Tuesday, January 11, 2011

Censorship and Banning Books

Mark Twain himself once said: "Censorship is telling a man he can't have a steak just because a baby can't chew it."

Every year, during the last week of September, I get downright giddy (no, not because it's my birthday), it's because at this time the library world celebrates "Banned Books Week." During this week, libraries all over the country celebrate our freedom to read and have open access to information, and serve to educate patrons about the importance of the First Amendment, specifically drawing attention to the harms of censorship.

Take the current controversy to “sanitize” the story of Huckleberry Finn, a blistering critique of the hypocrisy and brutality of slavery and the norms and values of white society, as seen through the eyes of an innocent, Huck Finn. The book is actually an anti-racism work of the first degree: a white boy realizes that a black man is human. While today, the use of the “N” word is absolutely unacceptable, in its proper literary content - as if Twain was poking us with a very sharp stick just to see us squirm - it adds to the time period and issues in the story. To edit it out would be insulting to the writer and to the potential reader (imagine “Roots” without the beatings and racial slurs).

It is dangerous to rewrite history in this way. How can a person, especially children & young adults, know how far we have come if he/she does not know where we came from? One of the most important aspects of education is learning how to think critically and sanitizing "Huckleberry Finn" will take away provocative discussion and analysis. We need a novel like Huck Finn to understand a more modern novel, like “Beloved” for example, in order to think critically about why a mother would murder her own child rather than see her suffer a life in slavery.

We’ve truly lost our sight & our vision when we want to take apart literary works that have had such historical significance.

4 comments:

Randy Johnson said...

Amen itsmecissy! You’re absolutely right. This is more than just stupid. Stupid was John Ashcroft spending $8000 for drapes to cover up the exposed breast of The Spirit of Justice statue (presumably because his wife can’t chew steak or something.) But this, this is (as you said) dangerous!

Pam said...

Itsme, your blog post is a great piece of writing. You should send this in to you local newspaper (at least) as an editorial comment.

You speak for most of us. Candy- coating life is one of the worse things we can do to our children and to ourselves.

How will any of ever learn anything if we don't read history.

Again, a very thoughtful post. Thanks.

itsmecissy said...

Thanks for the comments guys, this type of ignorance just twists my panties in a wad!

Jeez Randy, John Ashcroft - how many years ago was that?

I've written many Letters to the Editor Pam, this may be another one. Thanks for the suggestion.

Hope ya'll are warm and safe.

Robert Crane said...

nice job itsme! you unwadded my panties quite intelligently.