Banned Books Week always gets me thinking each year about the practice of censorship and about where my personal boundaries lie when exercising freedom of speech. The theme of this year”s observance, which began Sept. 26 and continues through Oct. 3, is “Celebrating the Freedom to Read.”
A couple weeks ago, I reflected upon a campaign to end use of the word “retarded” as a casual, all-purpose insult. This week, I began reading a book, “The Jane Austen Book Club” by Karen Joy Fowler in which one character uses the word “retarded” to describe a person with an intellectual disability.
When reading the book, I couldn”t help but be reminded of the current debate. My conclusion was that the choice of word was consistent with the personality of the character and was also used consistently with the meaning of the word as it has been traditionally been applied, rather than used as the all-purpose insult that the campaign is objecting to.
Mark Twain wrote a famous novel, “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn,” that liberally scatters a word that starts with “n” and ends with “r” throughout the dialogue of its characters. This too is historically accurate, in keeping with the customs of the time.
Nat Hentoff dramatizes a challenge to Twain”s novel in “The Day They Came to Arrest the Book” (Laurel Leaf, 1983). Written for school-age readers, it is a perfect introduction to the attempts at censorship that Banned Books Week draws attention to.
A group of parents and students object to the “n-word”s” frequent appearance in “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” and challenge its place in the curriculum at George Mason High School. In the book”s climax, one of the students whom “Huck Finn”s” removal was intended to protect, expresses his belief that Twain”s novel actually challenges the racism that was prevalent in his society at that time.
Hentoff is regarded as an expert on the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. In “The Day They Came to Arrest the Book,” he presents adult concepts ? such as censorship and perceptions of racism and sexism ? in an easy-to-understand way.
The story depicted in “The Day They Came to Arrest the Book” is fiction but it parallels real-life attempts at censorship taking place each year across the United States. A Google map compiled at www.BannedBooksWeek.org displays bans and challenges for 2007 through 2009, documented by the American Library Association and the Kids” Right to Read project.
Each arrow on the map represents hundreds of challenges ? at least 518 in 2008 ? to books in schools and libraries. The Web site adds, however, that 70 to 80 percent of these attempts are never documented.
In observance of Banned Books Week, you can start by reading a banned book. Check for a display at your local library or community bookstore, or visit www.BannedBooksWeek.org for ideas about other events.
The top 10 most-frequently challenged books of 2008, as compiled by the ALA”s Office for Intellectual Freedom, are:
1. “And Tango Makes Three” by Justin Richardson and Peter Parnell (Anti-ethnic, anti-family, homosexuality, religious viewpoint and unsuited to age group).
2. “His Dark Materials” trilogy by Philip Pullman (Political viewpoint, religious viewpoint and violence).
3. “TTYL,” “TTFN,” “L8R” and “G8R” (“Internet Girls” series) by Lauren Myracle (Offensive language, sexually explicit and unsuited to age group).
4. “Scary Stories” (series) by Alvin Schwartz (Occult/satanism, religious viewpoint and violence).
5. “Bless Me, Ultima” by Rudolfo Anaya (Occult/satanism, offensive language, religious viewpoint, sexually explicit and violence).
6. “The Perks of Being a Wallflower” by Stephen Chbosky (Drugs, homosexuality, nudity, offensive language, sexually explicit, suicide and unsuited to age group).
7. “Gossip Girl” (series) by Cecily von Ziegesar (Offensive language, sexually explicit and unsuited to age group).
8. “Uncle Bobby”s Wedding” by Sarah S. Brannen (Homosexuality and unsuited to age group).
9. “The Kite Runner” by Khaled Hosseini (Offensive language, sexually explicit and unsuited to age group).
10. “Flashcards of My Life” by Charise Mericle Harper (Sexually explicit and unsuited to age group).
Another good source of information is “100 Banned Books: Censorship Histories of World Literature” by Nicholas J. Karolides, Margaret Bald and Dawn Sova (Checkpoint Books, 1999). These detailed entries, which include summaries and direct quotes, are grouped by suppression on the basis of political, religious, sexual and social grounds. The books span continents and centuries and the reasons for their suppression illuminate prevalent attitudes existing both then and now.
Cynthia Parkhill is the focus pages editor for the record-Bee and editor of the Clear Lake Observer?American. She can be contacted at ObserverAmerican@gmail.com or 263-5636 ext. 28.
