BAN BOOKS, BANNED BOOKS, BOOKS BANNED!!!

 BOOK BANNING

This might be a shorter post that I think but the topic has been on my mind for a few days. Let's start with the simplest idea. What is book banning?

According to the First Amendment Encyclopedia, book banning is defined as

"Book banning, a form of censorship, occurs when private individuals, government officials, or organizations remove books from libraries, school reading lists, or bookstore shelves because the object to their content, ideas, or themes. Those advocating a ban complain typically that the book in question contains graphic violence, expresses disrespect for parents and family, is sexually explicit, exalts evil, lacks literary merit, is unsuitable for a particular age group, or includes offensive language."

This definition finishes with this statement, "Book banning is the widest form of censorship in the United States."

Of course, book banning isn't limited to the US, it's been going on for ages. As long as there have been some form of published thought, it seems.

An article in freedom to read is entitled Bannings and Burnings in History. It highlights notable bannings and / or burnings throughout the centuries. The first one listed is between 259 - 210 BC (yes, mankind existed back then) when the Chinese emperor of the time buried alive a large number of Chinese scholars to control the writing of history of the time (quite drastic in my mind). Looking through the list, here are a few examples. Emperor Caligula banned Homer's Odyssey because it expressed Greek ideas of freedom. In 1559, Pope Paul IV created the Index Librorum Prohibitorum, which for over 400 years was the definitive list of books which Roman Catholics were forbidden to read. In 1597, Queen Elizabeth I ordered a scene removed from Shakespeare's Richard II because it contained a scene in which the monarch was deposed.

Charles Darwin's Origin of Species was published in 1859 and it's been the subject of bannings since then; from Trinity College, Cambridge, through Tennessee (1925) to even Yugoslavia in 1935. The teaching of evolution has been a thorny topic in many places and, in fact, was the subject of both a play (Jerome Lawrence) and a classic movie, starring Spencer Tracy. 

Some other examples include Mark Twains Huckleberry Finn. A committee in Concord Mass said the book was "rough, coarse and inelegant, ..., the whole book being more suited to the slums than to elegant, educated people." (As a young child, in Grade 3 & 4, I remember being awarded The Adventures of Tom Sawyer at least twice for being an honor student. Look how I turned out. OK, maybe not a good example).

The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes were banned due to 'occultism'. Weren't the Harry Potter books accused of similar ideas; witchcraft, yada yada?

Book burnings Nazi Germany

Book burnings have been a theme of fascism, some of the most egregious taking place in Nazi Germany in the build up to WWII. Thousands of books by Jewish authors, communists, John dos Passos, Freud, Einstein, etc. were banned and burned. Book burning was a short step from events such as Kristallnacht when Nazi fascists burned Jewish business, broke windows, attacked synagogues, finally getting their chance to attack and destroy Others, anyone who didn't fit the mold of Hitler's image of the Aryan model.

Books dealing with racial equality or sexuality are regular subjects for banning. In 1959, at its most extreme possibly, The White Citizen's Council of Alabama, The Rabbit's Wedding, a children's book by Garth Ennis, was put on the reserved shelf because it was deemed to promote racial equality.. yup, a white rabbit falls in love with a black rabbit. Sigh!

The lists go on and on. Slaughterhouse-Five and Deliverance were ordered burned by the school board in Drake, North Dakota because of themes of homosexuality.

Some banned books

The lists go on and on, of course, and in the US of late certain governors of Southern states have decided to take on education itself and allow individual citizens to complain about books that offend them. The wishes of the one now overriding those of the majority. The idea being that if I don't like a book and don't want my child to read it, then nobody can read it. Governors like Florida's DeSantis and Texas's Abbott are trying to take control of school boards and Dept's of Education, putting in their own hand-picked right wing individuals, to rewrite history so that 'white' folks won't be embarrassed by history that shows the white races defects.

OK, I knew this would happen when I started writing this. I'd start to ramble and probably go off topic.

Let's see. Why are books banned? According to PEN America, in this article, there is a growing "full-fledged social and political movement, powered by local, state and national groups. The vast majority of books targeted by these groups for removal feature LGBTQ+ characters or characters of color, and / or cover race and racism in American history, LGBTQ+ identities, sex education." How many times have I seen GOP (and they seem to be focused on these themes) say that this or that book should be banned because it might make white students feel uncomfortable, not caring that by banning these books, they are making students of color or of LGBTQ+ identities feel unwanted and threatened.

Books are made to educate, to make you think. Sure they might make you feel uncomfortable, but that's where good teachers (another pilloried group of people) sit down with their students and discuss the ideas. Right wing politicians don't want their citizens to be educated or to learn about history. They want them angry at others, feeling threatened, so that they will vote for politicians who pretend to support their 'beliefs'. 

The response to these actions can only be to encourage children to read, to think, to get educated. PEN provides a list of the most banned books in the US of 2021 - 2022 school year. As well, they also list the most banned authors in that same school year.

