"the truly cultured are capable of owning thousands of unread books
without losing their composure or their desire for more" – Gabriel Zaid
"all the books we own, both read and unread, are the fullest expression of self we have at our disposal" and
"with each passing year, and with each whimsical purchase, our
librairies become more and more able to articulate who we are, whether
we read the books or not" – Nick Hornby
This past week I finally finished unpacking my books (well almost finished, I’ve run out of shelf space). Four bookcases upstairs in the storage room/exercise room/library, some in my nightstand, a bunch in the entertainment centre in the Great Room (my northern books, to further tantalize the clients), and a bunch in the office. Unbeknown to me, this past week was also Banned Book Week, sponsored by the American Library Association.
It somewhat mystifies me why we would want to ban books, and silence the particular voice of that book. I qualify that by saying "somewhat" because there are some truly hateful books out there, books that promote hatred (unfortunately too many to list), or ignorance (think ID), or show people how to kill or build bombs (think Paladin Press). I certainly understand the arguements why no book should be banned —“If we don’t believe in freedom of expression for people we despise, we don’t believe in it at all.” -Noam Chomsky. — but I have to admit it is hard to keep that resolve in the face of truly hateful literature. But it is important that, where it doesn’t violate laws, such as hate laws, that challenges to books, calls to have them banned, be fought.
I was amazed to learn that J.K. Rowling was on the list of the top ten challenged authors. While some of the Harry Potter books might be too scary for smaller children (say, wouldn’t it be a good idea if parents monitored what their children read? Hmmm.) that there are calls to ban them are laughable. The next thing you know there will be people challenging the Teletubbies… oh, there are?
We need to fight to keep people aware that access to books in libraries is constantly being challenged. I want my children to be able to read Catcher in the Rye when they are older, and to understand the danger spoken of in Fahrenheit 451.
Comments
2 responses
Your elegantly written post really rang home to me. I am a librarian and I am continually amazed that in 2006 there are still communities that “attempt” to ban books. Take Care, Leah
I’m a former librarian and struggled with these issues in practice. I wish I could echo Leah and say that I, too, am amazed, but with the current political climate in the U.S., this sort of thing saddens but doesn’t surprise me. I would hope it’s different in Canada.