch Nickelodeon when they were growing up because they felt the television shows were too racy for kids… even though the shows were marketed towards children. That just shows the values of parents. They definitely vary between all parents.

I understand that children are very impressionable, but if we don’t let them read certain things, they’ll never know the wonders of Harry Potter or Shakespeare or Frederick Douglass or any of the many great authors that are out there.

J.K. Rowling actually put out a book based on a book that was mentioned in the Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. It is a children’s book that is full of children’s stories… kind of like Mother Goose but focuses on witches and wizards. It’s called The Tales of Beedle the Bard. There are great stories in this book and one of my friends told me that cousin has a son, who is about ten years old. Their cousin doesn’t believe in witchcraft or anything like that, so she doesn’t allow her son to read Harry Potter. My friend read some stories from Beedle the Bard to her young cousin and he loved them. He begged his mother to let him read them along with Harry Potter and while his mother didn’t really agree with it, she let her son try them out. She realized that he was at that age where he’d want to read more and more and she wouldn’t always be able to control what he read. My friend informed me that her cousin started reading the Harry Potter series and found that she enjoyed the books immensely.

That is just one story where the parents come to the understanding that they won’t always have control of their children. There are plenty of stories to the contrary of that one, but it always makes me happy to see that books prevailed.

"A fool thinks himself to be wise, but a wise man knows himself to be a fool. " -- William Shakespeare

I thought it was time that I wrote about our old friend, Bill Shakespeare. Shakespeare is regarded by many as one of the greatest writers ever. I happen to agree, but that is not to say that everyone on the planet agrees that Shakespeare is the greatest thing since sliced bread.

I have read the complete works of Shakespeare and I also own the leather bound edition from Barnes & Noble. I love Shakespeare and think that he is absolutely brilliant but there are people out there who believe that Shakespeare was a fraud or they just don’t like his writing at all. When I was talking to Dr. Almasy, we started talking about Shakespeare and why most schools, if not the majority of middle or senior high schools, make their students read Romeo & Juliet. I had to read it in middle school and in high school. Romeo & Juliet has probably one of the most warped themes and probably isn’t ‘suitable’ for kids to read. Dr. Almasy and I discussed how certain books get challenged or banned in the school setting but Shakespeare usually remains untouched, especially this story about the star-crossed lovers.

Romeo & Juliet is probably Shakespeare’s second most known play, next to Hamlet. It, along with Hamlet, is read in schools. In case you haven’t read Romeo & Juliet, I’ll give you little synopsis. The base of this story is about a boy and a girl who fall in love. The two kids happen to be the children of feuding families and they go against odds to be together. (I really hate telling the ending of things if people haven’t read it, but the term star-crossed lovers didn’t trigger something, then I can’t help you). At the end of the story, Juliet ends up faking her death so that she can be together with Romeo. Romeo finds out that she is dead, goes to see her and ends up killing himself. Juliet wakes up, sees that Romeo is dead, and kills herself.

People ban Huck Finn because of the ‘n-word’ but they don’t ban this because two people kill themselves because they can’t be together? To me, this seems a bit warped. Now, I don’t support book banning of any kind because, no matter how badly written the books is or the subject matter of the book, every book deserves to be read, but, if you’re going to ban something because children shouldn’t read it, Romeo & Juliet would be one that would be banned. If someone else had written it and it didn’t have the name Shakespeare attached to it, it would probably be banned.

I always hated reading this in class because we would have to read it out loud and we would be assigned parts. I always wanted to be Mercutio but I’d get stuck with Lady Capulet or Lady Montague or, god forbid, Juliet.

Shakespeare also wrote Hamlet, probably his most known play. Again, if it did not have the name Shakespeare attached to it; it would probably be banned in schools because of the content. But, it just goes to show you how powerful a name can be and how contradictory banning and challenging books can be.

