writerjenn

This one is a real gimme, in honor of Banned Books Week.  Hands on the buzzer, please: Your answer must be phrased in the form of a question.

"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances."

Kinda packed a lot in there, didn't they?

 In honor of Banned Books Week, here are some thoughts on censorship, particularly censorship of books.

I wanted to go a little deeper than "Censorship=Bad" and think about some of the whys & wherefores.  So here I address a couple of issues that may underlie the impulse to censor: CONTROL and PROTECTION.

CONTROL is the desire to regulate not only what we (or our children) read, but what everyone else is allowed to read, too.  The existence of a censor implies that the censor is somehow wiser than the rest of us.
Questions for thought:
Where does the censor's authority come from?
Who gets to be the gatekeeper?
Why should that gatekeeper's tastes, preferences, or religious beliefs trump those of everyone else?
Does it matter whether a censor has even read the book he/she is trying to ban?
If the censor has read it, why can't we?  If the censor hasn't read it, then on what basis is it being censored?

PROTECTION, especially the protection of children, is often cited in censorship cases.  I believe this is often misguided.  How can we prevent children from encountering in books the things that we can't prevent them from encountering in real life?  Through literature, we can read about the things we fear, think about them, see examples of different ways to handle them and the consequences that might result.  We can decide for ourselves which paths we want to take in our own lives.
Questions for thought:
Can censorship itself be more harmful than knowledge?
How does ignorance prepare us for life?

Final questions for thought:
Have you ever seen the title of a book you absolutely loved, a book that changed your life, on a Banned Books list, and thanked your lucky stars that you were able to read that book?