Banned Book Week
Banned Book Week is upon us and it was caused me to reflect on what has caused people to want to ban books.
Some of the topics that popped up again and again were
-Language
-Sexuality
-Violence
-Religion
These are definitely polarizing topics, hell they are usually ones referred to as something you dont talk about on a first date because of that factor, but should something be banned because of them? I dont think so.
There is always someone out there that can take offense with a story, a movie, a TV show, or the like, but does that mean it should be shut down? Does that mean that it should edited? Does this mean that this one group knows better than all the others? No, no it does not.
Admittedly I know that some things are created just to shock people, just to be over the top, just to be disgusting, but I will argue that those things will weed themselves out. If you look at the list of banned books, you will see works such as The Great Gatsby, Catcher in the Rye, To Kill a Mockingbird, Lord of the Flies, The Jungle, and even The Call of the Wild. These books are now considered classic, but at some point they all caused people to react against them. They all had something within their pages that caused what I would consider hatred and fear.
I say hatred and fear because I dont see what else it could be. People did not like what was within their covers, did not like the message in their words, and because of this they raised their voices and rallied against them. There are horrible books out there that have seemingly no merit to them whatsoever and these arent brought to the forefront, yet works like those mentioned above are, I think this speaks to the power they contain. The power they contain is that they make you think, they are intelligent, and they tackle topics that can be tricky, but they do it in a well thought out manner. There might be a bit of shock value to them, but at the same time you can take something from that as well.
Hatred and fear are never reasons to run from something, in my opinion, rather they are reasons to learn about something. Rather than learning about the books that they wished banned, the people rallying against them want them to be taken away from everyone, lest the wrong person get a hold of them. Whos to say who the wrong person is?
Yes, some subjects shouldnt be in the hands of the young, but at the same time, that does not mean they should not be in anyones hands.
View points that differ from yours are not wrong, and they should not be treated as such, rather they should be looked at and understood to your ability.
Violence does not create violence simply because it exists, although some times it can create apathy towards it, but this is not a reason to hide it from people.
Banning a book is not something I think should ever be done, even if it is something I dont think is readable. In that instance I merely choose not to read it, easy as that.
I think banning books gives them more power than they had to begin with as well. I say this because as soon as you take something away from someone and tell them its bad for them, what usually happens? They seek it out. So now, not only have you tried to keep something away from people, you have more than likely caused some of them to seek it out, when they might have never done so.
I love the concept of Banned Book Week because I think that attention should be brought to this subject. I think that the spotlight should shine upon these works so that people may seek them out and form opinions of their own. I think these works should be celebrated for challenging societys norms, for taking a risk, and for dealing with the scrutiny placed upon them.
I encourage you to look these books up and pick out one for yourself. Read it with your own point of view and try to figure out why someone might want it banned.
Basically I just want you to make up your own mind and form your own decision.
Me? I am reading William Faulkners As I Lay Dying. I read it once for a class at UND and I wrote a paper on it, but I want to go back to it now, from my current point of view, and see what it holds.
What will you read?
http://www.ala.org/advocacy/banned/frequentlychallenged/challengedclassics
Banned Book Week is upon us and it was caused me to reflect on what has caused people to want to ban books.
Some of the topics that popped up again and again were
-Language
-Sexuality
-Violence
-Religion
These are definitely polarizing topics, hell they are usually ones referred to as something you dont talk about on a first date because of that factor, but should something be banned because of them? I dont think so.
There is always someone out there that can take offense with a story, a movie, a TV show, or the like, but does that mean it should be shut down? Does that mean that it should edited? Does this mean that this one group knows better than all the others? No, no it does not.
Admittedly I know that some things are created just to shock people, just to be over the top, just to be disgusting, but I will argue that those things will weed themselves out. If you look at the list of banned books, you will see works such as The Great Gatsby, Catcher in the Rye, To Kill a Mockingbird, Lord of the Flies, The Jungle, and even The Call of the Wild. These books are now considered classic, but at some point they all caused people to react against them. They all had something within their pages that caused what I would consider hatred and fear.
I say hatred and fear because I dont see what else it could be. People did not like what was within their covers, did not like the message in their words, and because of this they raised their voices and rallied against them. There are horrible books out there that have seemingly no merit to them whatsoever and these arent brought to the forefront, yet works like those mentioned above are, I think this speaks to the power they contain. The power they contain is that they make you think, they are intelligent, and they tackle topics that can be tricky, but they do it in a well thought out manner. There might be a bit of shock value to them, but at the same time you can take something from that as well.
Hatred and fear are never reasons to run from something, in my opinion, rather they are reasons to learn about something. Rather than learning about the books that they wished banned, the people rallying against them want them to be taken away from everyone, lest the wrong person get a hold of them. Whos to say who the wrong person is?
Yes, some subjects shouldnt be in the hands of the young, but at the same time, that does not mean they should not be in anyones hands.
View points that differ from yours are not wrong, and they should not be treated as such, rather they should be looked at and understood to your ability.
Violence does not create violence simply because it exists, although some times it can create apathy towards it, but this is not a reason to hide it from people.
Banning a book is not something I think should ever be done, even if it is something I dont think is readable. In that instance I merely choose not to read it, easy as that.
I think banning books gives them more power than they had to begin with as well. I say this because as soon as you take something away from someone and tell them its bad for them, what usually happens? They seek it out. So now, not only have you tried to keep something away from people, you have more than likely caused some of them to seek it out, when they might have never done so.
I love the concept of Banned Book Week because I think that attention should be brought to this subject. I think that the spotlight should shine upon these works so that people may seek them out and form opinions of their own. I think these works should be celebrated for challenging societys norms, for taking a risk, and for dealing with the scrutiny placed upon them.
I encourage you to look these books up and pick out one for yourself. Read it with your own point of view and try to figure out why someone might want it banned.
Basically I just want you to make up your own mind and form your own decision.
Me? I am reading William Faulkners As I Lay Dying. I read it once for a class at UND and I wrote a paper on it, but I want to go back to it now, from my current point of view, and see what it holds.
What will you read?
http://www.ala.org/advocacy/banned/frequentlychallenged/challengedclassics
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lelaina:
_felix_:
Norcal. the bay area. wine country (though we have a healthy mircro brewery presence now too) 