“All censorships exist to prevent anyone from challenging current conceptions and existing institutions…” -- George Bernard Shaw

After having to do an interview for our topic, I found myself thinking of other perspectives of this issue. So far, I’ve covered my perspective, the unknowing person’s perspective, the opposition’s perspective, but I have yet to cover one of the most important perspectives: the teacher.

Teachers are probably one of the most important people in the lives of students. They literally teach them the proper things they need to know in life… well, some of the most important things needed. They are the ones that have to deal with the repercussions when they decide they want to teach a book that has been banned or teach something that a parent doesn’t agree with.

One such case of this happened at a school near me. The teacher had assigned The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn to her class. It is considered to be a classic novel so; she wanted her class to read it. One of the students went home and told their parents that they were going to be reading the Mark Twain novel and it didn’t sit too well with them. They went to the school board and wanted the book to be removed from the curriculum because they didn’t want their child to read it. The teacher decided that she was going to fight it. She didn’t win in the end and she had to remove the novel from the curriculum. She just wanted to teach the children this classic novel that has been read by so many people before them and she wasn’t allowed because one child’s parents didn’t want their child to read it.

The parents reasoning for not wanting their child to read it… the use of the ‘n’ word. I’m not comfortable with saying or ever writing, or in this case, typing the word, so I will just be referring to it as the ‘n’ word. They didn’t think that students should be reading a book with such profanity in it and they took it to the school board. The teacher could have done several other things instead of fighting it. She could have considered the rules of the district/administration before putting the book in her curriculum; she could have talked it out with the parents and the school board to try and reason with them instead of ‘fighting the system’ so to speak. She could have just removed it after the complaint was lodged, but the one thing she should have considered and probably done, was to just substitute the novel with another one.

Teachers go through a lot when they make their curriculum and they have to follow certain rules and make sure that those rules are obeyed. They also need to be prepared in case something like that incident would happen to them. That’s one thing that isn’t really covered in most teaching programs at universities and colleges. That is also one thing that Dr. Almasy, who I interviewed, is trying to do in his English class. I admire him because this is important information that future teachers need to know. They need to know how to react if something they want to teach is challenged and they also need to know the alternatives if they do have to change something.

This is important information and all future teachers should prepare themselves. If they don’t learn these in a class, then when they get hired, they should familiarize themselves with the rules of the district and administration and they should also see which books are the most challenged and also familiarize themselves with the area and see how conservative or liberal the community is to determine which books will be appropriate to teach.

“Fundamentalism is, 'I will not open my mind to look on your side of the argument at all. I won't read it, I won't look at it, I'm too frightened’.” -- J.K. Rowling

Harry Potter is a well known series. While most people may not have read it, they have at least heard about or have watched the films. With the last film coming this July, I felt that this blog needed a little bit of magic. So, this post is going to be about the Harry Potter series and its connection to book banning and censorship.

The Harry Potter series is a beloved book series. It’s been read by billions of people, children and adult alike. There are seven books in all. Then, there is also The Tales of Beedle the Bard, which is a collection of children’s stories that are read to young witches and wizards in the world of Harry Potter. The United States version of the first book, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone was published in September of 1998 and with the publication and selling of this novel came ridicule and banning.

At first, it was just a harmless novel for children to enjoy. Then, someone decided that it was full of satanic and cult rituals, including magic spells. After one person believes that a book is dangerous, then soon, they all flock in and create a frenzy that is really not needed. The same happened with a few, if not all, of the rest of the novels in the series.

I literally grew up reading these books. I was eight years old when the first book came out. In my school at the time, a Catholic elementary/middle school, a few of the students in my grade were selected to read the first book. I was not one of these students, but my best friend was. She told me about the book and that prompted me to go out and buy, well, have my mother buy it for me. She gladly spent the fifteen or twenty dollars on the book and I read it on the way home from the book store and I finished it in about two days. I was hooked from the first page. Then, I heard that it was a book series and the next book was coming out the next year. I couldn’t have been more excited. At the time, I had no idea what book banning was or that it even existed, but, there were stories in newspapers that dealt with Harry Potter being an abomination and a horrible story to let your children read. These attempts to stop Harry Potter at a national level were futile because it is one of the most popular book series of all time.

