It seems hard to imagine actually living in the type of society that Ray Bradbury writes about in his famous dystopian novel “Fahrenheit 451” where books are banned and burned. Though banned books in America are not usually burned, they are removed from the shelves of schools and libraries every year.
Banned Books Week brings together communities of readers, writers, publishers and thinkers each year to draw attention to banned and challenged books. This yearly recognition of censorship is meant to educate people on the surprising number of works that are challenged every year, as well as celebrate the freedom to read and purchase any books they wish.
“It is a time when librarians and educators come together to remind students that censorship is not a good idea for the greater good of society,” said Melissa Dennis, Outreach and Instruction librarian and associate professor at the J.D. Williams Library. “It fascinates and disappoints me each year to learn that books are banned or challenged from schools and libraries across the country because of one person’s individual belief system.”
Dennis is also holding a workshop today to educate university students about the current state of banned and challenged books in America and how they can work to change it. The first step on the path to change, Dennis said, is to discern the difference between sharing beliefs and imposing them upon others.
“When (forcing beliefs) happens, those people lose sight of freedom of expression and end up focusing on a very singular, narrow point of view that infringes on the author’s rights and the rights of other parents and students who may not find a book offensive,” Dennis said.
According to the American Library Association, their Office for Intellectual Freedom collected 311 reports on attempts to either ban or restrict content from schools and libraries in 2014. In the past, parents have usually been the force behind challenges, and these challenges often stem from issues with sex, sexuality, language or violence.
A challenged book is one that someone has attempted to to have removed, whereas a banned book is one that has been actually removed from a library or school.
Book bans are not limited to works about obviously obscene materials.
For example, a middle school in Columbus, Mississippi banned Maya Angelou’s “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings” because of its “sexually explicit” content.
Rankin County School District banned both Stephen King’s “Cujo” and Harper Lee’s classic “To Kill a Mockingbird” by cause of “profane and sexually objectionable” content.
“One of my favorite books, ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’ by Harper Lee has made the ‘Most Frequently Challenged Books of All Time’ list due to ‘racism,’ which I find ironic,” Dennis said.
She said, for a couple of years, the “Captain Underpants” series was banned for allegedly encouraging children to disrespect authority and for explicit language.
“As a mother and a librarian, I almost don’t even know how to respond to parents who want to remove books that express a viewpoint they don’t agree with,” Dennis said. “Books that are available to a diverse group of people who come from many different walks of life and may be helpful to them should never be removed from a library or school because a few parents don’t want their own children reading the material.”
For more information on banned and challenged books, and how you can get involved, attend the Banned Books Week workshop held Thursday, October 1 at 4 p.m., in J.D. Williams Library classroom 106E, or visit ALA.org.
