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.
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