These attempts, however, worked on a much lower scale. Several schools and public/private libraries did end up banning the children’s books deeming they were unfit to be read by anyone, children especially. J.K. Rowling, the author of the popular books, did an interview in 2008 where she discussed the issue of banning Harry Potter.

"I can cope with a bad review. No one loves a bad review but a useful review is one that teaches you something. But to be honest the Christian Fundamentalist thing was bad. I would have been quite happy to sit there and debate with one of the critics who were taking on Harry Potter from a moral perspective. In a sense we have traded arguments through the media. I've tried to be rational about it. There's a woman in North Carolina or Alabama who's been trying to get the books banned-she's a mother of four and never read them. And then- I'm not lying, I'm not even making fun, this is the truth of what she said-quite recently she was asked [why] and she said 'Well I prayed whether or not I should read them, and God told me no.' Rowling pauses to reflect on the weight of that statement, and her expression one of utter disbelief. 


"You see, that is where I absolutely part company with people on that side of the fence, because that is fundamentalism. Fundamentalism is, 'I will not open my mind to look on your side of the argument at all. I won't read it, I won't look at it, I'm too frightened.' That's what's dangerous about it, whether it be politically extreme, religiously extreme...In fact, fundamentalists across all the major religions, if you put them in a room, they'd have bags in common!" she laughs loudly before sobering. "They hate all the same things, it's such an ironic thing."
 

That is the entire quote of hers about the issue, credited to http://www.the-leaky-cauldron.org. She understands that people give bad reviews, but she also knows that there are people who are just too stubborn or afraid to even pick up the book and try to read it and give it a chance.

I agree with J.K. Rowling. I understand that not everyone is going to like every book that is ever printed, but I do not tolerate the people who feel a book should be banned when they haven’t even picked up the book or attempted to read it. They decide out of sheer ignorance that this book should be banned because of something they heard. It’s insane.

Interview

I chose to do this blog post about my interview with Dr. Rudolph Almasy, which is why this post doesn't have a quote as the title. I'm going to be honest, I was very apprehensive about doing this interview or profile for this class. I've never actually done an interview, apart from my senior project in high school. My biggest fear for this project, was trying to find someone who actually does something about my topic. Censorship and book banning are not topics that you hear about all of the time, so I was concerned about not getting the right person, or getting a person who was... against my topic.

I had heard about the organization Sigma Tau Delta and then I heard about the sponsor, Dr. Almasy. I knew already that Sigma Tau Delta took part in Banned Books Week, so I figured that Dr. Almasy would at least have an opinion on censorship and book banning. I was right. I'm not going to include anything from the interview, because I'm sure the profile essay itself will be plastered on here at some point, but I had a reall enjoyable time interviewing Dr. Almasy. He was very humble and modest and also quite hilarious. He had the same concerns I have about censorship and book banning, but as it will say in the essay, he doesn't have the harsh "I'm for book banning" or "Down with book banning" attitude. He's understanding of the certain situation.

I'm not going to go into the details, but he really opened my eyes to many different websites and ideas about censorship and book banning. He also gave me this book to borrow that has an essay on censorship
included in it. I haven't read it yet, but he explained it to me and I really think that it will help out my project. He gave me a lot of information that can use for this project and I was excited about this. Dr. Almasy is a very interesting person and I think that everyone should meet him and have a chance to sit down and talk with him. I had a really great experience doing this interview and I really hope that it pays off and helps in the growing problem of censorship and book banning.

