Evil, Terrible, Corrupting Books of Doom
Looking through the list of most frequently challenged books was definitely surprising to me. Some of those listed are more obvious than others, but some I never even thought would be a problem to anyone. I’ve read quite a few of them myself, as well.
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is a classic controversial book because of some of the issues it deals with, but I don’t think that it’s anything that is too dangerous for today’s children (at least at a certain age) to deal with, as long as the context is explained and the book is discussed. It may be controversial, but it’s definitely a classic.
The fact that the Harry Potter series is on the list just makes absolutely no sense to me. There’s no logical reason whatsoever that the books should be banned based on their subject matter, save for the fact that some parts in the later books may be a bit scary or sad.
I was completely addicted to the Goosebumps series as a kid and I seem to have turned out all right. I had shelves of those things. Again, I don’t see what the problem is; they were simply mystery stories with a hint of the paranormal – nothing dangerous or even really controversial.
I’ve read others on the lists (A Wrinkle in Time, To Kill a Mockingbird, Lord of the Flies, among others) and there are some that I haven’t but know about, but there are very few that I think have any reason to be on there (I will admit that I don’t think I’d want my children reading Sex by Madonna or Private Parts by Howard Stern).
The vast majority of these books don’t belong on this list and some are absolute classics that should be read by all children, not kept from them. Even the few that actually do contain subjects children shouldn’t see need to be kept from them by their parents, not by banning the books in the libraries, preventing anyone at all from reading them. Trying to get a book banned in a library is an extreme and unnecessary reaction. What these people should really be doing is either education parents or taking more responsibility for their own parenting.
posted by Brendan at 1:49 PM
3 Comments:
Banned books...pish, it takes an extremely self-righteous, egomaniacal person to say that they're entitled to actually prohibit someone from reading certain material. Out of the list from the lecture of banned books I think that I've read over 100 of them, I've even read some to my little sisters, "Like Bless me, Ultima" and they've read some on their own "Summer of my German Soldier". I'd like to mention that both of my lil sister's mental health is just fine, no one was harmed in the reading of these books!
I'm sure everyone in class has read a good number of them, including "Lord of the Flies", and the "Great Gatsby", most of which was required reading in junior high and highschool. As far as I knew everyone had to read "To Kill a Mockingbird" and "Huckleberry Finn" in gradeschool whether they wanted to or not! All the "Goosebumps" , R.L. Stein and Shel Silverstein stories were bedtime books.
Although I have to confess, I have a rebellious streak, as everyone does, and it has been my intention to read certain pieces of literature just for the fact that they were banned.
It's kind of a stupid idea really, why ban the book "Lolita" by Vladimir Nabokov when you can go and rent the movie from blockbuster! (Both of them are available by the way, the one directed by Kubrick and the other one that stars Jeremy Irons and neither has a sticker plastered on them saying that the government is watching!) Trying to halt Harry Potter now that it's at the box office, and people are reserving their copies of the book nearly a year in advance would kind of be like trying to stop a freight train that's jumped the tracks!
LJ
2:39 PM
I'm sorry! Stupid thing! I dunno what just happened...I meant to publish this:
Brendan,
I agree with you, even though I don’t have kids now I can’t imagine that I would ever be reading them Madonna’s book as a bedtime story!
Like you, I’m of the mindset that many of these books shouldn’t be blacklisted, and if someone, like a parent finds them distasteful they shouldn’t let their own kids read them, however, their bias shouldn’t affect people other than their own family. I kinda think that once a kid is a teenager that they ought to be able to make their own literary choices. I mean can you imagine your mom trying to censoring your late-night reading choice? No thanks!
p.s. Again, sorry for the clipboard malfunction!
Good post
LJ
2:48 PM
Brendan (and Laura) awesome comments. Many parents want libraries to function on the principle of "in loco parentis" as schools do - or in other words, in place of the parents. But, this is something librarians have tried to resist. Libraries, public especially, provide access to information, it is up to the parent and the individual to monitor their own reading choices. The sections of a library (children's area, teen’s area, adult’s area) are not there to limit individuals to certain types of literature. They are only there to help categorize things for easy access. Children can rightly checkout anything they want. That's why it is up to the parent, not the library, to be aware of what they are checking out. (man, that almost sounds like a librarian soapbox rant). Great post – I wholeheartedly agree about not banning books.
11:47 AM
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