The last week of September is celebrated as Banned Books Week -- we in the know refer to it as BBW -- and it's not only a recognition of banned and challenged books, but also a celebration of our freedom in this country to write and read the things we choose. Yes, there will always be people who dislike a book for some personal, political, religious, etc. reason, but as readers (and as teachers!) it is our duty to expose ourselves and others to things that push our limits.
As a firm believer in the First Amendment, I find the idea of banning books to be ridiculous. I think a parent has a right to tell a child he/she cannot read something, but for a school board or government to decide that a book is so indecent that no one should be able to read it is ridiculous to me. In some places it's taken to the extreme. Teachers have been fired for assigning certain books to classes, and I even received a scathing email from a parent who was furious that I was teaching To Kill A Mockingbird to my class due to the use of the word 'nigger' throughout the book. When I later called to explain my reasons for teaching the novel and how I approached the use of that term, she told me she'd never actually read the book, but had seen the word over her daughter's shoulder. Interesting.
If you read further, you'll find that many accusations against books are leveled by people who have never actually read the entire book. I've had the same problems when teaching The Catcher in the Rye. Is the language in that book gratuitous? Not at all! Holden is a teenager, and if you've ever overheard a conversation between two 17 year olds, you'll realize that Holden censors himself quite a bit. Okay, it was 1950 so the language uses aren't as extreme, but who are we to deny art that mimics real life?
Banning books goes beyond simply removing a book from a library or a curriculum. Certain authors have faced expulsion from their homes, political strife, even death threats (most notably, Salman Rushdie, who is on my list of 52 with his novel Midnight's Children). Banning books stifles the creativity of the author, but it also makes a society with strict limits on personal agendas. What bothers you probably doesn't bother me. There's a lot of sex in the book? Then I probably read it in a Becky or Dr. Mary class in college -- if you are a reader from the English department at McDaniel, you know what I'm talking about. Someone curses? It questions the stability of a democratic government, questions religion, questions the history of a country? Then that's a book I want to read. Why would I settle for white-bread literature when I can read a novel that means something. I don't have to agree with the view points set forth, but my god, could I possibly learn something from stepping outside of my own boundaries?
The ALA (American Library Association) has a really great website on this week, including a list of the most commonly challenged classics. Many of the books on the list are books I read in school or assigned to teach. Some of the books have caused teachers to be fired. The list is below. Those in bold are books I have read or taught. See where you stand on the list, and then I encourage you to step out of your comfort zone and read a book that clashes with your standings.
1984, by George Orwell
A Clockwork Orange, by Anthony Burgess
A Farewell to Arms, by Ernest Hemingway
A Separate Peace, by John Knowles
All the King's Men, by Robert Penn Warren
An American Tragedy, by Theodore Dreiser
Animal Farm, by George Orwell
As I Lay Dying, by William Faulkner
Beloved, by Toni Morrison
Brave New World, by Aldous Huxley
Brideshead Revisited, by Evelyn Waugh
Catch-22, by Joseph Heller
Cat's Cradle, by Kurt Vonnegut
For Whom the Bell Tolls, by Ernest Hemingway
Go Tell It on the Mountain, by James Baldwin
Gone with the Wind, by Margaret Mitchell
In Cold Blood, by Truman Capote
Invisible Man, by Ralph Ellison
Lady Chatterley's Lover, by D.H. Lawrence
Lolita, by Vladimir Nabokov
Naked Lunch, by William S. Burroughs
Native Son, by Richard Wright
Of Mice and Men, by John Steinbeck
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, by Ken Kesey
Rabbit, Run, by John Updike
Satanic Verses, by Salman Rushdie
Slaughterhouse Five, by Kurt Vonnegut
Song of Solomon, by Toni Morrison
Sons and Lovers, by D.H. Lawrence
Sophie's Choice, by William Styron
The Awakening, by Kate Chopin
The Call of the Wild, by Jack London
The Catcher in the Rye, by JD Salinger
The Color Purple, by Alice Walker
The Grapes of Wrath, by John Steinbeck
The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald
The Jungle, by Upton Sinclair
The Lord of the Flies, by William Golding
The Lord of the Rings, by J.R.R. Tolkien
The Naked and the Dead, by Norman Mailer
The Sun Also Rises, by Ernest Hemingway
Their Eyes Were Watching God, by Zora Neale Hurston
To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee
Tropic of Cancer, by Henry Miller
Ulysses, by James Joyce
Women in Love, by DH Lawrence
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