September 25, 2019 | The Clarion
Campus News
Page 3
Banned books week
By Zach Dickerson
Campus News Editor
This week, Sept. 22 through 28, is Banned
Books Week.
Banned Books Week is an annual awareness
campaign promoted by the American Library
Association (ALA) and Amnesty International.
It is meant to celebrate the freedom to read, draw
attention to banned and challenged books and
highlight persecuted individuals.
One thing to note is the difference between
banning and challenging. According to the
ALA, a challenge is an attempt to remove or
restrict materials, based upon the objections of
a person or group. A banning is the removal of
those materials.
This campaign has been held in the United
States every year during the last week of
September since 1982. In that same year there
was even a major Supreme Court case. Island
Trees School District v. Pico, in which the court
ruled that school officials can’t ban books in
libraries simply because of their content.
According to the ALA, the campaign “stresses
the importance of ensuring the availability of
those unorthodox or unpopular viewpoints to
all who wish to read them.”
The organization also notes that it is a
requirement to keep material publicly available
so that people can develop their own conclusions
and opinions as well as further their own
knowledge. Amnesty International also notes
that these individuals are persecuted because of
the writings that they produce, circulate or read.
While the ALA has not released a list of the
most challenged books for this year, some
notable titles from last years list includes “A
Day in the Life of Marlon Bundo” by Jill
Twiss, the “Captain Underpants” series by Dav
Pilkey, “The Hate U Give” by Angie Thomas,
“Thirteen Reasons Why” by Jay Asher and “The
Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian”
by Sherman Alexie.
The ALA even holds events for Banned Books
Week. One event is the Virtual Read-Out, during
which people will read from a banned book or
discuss censorship issues on camera. Another
event that others can do is a First Amendment
film festival where films and documentaries
dealing with the First Amendment will be
shown.
Brevard College is working to bring awareness
to the issue this semester with the course ENG
330: Banned Books Literature, which is being
taught by John Padgett, Associate Professor of
English and Coordinator of the English Major.
In the course, students examine texts that
at various points in history have been banned,
challenged or otherwise censored by some
authoritative figure. Many of the works in the
class have been banned or challenged on the
grounds of social, political, religious and/or
sexual messages within them.
Some questions that are considered during the
course are “does literature reinforce or challenge
prejudice stereotypes?,” “how does fiction
connect with reality?,” “how does power operate
in literature?” and “can literature be dangerous?
Who decides?”
Some works being looked at in the course are
“Fahrenheit 451” by Ray Bradbury, “Lolita”
by Vladimir Nobokov, “The Kite Runner” by
Khaled Hosseini, “The Color Purple” by Alice
Walker and many other works.
This course came about when, during planning
for the fall semester, English faculty realized
there was a need for a 300-level literature course.
Many of the students were asked for ideas on
topics and the best one was chosen from them.
“In some ways, this special topics class on
banned books literature is a sequel to a LINC
that I have taught many times with [retired
professor] Ralph Hamlett—most recently this
past spring—that focuses on mass media and
First Amendment freedoms,” Padgett said.
“Every time we’ve taught it, the question of
banning or challenging books comes up, and so
it was a natural segue to move from the LINC
to this course.”
The importance of this course, like with the
First Amendment, is to draw attention to the
rights of religion, free speech and the press
READ
guaranteed in the Constitution. “It’s especially
important at a time like now,” Padgett said,
“when so many authority figures, starting at the
top, would love nothing more than to erode those
freedoms, and in fact actively try to suppress
messages they don’t like.
“I think that’s the main reason for ‘Banned
Books Week’ too,” Padgett said, “to remind
everyone that the rights we often take for granted
can be taken away if we’re not diligent and pay
attention.”
There are multiple reasons given for why
people challenge books, “but I think many of
them can be boiled down to a combination of
ignorance and self-righteousness,” Padgett said.
“I say ignorance because quite often, people who
want to ban books have not even read the work
in question: they get some idea based on word
of mouth or press reports that 'X is not right for
Y,' and because of their own sense of superiority
or self-righteousness, they want to limit others'
access to that work.”
Protecting the children is also a major stated
reason why. “Honestly, I don’t have a problem
with that—that’s called ‘parenting,’” Padgett
said. “Where I do have problems, however, is
when someone goes from stopping their own
kids from reading a particular book to taking
steps to try to prevent other parents' kids from
reading that book. That's banning, and it's
wrong.”
There are also ways to work against banning
books. “As I suggested earlier,” Padgett said,
“probably the main way to fight would-be bans
and challenges of books is to be diligent and
vigilant in the fight against them. Whenever
the issue comes up—at PTA meetings, school
board hearings and the like—let your voice be
heard that this kind of totalitarian behavior will
not be tolerated. If you see something in the
newspaper proposing a ban, write a letter to the
editor opposing the idea.”
“And be sure to let decision makers know of
your opposition,” Padgett said. “Sometimes, I
think books get banned or removed from school
curricula and libraries simply because those in
charge don't hear from the opposition - all they
hear are the calls to remove, and pulling a book
might seem the easiest solution. It is important
for all of us to help school and library officials
realize that banning a book is not the solution.”
“One final irony about banning a book,”
Padgett said, “is that such efforts often backfire:
the mere fact of banning a book actually often
brings it more attention than it might otherwise
have gotten. Books that have been banned or
challenged often become best sellers because
of the challenges.”