Toni Noel
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How Do You Feel About Banned Books?

9/26/2011

15 Comments

 
This is National Banned Books week, an event I celebrate with mixed emotions. Just as I don't like strangers telling me what I can and can't eat, I don't want others telling me what I can and can't read.

I grew up in a time when movies were banned, but very few books. Students were given lists of recommended reading and expected to choose wisely for their book report. Helicopter parents were unheard of and the National Security Agency did not govern our lives. And we proudly said the Pledge of Allegiance to the flag without stumbling over the words. Those were the forties.

Our children grew up in the sixties. A time of unrest. A time of change. A time when freedom of speech became a line drawn in the sand and newspaper reporters went to prison rather than reveal their sources, guaranteeing intellectual freedom, and opening doors for writers like me.

When did those doors start slamming? Why have we closed our eyes and ears to what's  happening?

A used bookstore in Tucson has a permanent display of banned books, and provides handouts supporting intellectual freedom, the readers' right to decide what to read. Their display certainly opened mine. Books I'd read were now on the banned list, making me pause and causing me to wonder about those books.

Why should Little Black Sambo and Huckleberry Finn have to be rewritten? Those books were written about how things were at that time, good or bad. Let the reader decide.  

Should A Tale of Two Cities be rewritten to omit the violent deaths at the guillotine Dickens describes in gory detail? The unsanitary conditions of London's streets? That's like the outspoken few trying to claim the holocaust never happened.  It did.

Future generations must be allowed to read about times past and make up their own minds.

Intellectual freedom, that's what it's called, and what everyone needs, along with freedom of speech.

In the early sixties the latest best seller -- its title slips my mind -- was all my friends talked about so, anxious to read the book, I put in a request for it at the bookmobile. It eventually made its way into my hands and I couldn't wait to get it home and find out what all the excitement was about.  To my surprise and disgust, every other word on the page was a curse word. Five pages into the book I closed the cover and returned that best seller to the bookmobile.

I censored the book, not some outspoken do-gooder telling me what to read.

In a letter to 28 newspapers, signed by Ed Morrow, president American Booksellers Assn. and Harry Hoffman, president, Walden Book Co., Inc in 1990 wrote: "Censorship cannot eliminate evil. It can only kill freedom. We believe Americans have the right to buy, stores have the right to sell, authors have the right to write and publishers have the right to publish Constitutionally-protected material. Period."

Except for those books considered a danger for young, impressionable minds to read, stop the censorship. Give us back the freedom to make up their own minds.

That's my opinion about banned books. What's yours?

 

  

15 Comments
Kristen Koster (Kaige) link
9/26/2011 07:00:24 am

The whole practice of banning books strikes me as an act born out of fear. How can we expose these children to these things? Why should we? Better to have them experience these things deemed too horrific vicariously than first hand, no? Better that they learn to think for themselves and form their own opinions than be spoonfed, no? Yes, banned books are something that bothers me. My 14 y/o daughter will proudly wear her "I read banned books!" t-shirt this week.

Reply
Toni Noel link
9/26/2011 07:41:02 am

Oh, I wish I had one of those t-shirts. I'd wear it all year.

Toni

Reply
Nancy Kay link
9/26/2011 08:11:19 am

Toni,

The Little Black Sambo reference struck a chord with me. I had a record (78rpm) that told the story. As a child I didn't see anything wrong with the concept. I was entertained. To put labels on such classic folklore is more an injustice than, as you mentioned, seeing how life was during a certain time frame. I don't believe in banning books. Readers should make their own choices, unless of course the content is inappropriate for the age group.

Sometimes I wonder where we're heading.

Nancy

Reply
Toni Noel link
9/26/2011 09:24:52 am

I loved those story records. Tried to buy my granddaughter a child's record player. They no longer make them. Had to settle for a CD player instead, but she and her mother spent many hours on the road singing and listening to stories on it.

Your comments only reaffirm my beliefs.Our choice of reading material belongs to us.

Toni

Reply
JD Lux
9/26/2011 09:25:01 am

Personally,I don't believe any book should be banned. Even those that might be detrimental for impressionable young minds. Why? Because it's no one's job other than a parent's to teach their child right from wrong, good from evil, just from unjust. No lawmaker, librarian, or author, for that matter, should bear that responsibility. If a parent chooses to prevent their child from reading a book, that is their choice, but it's my opinion that more is to be gained by the reading of controversial material WITH their child, and then discussing it frankly as it pertains to their beliefs and morals they hold as a family.

Reply
Toni Noel link
9/26/2011 11:30:17 am

You made some good points, Jessica. Who better than the parent to help a child learn?

Toni

Reply
Shirley Wilder
9/26/2011 12:56:35 pm

I agree with you and most of the others who responded. To ban a book because of language or circumstance of the time in which is was written is just dumb. Just like the popular book and movie, The Help, yes, some of the words and scenes were offensive--but it was the reality then. History. I will be my own censor just as you are.

Reply
Celia Yeary link
9/26/2011 10:21:07 pm

Hi, Noel--we should have gotten together! I used my blog to discuss banned/censored books, too. It's a hot topic right now, since it's Banned Books Week.
At least we think alike.
You made some excellent points--so "go banned books!"
Celia

Reply
Toni Noel link
9/27/2011 10:01:06 am

Hi, Shirley and Celia. Good to see we're on the same wave length. Saw a t-shirt today the said Freadom. I'd love to get a hold of one of those, too. It would be part of my daily uniform

Toni

Reply
Linda Rogers
9/29/2011 10:50:50 am

Hi Mom,
I didn't know they were banning books for anywhere but schools. Guess I better go find some, you know nobody is going to tell me not to read something. I agree with everything you said, no one should be banning books unless a parent chooses to keep one from a child for some reason.

Reply
Toni Noel link
9/30/2011 06:01:07 am

You go, girl.

For those of you who don't know, my daughter Linda first turned me on to reading romance.

Toni

Reply
Maria Budzynski
10/2/2011 04:33:48 am

Toni, I grew up under a book censorship. Books read/written by great Jewish authors like Thomas Mann, Heinrich Heine, et cetera. But then this was under the Nazi Regime.

I am therefore surprised to find this in the US. Just look under'bannedbooks. com'.
My first encounter with banned books was when my daughter told me that Nancy Drew books were banned from public school libraries because of her above average (wealthy) living standard.

In many places (countries)now, certain historical events are banned, may not be read or discussed; at times enforced by jail sentences.

Many authors, journalists who do write controversial books and are lucky enough to have them published often lose their jobs because of it.

If pornography can hail under the terms of literary freedom, why not a historical controversial book?

Maria

Reply
Toni Noel link
10/5/2011 06:48:02 am

Sad, but true, Maria. We have to keep the public aware of the freedom being taken away from us.

Thanks for your telling us your experience with banned books.

Toni

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    Toni Noel enjoys  writing romantic suspense and contemporary romance, reading, gardening and walking her dog Jack in Southern California.  

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