For reasons known only to the fireflies that flick their tiny lights around in my brain, I spent a bit of time researching book banning last night. I know the tainted histories of countries like Germany and Russia who, in their darkest hours, devolved into states that began banning books, removing them first from schools, then libraries, then homes, then burning them in massive bonfires in town squares. This was before they started burning people. But I never imagined this happening in the Land of the Free and the Home of the Brave.
Nonetheless, here we are.
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| Titles are backwards to protect the innocent.😎 |
First, I started searching out currently banned books on a national level. That categorization included books that fell into the "banned in 50 or more areas" status. Then I stumbled onto Project 2025, the Right Wing Republican prospect, developed by the Heritage Foundation, and their book banning escapades.
Let me clarify here; I am not bashing the tenets of the Republican political party with which I aligned when I registered to vote. I served as a delegate this past year, and am a believer in the basic philosophy that the government should govern and not control. I do, however, agree with much of what the Democrat party supports... the idea that we should take care of each other.
With that underlying my thoughts, I'm pretty shocked at how far into the realm of control the pendulum has swung in this political party I joined.
We have a clock in our entry hall, built in Pennsylvania well over a century ago. It has a big brass pendulum that swings steadily. The sound of its swinging is an auditory comfort to me. But the pendulum of the political party I call my own has swung right out of the clock housing and slammed into the neighbor's house! We've gone wild! It really should be a Cuckoo clock! But I digress... back to book banning.
So I guess books have been banned in the US off and on for a long time, in various places, though not to the level we are now experiencing.
Apparently in the mid-1990's Where's Waldo was banned because on one of the pages, kids looking for that striped red hat on Waldo might come across a woman the size of a pinhead in the corner who appears to have had a wardrobe malfunction.
In 2010 the children's book, Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? was banned in the state of Texas because the author, Bill Martin Jr., was a Marxist theorist. Only the Bill Martin Jr that wrote the book was not the same Bill Martin, and no one bothered to check it out before banning it.
So many school districts have banned the Harry Potter series that it made the national banned book list. Too much fantasy, I guess. And Charlotte's Web was banned because it had talking animals, and of course in real life animals can't talk. Pride and Prejudice, Little Women, and various Shakespeare works join the ranks of banned books. Even American Heritage and Merriam-Webster Dictionaries have been banned for their inclusion of slang.
Then there's the Florida School Board that banned a kids book called Ban This Book, by Alan Gratz. Its a children's novel about a fourth grader who created a banned book library after her school board started banning books. MmmmHmmm.
Steve Martin, the comedian/actor/musician/writer, recently commented on his own book being banned in Florida. He posted on social media,
"So proud to have my book Shopgirl banned in Collier County, Florida. Now, people who want to read it will have to buy a copy!"
Ulysses, Catcher in the Rye and my personal favorite, To Kill a Mockingbird were all banned books that became classics.
Mark Gottlieb from the Trident Literary Group suggests the following:
While the intentions behind book banning may vary, the unintended consequence remains the same: it often serves to sell more banned books. The Streisand Effect, driven by human curiosity, rebellion, underground followings, media coverage, and the strengthening of author reputations, ensures that banned books attract more attention and readership than they would have if left undisturbed. In a world that values freedom of expression, it is essential to understand that suppressing books may inadvertently result in their proliferation. Rather than banning books, a more productive approach may involve open and informed discussions, encouraging critical thinking, and allowing individuals to choose what they read. After all, the paradox of book banning reminds us that prohibition can often be a powerful catalyst for the ideas it aims to suppress.
So I've been thinking, since nobody buys CD's anymore because they can listen for free on any streaming site,... I'm wondering how I can get my music banned?
