Banned Books

Boy, am I ever against censorship!  I’m willing to bet good money that I own—and have read—more banned books than anyone reading this post.  Part of the irony of that statement is that this blog is still banned in a few countries.  And the majority of my hate mail (including a few fatwahs) comes from countries that are the most active in banning access to certain books.

Without a doubt my favorite banned book is Huckleberry Finn, by Mark Twain.  Ever since the book was published 137 years ago, it is routine that some idiot, somewhere, has come out of his mother’s basement into the sunlight just long enough to scream that the book is harmful to children.  Most of the opposition comes in two forms:  First, that "the novel contains racist language and slurs (that were reflective of the time and setting in which it was written."  To which I answer, “Right.”

Secondly, the novel addresses issues related to slavery, racism, and the institution of slavery in the United States.  Once again, my answer is “Correct—Twain is openly ridiculing the White, stereotypically negative view of Blacks in society.”  (I wonder if this idiotic criticism of the book would be different if Twain had, as he originally planned, named the book after Jim?)  

It does seem that the controversy over banned books has changed its emphasis from race to sex recently.  With the exception of Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird (which some teachers in the Pacific Northwest want to eliminate), most of the yammering about banning books seems to be over depictions of gay or trans young people in various books.  

My initial reaction to this controversy was to ignore it.  There is not much need to ban any book these days since it becomes increasingly and painfully apparent that the youth of today won’t read anything not operated by their thumbs.  According to the NEA, the average child today reads only about half as many books a year as children did in 1992—which was 30% less than those in the sixties read.  Perhaps the solution to the problem is to pretend to ban books so that rebellious children will discover what the inside of a library looks like.

To be honest, I’ve changed my mind about the above paragraph.  I routinely gift books to my grandchildren (including, of course, both Huckleberry Finn and To Kill a Mockingbird) and I try to keep up with some of the current authors of children’s books, including the current Newberry Award recipients.  While researching some recent publications, I was shocked to discover that there really are some books that schools might want to reconsider before putting them in elementary school libraries.  Remember that the average elementary school library has children ranging in age from 6 to 13 freely roaming all of the shelves.  I was reading several years above my age level by age 9 and several of the books I have discovered recently would have been profoundly confusing to me at that age.  (Hell, one of the books is still a little confusing.)

Before you rashly proclaim that all books are appropriate for anyone, consider that, from where I sit as I type this, I can spot copies of both Mein Kampf and a book containing horribly graphic photographs documenting the Rape of Nanking.  No library policy should be so rigid as to overrule a good librarian’s common sense, but it is just our unfortunate luck that common sense is not all that common.

Still, there is a great deal of press about groups banning books—particularly in Florida—so I decided to do a little quick research on my own.  In this pursuit, I relied heavily on the folks at Marshall University, who maintain an excellent website listing the most commonly banned books and the school districts in which groups have attempted to ban books.  I should point out that Marshall University absolutely does not ban any book, nor should it.  You can find its website here.  All of the books in the top ten are there because of sexual material or material  related to portrayals of LGBTQ lifestyle.

Allow me explain how I did my admittedly sloppy research.  For the ten most commonly banned books, I tabulated the states in which school districts considered banning a book last year.  I also made a list of the states in which school districts considered banning a book the year that it was published.  I must make two big warnings about the data:  First, a great many of the school districts turned down requests to ban the book.  Secondly, some of the books have been in publication for years and I did not tabulate the states in those years.  I would encourage some student in need of a major research paper to do a more thorough job of examining the data available.  

So, what patterns/fascinating facts did I find?  Florida, which has been made the poster child for being the nation’s greatest threat to literary freedom, showed up on the list for book banning last year only once, and it showed up only once on the list of states attempting to ban a book the year it was published.  A great many other states showed up on one or both lists several times, including Texas, California, New York, Virginia, Missouri, and Kansas.  States that showed up at least once included Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Illinois, Washington, and Oregon.  Despite my expectations, the only Southern state in the “Bible Belt” that showed up was Texas (five occurrences) and in many cases, those attempts to ban books were unsuccessful.  

The bottom line?  I suspect that attempts by well-meaning people to ban books show up wherever people live and if one state is garnering more news coverage about book banning than others, it probably tells us more about how the news is packaged and sold than about what the people in that state are doing or thinking.

Most people are against such obvious forms of censorship and almost everyone agrees that banning a book for high school students and above is wrong and should not be tolerated.  But, there are more subtle ways to censor books.  Are you against them, too?

Recently, I accompanied a colleague of mine to the campus bookstore.  As we passed a display of recent publications, my friend moved a random book over to cover a book written by a conservative talking head—one who writes highly inaccurate ‘history’ books that I despise.  Obviously, my friend didn’t want anyone to buy any of those books, so they were “censored” from view.  Yes, that’s censorship, too.

Do you follow the New York Times Bestseller List?  Are you aware that the number of books sold has absolutely nothing to with the ranking of books on that list?  Publishers, authors, other newspapers, and almost all of the digital media have complained about that for decades and there has been no change.  Want to know how the books on the list are selected?  So does everyone else and the Times isn’t saying.  But if you read the list for a couple of months, you can see a trend that suggests placement is highly influenced by politics.  That the Times does this is perfectly okay—it’s their newspaper.  But, it’s still censorship.

Ever heard of algorithmic censorship?  This involves the use of algorithms to filter out certain content from online platforms.  For example, social media companies may use algorithms to suppress certain posts.  They don’t have to tell you why or when they censor you.  They just shut you down.  When we use those social media platforms, we’re condoning their censorship.

Then there is corporate censorship:  This occurs when businesses use their power and influence to silence dissenting voices or to restrict access to information.  For instance, a media conglomerate might pressure its journalists to avoid reporting on certain topics, or it might use its financial clout to suppress unfavorable coverage of its business practices.  When we do business with those companies, we become their partners.

Censorship is all around us.  Perhaps we should stop worrying about a few parents who are a little overzealous about trying to protect their children until we have examined how much censorship we, ourselves, are partners in.