Beyond The Library: a Look at Banned Books
When I was in high school, I remember walking into our school library one day to see the center of the room rearranged to allow for a tall, round table. It was draped in red cloth and it might as well have been on a dimmed stage with a spotlight on it, but the fluorescents were buzzing above as usual. On this table was a collection of books, fanned open to stand up proud, and a sign that read: “these books cannot be checked out”. They all had lunch bag paper wrapped around and taped down to the inside covers like a dust jacket with the very ominous words “BANNED BOOK. DO NOT OPEN” written in chisel-tip black permanent marker. Of course we opened them.
Young adult literature is a controversial genre. What qualifies as “young adult?” What age? What prior knowledge is required to understand it? What is “appropriate” for 13–24 year olds and what isn’t? A lot of concerned parents and school board members will say that sex isn’t. That drugs aren’t. That domestic violence is over the line.
Sometimes the books that cross those lines get banned. But censorship of literature goes beyond the walls of school libraries.
Since 1982, there has been a whole week dedicated to banned books. Many schools, like mine, put together some sort of homage to the publications fallen from public favor during that time. But banning books is about more than saving preteens from the traumatizing f-word.
The first book banned was Thomas Morton’s 1624 New English Canaan — banned for debasing strict puritan ideals. Harriet Beecher Stowe’s oft banned Uncle Tom’s Cabin is credited with being a catalyst for the American Civil War. Teen suicide rates went up following the release of Jay Asher’s 13 Reasons Why, spurring its removal from most school libraries and many book store inventories. Even The Holy Bible made it to number 52 of the “100 most Banned and Challenged Books” lists.
This year’s banned book week (September 26 — October 2) just passed and the website dedicated to it published a post with an illustration which reads “books unite us, censorship divides us.”
The American Library Association fights for “intellectual freedom” by championing Banned Books Week. To ban a book, it must first be challenged. The count for 2021 isn’t in yet, but here are the “Top 10 Most Challenged Books”of 2020 and what made them controversial.
- George by Alex Gino (2015): LGBTQIA+ themes
- Stamped: Racism, Antiracism, and You by Ibram X. Kendi and Jason Reynolds (2020): Does not encompass racism against all people.
- All American Boys by Jason Reynolds and Brendan Kiely (2015): Profanity, drugs, anti-police sentiments
- Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson (1999): Biased against male students (the story follows a rape victim, interestingly rape is not the attested subject here)
- The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie (2007): Drugs, sex, sexual misconduct allegations against the author
- Something Happened in Our Town: A Child’s Story About Racial Injustice by Marianne Celano, Marietta Collins, and Ann Hazzard, illustrated by Jennifer Zivoin (2018): Divisive language
- To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee (1960): Racial slurs and white-savior character
- Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck (1937): Racial slurs
- The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison (1970): Pedophoelia and rape
- The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas (2017): Profanity and anti-police sentiments.
With the Murder of George Floyd in May of 2020, police brutality and race were understandably a very sensitive subject, and more important than ever to educate and be educated about. Being educated about race means being educated about systemic racism, and politics are most definitely at play in the banning of books for racial content.
In a September 27, 2021 interview with CBS Mornings, Ta-Nehisi Coates, author of 2019’s most banned book Between the World and Me” says “This isn’t just ‘I don’t want my kid reading this’, this is actually state action action…” (1:55).
The Library of Alexandria. Spanish priests burning all but 4 Mayan texts. The Nazi xenophobia for any literature beside German. History tells us irrefutably that books have power and agency. Banning books is obviously a far cry from burning them in the millions, but the point is, censorship of literature has been happening since the beginning of written language. And another thing history tells us is how severe the discord sewn can be when literature is made taboo.
It also tells us that usually, banned books survive. When they’re challenged, they’re talked about. When they’re removed from shelves, they’re more earnestly hunted for. When they’re made pariahs, they become a more arresting read. Parody songs are written for them. And sometimes, entire libraries are built for them.