"Most banned books

• Gender Queer: A Memoir by Maia Kobabe (41 districts)
• All Boys Aren’t Blue by George M. Johnson (29 districts)
• Out of Darkness by Ashley Hope Pérez (24 districts)
• The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison (22 districts)
• The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas (17 districts)
• Lawn Boy by Jonathan Evison (17 districts)
• The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie (16 districts)
• Me and Earl and the Dying Girl by Jesse Andrews (14 districts)
• Crank by Ellen Hopkins (12 districts)
• The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini (12 districts)
• l8r, g8r by Lauren Myracle (12 districts)
• Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher (12 districts)
• Beloved by Toni Morrison (11 districts)
• Beyond Magenta: Transgender Teens Speak Out by Susan Kuklin (11 districts)
• Drama: A Graphic Novel by Raina Telgemeier (11 districts)
• Looking for Alaska by John Green (11 districts)
• Melissa by Alex Gino (11 districts)
• This Book Is Gay by Juno Dawson (11 districts)
• This One Summer by Mariko Tamaki and Jillian Tamaki (11 districts)

Most banned authors

• Hopkins, Ellen – 14 titles – 43 bans – 20 districts
• Kobabe, Maia – 1 title – 41 bans – 41 districts
• Morrison, Toni – 3 titles – 34 bans – 25 districts
• Johnson, George M. – 2 titles – 30 bans – 29 districts
• Myracle, Lauren – 11 titles – 30 bans – 16 districts
• Pérez, Ashley Hope – 1 title – 23 bans – 23 districts
• Thomas, Angie – 2 titles – 19 bans – 17 districts
• Silvera, Adam – 9 titles – 18 bans – 13 districts
• Reynolds, Jason – 6 titles – 18 bans – 11 districts
• Maas, Sarah J. – 8 titles – 18 bans – 10 districts
• Levithan, David – 15 titles – 17 bans – 18 districts
• Alexie, Sherman – 2 titles – 17 bans – 17 districts
• Evison, Jonathan – 1 title – 17 bans – 17 districts
• Andrews, Jesse – 2 titles – 17 bans – 16 districts
• Faruqi, Saadia – 17 titles – 17 bans – 2 districts
• Jules, Jacqueline – 17 titles – 17 bans – 2 districts
• Do, Anh – 17 titles – 17 bans – 1 district
• Green, John – 3 titles – 16 bans – 15 districts
• Atwood, Margaret – 3 titles – 15 bans – 11 districts
• Hutchinson, Shaun David – 6 titles – 15 bans – 7 districts
• Albertalli, Becky – 7 titles – 14 bans – 11 districts
• Miedoso, Andrés – 14 titles – 14 bans – 1 district
• Gino, Alex – 2 titles – 13 bans – 11 districts
• Woodson, Jacqueline – 11 titles – 13 bans – 6 districts
• Asher, Jay – 1 title – 12 bans – 12 districts
• Hosseini, Khaled – 1 title – 12 bans – 12 districts
• Dawson, Juno – 2 titles – 12 bans – 11 districts
• Tamaki, Mariko – 2 titles – 12 bans – 11 districts
• Picoult, Jodi – 3 titles – 12 bans – 10 districts
• Glines, Abbi – 9 titles – 12 bans – 5 districts
• Peters, Julie Anne – 8 titles – 12 bans – 4 districts
• Cast, Kristen – 12 titles – 12 bans – 1 district
• Cast, P. C. – 12 titles – 12 bans – 1 district
• Kuklin, Susan – 1 title – 11 bans – 11 districts
• Telgemeier, Raina – 1 title – 11 bans – 11 districts
• Jennings, Jazz – 2 titles – 11 bans – 10 districts
• Stone, Nic – 3 titles – 11 bans – 10 districts
• Lockhart, E. – 3 titles – 11 bans – 8 districts
• Brown, Monica – 10 titles – 11 bans – 2 districts
• Kendi, Ibram X. – 7 titles – 10 bans – 12 districts
• Anderson, Laurie Halse – 3 titles – 10 bans – 10 districts 
• Curato, Mike – 1 title – 10 bans – 10 districts
• Rosen, L. C. – 1 title – 10 bans – 10 districts
• Clare, Cassandra – 5 titles – 10 bans – 8 districts
• Arnold, Elana K. – 7 titles – 10 bans – 5 districts
• Konigsberg, Bill – 5 titles – 10 bans – 5 districts

How to Fight Back?

I'm no expert, of course. But PEN American is suing a school board in Florida about books banned. Parents are fighting back against school boards. Get involved politically. Don't let the right wing take over local politics, or school boards. Encourage your children to read everything. Provide guidance, don't be afraid to talk ab out uncomfortable subjects. Don't let individuals force their views on the majority. Yup, palliatives. Just don't sit back and take it. 

READ LIKE YOUR LIFE DEPENDS ON IT!

Back to regularly scheduled content in future posts. Have a great week.

(Ed. Addendum - Check this link out if you're a teen in the US. The Brooklyn Public Library has kindly offered a free Library card for a year for digital and e-books. Check out this article.)