“Censorship reflects a society’s lack of confidence in itself. It is the hallmark of an authoritarian regime…” -- Justice Potter Stewart

I finally got to talk to a few friends that I haven't seen in a very long time and we decided to just recap our lives from the past few months. I told them about my new ventures into the blogosphere. I have to do two blogs this semester and I have never really had the need or want to blog. They asked me what my blog was about. I told them censorship but focusing on book banning and the censorship of books.That then sparked a discussion that I wouldn't really consider a debate, but some might have seen it as one if they just looked in on us having a very livid discussion about books. As you can imagine when a bunch of girls get together, there is loud shouting over everyone else and no one really hears the point you're trying to make because they're all screaming. This is exactly what happened with my friends as they were all trying to share an interesting story they had about censorship and banned books. I thought a few of them were hilarious and also related to my topic, so, I thought I would do a blog post about my friends' reactions to my blog and adding their own stories to the mix.

When I first told my friend Kaitlin that I was writing a blog about book banning and censorship she kind of giggled. The thought of me doing a blog made her laugh, but she loved my topic choice. We're both avid readers and we both feel that banning books is wrong and immoral. She told me a story about a friend of hers, I can't remember her friend's name, so I'm just going to refer to them as Heather. In Heather's school, they couldn't read certain books that are considered to be classics while they could read other books that are also considered classics. She didn't really mind because she had already read the books, like anything by Mark Twain or in the case of her school, John Steinbeck. She had always thought that banning books was stupid because people could still go out, find a copy of the book read it anyway, despite what the community or the school said. I agreed with Heather and Kaitlin and that was sort of the basis for this blog in the first place. Why schools ban certain books but not other books for the same reasons.

My other friend Codi also thought it was humorous that I would be doing a blog, but she also had a little story to tell about censorship and book banning. She was part of the book club in her high school when she attended. It was her favorite part about high school (mine too) and she always looked forward to book club. She is very much like me and is not a fan of the "Twilight" series. A few of the students in the club were and they had put the first two books in as their suggestions to read throughout the year. Well, the first book was picked and the students started to read it. Apparently, one of the students in the club complained to their parents because they had to read a stupid story about vampires. That person's parents were not happy after they did research on the book and tried to have it banned from being read in the school. The parents didn't win, but it just goes to show how people can be stupid sometimes. While I'm not a fan of the "Twilight" books, I don't think they should be banned from the schools because I don't know of a teacher in high school who would assign that book to be read unless they wanted to show the class about poor editing and writing.

Now, we have my own little story about censorship. This actually happened to me about a week or two weeks ago. I have a very... strange taste in books that I read. My friend Katrina bought my other friend Nicole a book titled "Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal". This book got passed around amongst our group of friends and it sort of became our mascot in a way. I went out and purchased the book myself after I had read it because it is a great book. I read at least once a year and I am currently reading it now. Onto the story itself: I was sitting outside of my classroom waiting for the other class to come out. I was also reading "Lamb". A girl who was in my class sat down next to me and asked me when our paper was due. I closed my book and went to look in my bag when the girl asked me what I was reading. I showed her the cover of the book which has the title on it and she looked at me and said, "That's really offensive." I honestly didn't know what to say. I thought back on what I had done. I hadn't forced the book on her nor did I make her ask me what I was reading, so why did she have the right to tell me that it was offensive when all she did was read the title? I asked her why she thought it was offensive and she said that title said it all. I then proceeded to ask her what she had thought of "The Da Vinci Code" and she said that it had been banned from her town for a short while because the churches deemed it offensive and apparently, she was just going on what the churches said when she saw the title of my book.

I was absolutely floored that a decision like that could actually influence someone's opinion on a book before they even read it. I didn't ask her if she had actually read "The Da Vinci Code" but my guess is no. But, I just couldn't believe that she told me the book was offensive. It just goes to show you what banning and censoring can do to a person's opinion and thought process.

"For a nation that is afraid to let its people judge the truth and falsehood in an open market is a nation that is afraid of its people." -- John F. Kennedy

Like I’ve stated before, book banning is wrong. I adore books and reading is one of my favorite things to do. It upsets me when I hear about different communities or different countries banning books. I think that every book deserves to be read, even though I may not agree with every ideal or point of view, I do think that it still deserves to be read.

