Friday, September 27, 2002
Yesterday I attended a Banned Books event to commemorate (celebrate?) Banned Books week. It was held at the main branch of the Seattle Public Library and featured readings by the Book-It repertory theater. They read passages from Staying Fat for Sarah Burns by Chris Crutcher, Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry by , and Brave New World by Aldous Huxley.
The later discussion between the actors and the audience (mostly local high school students) took a strange turn when a few of the male teens decided a discussion on Freedom of Speech meant they could liberally drop in swear words and not get yelled at. It quickly devolved into one of the boys talking about his sex life and how that related to differences between American and European cultures. (That's about as much detail as I'll go into here. Needless to say, it was strange and not about censorship.)
Later I realized why it felt odd. When we talk about censorship, many people think we're talking about the right to cuss and display pornography in public. We forget that censorship is really about the freedom to express ideas and talk freely about these ideas. Yes, it means we sometimes have to see images or words we might not like to see. But it also means we get to see the words and images we DO like to see.
Whenever a customer recommends we remove a book from our shelves, I always gently remind them that in order to carry the books they want to buy, we have to carry books that others want to buy, too.
Another memory from this week is from our display table at the bookstore. We put up about fifteen titles of frequently banned books. Immediately a customer walked by, saw Catcher in the Rye, 1984, Color Purple, and the Harry Potter series. His comment was, "Well, I must be doing okay, I've read almost all of those." I took his point and promptly changed some of the titles to lesser known works, or international authors that are not as well known here. I think people believe that Banned Books are all the classics, not realizing that there are many contemporary authors who are not finding space on library and bookstore shelves because of groups challenging their work. It wasn't so long ago that Satanic Verses was pulled from shelves. Harry Potter is rapidly becoming one of the most challenged books. And the list goes on.
Anyhow. It's Banned Books Week. In the spirit of Freedom of Speech, here is a link to the Focus on the Family press release denouncing Banned Books Week.
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The later discussion between the actors and the audience (mostly local high school students) took a strange turn when a few of the male teens decided a discussion on Freedom of Speech meant they could liberally drop in swear words and not get yelled at. It quickly devolved into one of the boys talking about his sex life and how that related to differences between American and European cultures. (That's about as much detail as I'll go into here. Needless to say, it was strange and not about censorship.)
Later I realized why it felt odd. When we talk about censorship, many people think we're talking about the right to cuss and display pornography in public. We forget that censorship is really about the freedom to express ideas and talk freely about these ideas. Yes, it means we sometimes have to see images or words we might not like to see. But it also means we get to see the words and images we DO like to see.
Whenever a customer recommends we remove a book from our shelves, I always gently remind them that in order to carry the books they want to buy, we have to carry books that others want to buy, too.
Another memory from this week is from our display table at the bookstore. We put up about fifteen titles of frequently banned books. Immediately a customer walked by, saw Catcher in the Rye, 1984, Color Purple, and the Harry Potter series. His comment was, "Well, I must be doing okay, I've read almost all of those." I took his point and promptly changed some of the titles to lesser known works, or international authors that are not as well known here. I think people believe that Banned Books are all the classics, not realizing that there are many contemporary authors who are not finding space on library and bookstore shelves because of groups challenging their work. It wasn't so long ago that Satanic Verses was pulled from shelves. Harry Potter is rapidly becoming one of the most challenged books. And the list goes on.
Anyhow. It's Banned Books Week. In the spirit of Freedom of Speech, here is a link to the Focus on the Family press release denouncing Banned Books Week.
