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Banned Book Week is the book industry's annual celebration of their own self-satisfaction and self-importance. Bookstores everywhere (including us) hang signs in their windows and around their stores boasting that THEY. SELL. BANNED. BOOKS. They get a 
write up in the local paper, place little white cards around their store and (inevitably) blog about it, and for what? To make themselves feel progressive and important. But of all the books that they are so 'bravely' selling, how many have been considered 'dangerous' in the past ten years? How many have been banned in a marginally enlightened society in the past twenty years? None. Ooh...you sell Uncle Tom's Cabin and Huck Finn. How cutting edge! That really sticks it to The Man. Are you serious? I bet you Bill O'Reilly wouldn't even say anything bad about freakin' Huck Finn. But how many copies of the Anarchist's Cookbook does your store have on hand? Or Mein Kampf? Or the Tin Tin in the Congo book featuring offensive racial caricatures that Little, Brown recently decided against publishing? There are import editions available from a variety of distributors. If you're truly against censorship -- and not just the antiquated/outdated examples of censorship -- shouldn't you be carrying such a book? I'm not suggesting that bookstores start a 'Hate' section, but if you want to crow about your unadulterated selections, you'd better not be playing the behind-the-scenes censor with your own stock. To do so is hypocritical. Free speech is the right of everyone. Providing unencumbered access to the literary works created under the auspices of free speech (all of 'em -- not just the ones we agree with or approve of) is our business. Bookstores shouldn't have to rally around themselves once a year to proclaim that they hate censorship and the banning of books. Such a concept should be an integral part of every book store, library and reading room. It should go without saying, really.
Tuesday, October 2, 2007
We Sell 'Banned Books'
(but only after the ban is over)
(and only if it's politically correct to do so)
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6 comments:
This reminds me of when Barnes & Noble was publicly proclaiming that they were not going to sell the OJ Simpson book. I wonder how big their Banned Book Week signs are?
MediaBistro's Galleycat linked to this post, with the following follow-up:
"Wouldn't that be nice? It'd be nice to live in a world where eternal vigilance wasn't the price of freedom, too. That's why it's important to remember that Banned Books Week isn't about patting ourselves on the back for refuting the complaints of previous generations over Huckleberry Finn, but about the 546 challenges recorded in 2006 by the American Library Association's Office of Intellectual Freedom against contemporary books like And Tango Makes Three and the Gossip Girls series as well as literary classics."
Too true.
It's not just the book industry or libraries that observe Banned Books Week, however. A college where I teach part-time, Susquehanna University in Selinsgrove, PA, is holding an event on censorship and book-banning this coming weekend. There's nothing self-congratulatory about that -- it's just good practice. So, no, let's not ban Banned Books Week. But let's also encourage booksellers and libraries to practice what they preach.
What you say is true but at the same time banned book week is needed to let people know that books are still being challenged.
When I was at the library the other day and I women had no idea that books were still being challenged.
Some of the most banned titles even today are classic works of literature, like I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings (incest, language, homosexuality) and To Kill A Mockingbird (racism).
And this year's most banned book according to the ALA was "And Tango Makes Three", which was published in 2005 and is about a true story of 2 male penguins bonding and raising an egg together.
I work in a gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender bookstore in Washington DC. We celebrate Banned Book Week and most of the books we highlight have been printed in the past 10 years. Most of them have been questioned or banned for "homosexual content" or "promoting the homosexual agenda". And all of them have been questioned or banned in the past 5 years. And certainly not all the books even mention homosexuality or have same sex couples or attraction... their only agenda is to teach that it's ok to be different. Heck, The Sissy Duckling is about a boy duck that would rather paint and bake than play sports, and how is difference saved the day in the end. And that book has been questioned or banned because of "homosexual content".
The list put out by ABFFE (http://www.abffe.com/bbw-booklist.htm) is all of books banned in the past few years, and includes both "homosexual" and non-homosexual titles.
I think Banned Books Week is still highly relevant. With the society we live in today, with the uprising of the Conservative Religious Right and with the policies the Bush administration has put in place, our civil liberties, including our right to find books and read books that we're interested in, are being threatened every day. Banned Books Week is more relevant than ever.
i have a book that is ban in all over world and it is about witchcraft written by dennis wheatly and it is related 2 black magic of 1940 and if any 1 want's so plzzzzz mail me my id is ashutosh_cool93@yahoo.com at ur earliest
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