The one thing I really hate hearing about dealing with book banning? When schools ban books, it really makes me upset. My school didn’t actually take any action in actually trying to ban a book, but there were certain books that we weren’t allowed to read because my school didn’t agree with its message or the language in the book or something else that is just stupid. My one teacher in particular, Mrs. Jones, made it her mission to have us read banned books… granted, a few of them I didn’t really care for, but I admire her for having us read the books in the first place.

One of the books that we read that was previously banned is “Brave New World” by Aldous Huxley. It was banned in Ireland in 1932 because of its ‘alleged’ references of sexual promiscuity. I’m not entirely sure if it is still banned there today, but that is just one of the reasons why most schools won’t read this book and why this book is banned. Mrs. Jones had her own little Banned Books Week of sorts where we would each pick a book and read as much as we could in one week. She didn’t have all of the banned books obviously, but she had the more popular ones like, “Farenheit 451”, all of the books in the “Harry Potter” series, “Candide”, and “The Da Vinci Code”. She had the same views I do about banning books. She understood where people were coming from (sometimes) when they wanted to ban a book, but she also thought that banning the book itself was just such an insane idea because all books deserve to be read.

The one thing both her and I never understood, is why schools would even want to ban a book, especially high schools. If they’re really preparing us for the ‘real world’ and if they treat us like adults, then we should be able to read the books that ‘adults in the real world’ read.

I haven’t talked to her recently, but I’m sure she was just as upset as I was when I learned that they re-edited Mark Twain’s classic, “Adventures of Huckleberry Finn”. Now, while I don’t particularly like anything by Mark Twain, I do believe that it was just wrong of them to re-edit that novel. There is an article about it in my required reading list over there on the side of this blog, but in case you don’t feel like reading it, what happened is in the newest version of Huck Finn, the ‘n’ word is replaced with the word ‘slave’. Now, this may be seen as good by some people because the ‘n’ word is very offensive, but it’s necessary to the book’s message. Mark Twain himself didn’t use that word but the reason he used it in the novel to show that the word is offensive and shouldn’t be used under any circumstances. He wanted to show that the people who were known as ‘slaves’ or called the ‘n’ word, were just people, just like everyone else and they shouldn’t be treated differently, which is the entire point of that novel.

Hearing that news just aggravated me because I had to read it in school and while I didn’t really like the book, I still appreciated its message. My best friend is black and I couldn’t even imagine calling her a slave or the ‘n’ word. It’s mainly because of how my parents raised me, but I think reading Huck Finn really etched in my brain that using that word is not right and should never be used under any circumstances. I think that when schools ban that book, they’re doing the community a disservice and they’re stunting the intellectual growth of the children of the community.

"Censorship is the height of vanity." -- Martha Graham

The act of banning a book is part of censorship. Censorship is what is taking place when a book, film, television show, etc is banned. Censorship starts with the word ‘censor’ which is “an official who examines books, plays, news reports, motion pictures, radio and television programs, letters, cablegrams, etc., for the purpose of suppressing parts deemed objectionable on moral, political, military, or other grounds.” That definition also holds the definition of censorship.

Censorship is something that should not be taken lightly. Censorship is prohibiting possibly good things to be known. It’s kind of like when you read a review about a movie or a Broadway show and you start to notice that the review is negative and saying that the movie/show is terrible and shouldn’t be seen. One review can ruin a movie/show, but people will still go and see it regardless of the review because they want to decide for themselves. It’s just like when you ban something. People will still want to see it no matter if it’s banned or able to be viewed publicly.

I know that this blog is central to banning books, but for this post, I am going to venture out into other forms of banning. I think, besides books, one of the most banned things would be movies. One recent one I think would have to be when the film Brokeback Mountain came out in theaters. It’s not so recent, but it was one film where I knew people would be not be that accepting, whether it won a ton of Oscar’s or not. I ended up being right. While, the major cities played the film, there were quite a few towns throughout the United States that were adamantly against showing the film strictly because of the content. The communities didn’t feel comfortable with their towns watching the film. The film was also banned in several countries, one of them being China. This didn’t stop so many people from seeing the movie and loving it.

