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Did you know that this is Banned Book Week? According to one report, at least 46 books on this list of 100 of the top books in the 20th century have been the targets of ban attempts. And here’s an infographic of the ten most challenged books in 2011.
When one hears about books being banned or challenged, I’m sure that most of us get ready to jump into the fray and start yelling about censorship. I know I do. But as we’ve seen before, there are some books that should never see the light of day. And, as I learned last year, it’s important to get all of the facts before condemning a book or a situation.
So I looked at both of the lists above to see what could be so damn scary for some people. And I’ll admit that there are a few books here and there that give me pause and which I don’t want my daughters reading quite yet. For example, Lolita by Nabokov is totally off the table for now. But that’s my decision to make as a parent, not someone else who doesn’t know me or my family. I have actually read the book and don’t think that it’s appropriate for a 12 or 14 year old. Someone else, however, might decide that it’s acceptable for their children and that’s their prerogative.
But what do you think? What do you think about challenging or banning books, including some that are literary classics?
Speaking of books, don’t forget that I am giving away a book. Click on the link and leave a comment for a chance to win.
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My MIL was one of the folks who thought Harry Potter should be banned – she found it “too imaginative”. Seriously.
That sort of sums up how I feel about banning books.
Banning books disallows people from thinking for themselves. Anyone who promotes something in order to prevent others from thinking and forming – and speaking – their own ideas and opinions is scarier than anything written in these books.
These book lists always make me want to read more of the “classics,” although I always wonder what defines a “classic.” Three Toni Morrison books on the Top 100 list? I admit that I don’t appreciate her writing, but I don’t appreciate many of the books listed (The Great Gatsby, yes, you big ol’ #1, I am looking at your boring, water-logged, supposedly symbolism-packed self. Even a movie starring Robert Redford couldn’t perk you up). While I don’t appreciate them, I do recognize their value but I just don’t place Morrison in the same category of value with Fitzgerald, Hemingway, and Cather – other authors who have multiple books on the list.
I also wonder about the number of authors with multiple books on the list (10 with 3 or 4 books, another 10 with 2). Are these authors so much more skilled, so much better at writing about the human condition that they deserve so much space on a list that culls the millions of books published in the 20th centure down to just 100? Which one of these multiples pushed out How Green Was My Valley by Richard Llewellyn, which is written with such incredibly beautiful prose that I was overwhelmed with the sheer beauty of the words over and over again as I read it?
Sorry, got a little rant-y there…
It does amuse me that I disliked so many of the books that I have read on this list. Recognize their value to humanity and their quality? Absolutely. Gonna read ‘em again? No way, Jose.
Winnie-the-Pooh was banned? Did some hypervigilant person decide that Pooh and Piglet are gay?
I don’t believe in banning books–not even disturbing ones like the guide to pedophelia. If someone has a strong desire to commit a crime, they’re not going to sit around and wait for an instruction manual. As Violet says, we think for ourselves.
The Great Gatsby
The Catcher in the Rye
To Kill a Mockingbird
The Color Purple
Beloved
1984
The Sound and the Fury
Of Mice and Men
Charlotte’s Web
Catch-22
Animal Farm
A Farewell to Arms
Their Eyes Were Watching God
Gone with the Wind
Native Son
Slaughterhouse-Five
The Old Man and the Sea
The World According to Garp
The Wonderful Wizard of Oz
The Awakening
In Cold Blood
The Satanic Verses
Sophie’s Choice
A Separate Peace
Things Fall Apart
Rebecca
A Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy
Read those…I can see why some would be on the list but still literature (not 50 Shades of Grey – I don’t knock that though, I read it too) is supposed get you out of your comfort zone.
I hate the idea of banning books. In general I think people should be able to make up their own minds.
I do believe that teachers and parents should help with age-appropriate guidelines.
I’m also not a fan of many classics. I have read some that I’ve enjoyed, but many times the writing just seems so much a part of its time –there was a wordiness in older writing that bores me. And, while I know lots of people have enjoyed the Harry Potter series, I tried to read them and found that they were definitely kid-lit. I like the idea, and I like the movies I’ve seen, but they don’t have the complexity and layers that make the books about Narnia and Middle-Earth just as wonderful when you read them for the fifth time, as an adult.
I love it when people try to ban books – it tells me exactly what new book I should read. : ) I do hate “Top xxx” lists: they are inherently subjective and I often think they are so wrong. Books are very personal and not everyone enjoys the same style of writing or themes. That’s not to discount the books on the list, but what I find enjoyable and full of meaning, someone else may find dull and lifeless. And vice versa. (See: Atlas Shrugged.)
I think I shall celebrate Banned Book week a week late. I just stared Lisa See’s Dreams of Joy on Sunday. Although maybe it fits the theme: two women returning to communist China. If the story isn’t full of censorship, it’s not very true to life.
I read everything. Great and crap and inappropriate. I learned to prefer great. My mother never monitored me and I did not monitor my kids. But I can understand the decision to do so.
I don’t agree with banning books. I do agree with refusing to read certain books, which is my personal choice, thankyouverymuch.
I recently attended an event where Salman Rushie was presented with an award, and then spoke. Guests were given a signed copy of his latest memoir, “Joseph Anton” which detailed his years living under a fatwah for his book “The Satanic Verses.”
I had never read Rushdie before, but I read JA, and although even by his own account the man was an absolute ass toward his wives and girlfriends, it was an amazing story of how he had to live while being threatened, with this, the ultimate type of censorship.
I believe in choice. In all areas. I have read so many of those books.