"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.