Another movie that was almost banned was the newer Blue Valentine. I shouldn’t say banned in this case, but it was pretty close in my opinion. The film almost received the rating of NC-17, which, apparently, is a death sentence to films. I really want to see this film and I doubt the rating would have stopped me. This film was going to be rated NC-17 because of the raw content that it was based on and that was in the film.

I think that the government needs to actually pay attention to what it bans because sometimes, things that should be banned go untouched. I am not a fan of banning books, but I do agree that certain books need to hold the title of being banned. I know that these books and films are still going to be read and seen, but sometimes, certain things need to either not be written or just have it be banned. Sometimes, things are banned because people deem it too bad to be seen by their children. I think this is good in certain ways and stupid in other ways. Any book can be impressionable on teenagers or children, but, it’s ultimately up to the parents to decide on what their child is able to view. They claim they don’t have any power in what their child sees, but they really do. It may not be all of the time, but to me, it just sounds like people are complaining to hear themselves talk.

One of my favorite things about censorship has to be from the television show, Family Guy. Peter makes his own television station and his wife, Lois is not happy about the content of the show, so she calls in the FCC. Peter is not pleased with this and he, Brian, and Stewie break into song. I think this clip sums up my views on censorship and banning. Also, if you don't like Family Guy or don't like it when certain words and subjects are spoken, then you do not have to watch this clip if it makes you feel uncomfortable, but it is quite hilarious.

"The books that the world calls immoral are the books that show the world its own shame."

The above quote is taken from author Oscar Wilde. He is one of my favorite authors along with many others in the world that have most likely had a book banned or at least, their book was in talks to be banned. Now, many of you reading this have most likely read the little description under that fancy title. Most of you may not even care if books get banned or may not even know what book banning is. Well, this blog is going to go into detail on what book banning is, what it does, why it happens and why it needs to be changed. I believe that everyone should be aware of book banning and know the consequences of banning books.

When a book is banned it means that free access to them is not permitted. That means that books that are banned, aren’t always available to the public for use whenever a person wants it. Now, books can be banned for any kind of reason really, but the three main general reasons are: political, religious, or moral motivations. Usually, religion is the main culprit for books being banned. Books being banned can have negative and positive ramifications. The author of the work most likely spent a huge amount of time of their life writing it and then they see that it is banned. Now, all authors know in the back of their mind that their book may be banned, but they never expect it to happen. I’ve honestly never heard an author say that they wrote a book just so it could get banned. There’s also the other side of the situation. If a book happens to be banned, usually its sales will go up because more people will want to read it to see why it was banned in the first place. This doesn’t always pan out that way though, because some people may not read the book because it is banned.

A lot of books are banned in various countries for very different reasons, some are actually valid points but others are, let’s be honest, just be plain silly. When The Da Vinci Code was released, the Catholic Church had a field day about it because it was offensive to Christianity. It ended up being banned in Lebanon because of that very reason. In the 1930’s, Hunan, China banned Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland simply because Carroll depicted animals on the same complexity level as humans.

So, books can be banned for really any reason at all, no matter how silly. Books can be banned on a national (a country or two) or sub national level (a town or a community). All it takes is one person to cause a ruckus about a book and then more and more people will join the bandwagon and sometimes a book will be banned.

Over the course of this semester, I will be examining the process of book banning and why people feel that certain books should be banned while others are free to adorn the shelves at Barnes & Noble’s everywhere. Book banning doesn’t really have any ‘rules’ to it. Any book can be banned for virtually any reason. There needs to be a system or a checklist that you have to go down to actually have a book be banned. I consider book banning to be a problem that needs to be resolved somehow. This blog will be my outlet to trying to think of a better way to deal with this than simply banning the book.