I know, I’m late! Banned Books Week was September 21st through September 27th and while I read up about it and passed along the material, I am just now hitting my blog space.
Censorship is a huge issue for me and I’m firmly against it. I don’t think our music should be censored, our movies should be censored, our TV or our books. For one thing, there’s the Freedom of Speech – our first amendment right – to look out for, and all of these mediums have been protected in some way by this amendment (although the FCC has a tight hold on TV, it’s starting to loosen). For another thing, there is the need for artistic expression. Artists are SO incredibly important – they express things in ways that other people cannot. They express our fears, our doubts, our worries, our desires, our hopes, and our dreams. They articulate things for us that we ourselves can’t express in our everyday thinking.
They provide viewpoints that we otherwise wouldn’t have access to. They give us the closest thing we can get to walking a mile in somebody else’s shoes – peeks into worlds we otherwise wouldn’t have access to. They bring the world to life. Connect us to other people through shared experiences.
Think what a huge event it was when the Harry Potter series of books was coming out – Amazon had special delivery times, book stores and libraries had release day events, there were sales of Dumbledore’s Army merchandise and other paraphernalia. We all know what house we would fit into. And, yes, people wanted to ban these books. These beautiful, beautiful books. Because they promoted witchcraft, because Harry defied authority, and because they were too scary. Besides making sure that your children are reading age appropriate books, there’s no reason to limit access to the Harry Potter books. Even if they DO promote witchcraft, Satanism, Occultism or other things – those are valid viewpoints in the world and everyone should be aware of them. Even if they did encourage kids to defy authority – well, that’s what has led to some of the greatest and most important movements of our time!
Of course, parents should have final say over what their children read and when – until they are 18. But they shouldn’t limit other people’s access to the same books and materials that they are keeping from their children.
Read – read often, read a variety of things, read what you want, read to satisfy your curiosity, and read to find comfort and solace. Read for any reason you want. But go out and read!
