Over the last month or so that I have been looking at censorship within schools I have found many articles against censorship and a couple that are all for it. Today I ran across an article that was talking about censorship within all aspects of life not just novels.
The article talks about how censorship occurs within politics, and our laws—the example that the article used is that we do not allow child pornography. As far as politics go, the beginning of the article talked about various cases where assassination was used as censorship. If a person does not want another one to be heard, in essence they want to “ban” them, they do so by killing them. Obviously this form of censorship is wrong. In the case of censorship based on laws it is needed or people would run rampant and child porn could potentially be legal but how far should we let censorship go? How culturally based is it?
After talking about political censorship the article moved on to censorship in literature. It proposed a reading of various previously banned books. It claims,
“Reading the great banned books of other times and other climes will hardly sort out the dilemmas and contradictions that recur in the history of public speech. It might, though, help us to understand that the sands of taboo and transgression, of heresy and blasphemy, are forever shifting under our feet. Within a generation (to take just two obvious examples), Joyce’s Ulysses and Lawrence’s The Rainbow moved from being proscribed to being prescribed – from the magistrates’ court to the seminar room. Other novels travel in the contrary direction. In 1900, Harriet Beecher Stowe’s anti-slavery saga Uncle Tom’s Cabin seemed to millions one of the noblest, most influential books since the Bible. By 2000, it had become a byword for patronizing ignorance. Our shibboleths and scapegoats will no doubt look as bizarre to future critics as the passions of the past so often do to us.”
I agree with this part of the article. Many novels that were banned no longer are or maybe they still are but no longer should be. People who are thinking about banning a book need to truly look at the reasons for banning it. Are we banning it because the topic makes us uncomfortable? (Homosexuality, race issues, women’s rights), or are we banning it for valid reasons? I think that these questions need to truly be addressed before a book is banned. How much is society playing a role in the banning?
I think that we do need to realize that censorship of literature may not always be right and we should look into how much of our lives are infiltrated by other forms of censorship. The article ended with a lot of quotes from various authors about censorship and I will leave you with my favorite.
“’Books won’t stay banned. They won’t burn. Ideas won’t go to jail. In the long run of history, the censor and the inquisitor have always lost. The only weapon against bad ideas is better ideas.’”ALFRED WHITNEY GRISWOLD, ‘THE NEW YORK TIMES’, 1959
James Madision. “Censorship: Still A Burning Issue.” The Independent. Feb. 25, 2007
stephcj said,
February 28, 2007 at 7:33 pm
I agree with you, Marie. Just because a book has been censored before does not mean that it should continue to be censored. The definition of what is considered appropriate and what is considered inappropriate has changed over time. Just because people long ago thought a book was inappropriate doesn’t mean we should still consider it inappropriate. For example, it used to be inappropriate for girls to go to school, so does that mean we should do that now because that is what people did a long time ago? Of course not! Don’t get me wrong, I’m all for looking back on the past, seeing what people have accomplished before us and how they have used to think, but that doesn’t mean that we need to think of their opinions as the only right opinions. Just because something is traditional doesn’t mean it is right, it just means it’s been done that way for a long time without anyone questioning why it’s being done. I think it’d really cool if the ALA looked at the list of banned books and asked, “why is this one on here, why is that one on here?” I’m pretty sure they would see that a lot of the books on there no longer “need” to (or ever “needed” to) be banned.
Kristen said,
March 1, 2007 at 7:13 pm
I like how you acknowledge that censorship can impact all areas of life, not just the book world! I had not really thought of that before in much detail. I think this makes your blog stand out from other blogs discussing censorship in that you really made an effort to relate censorship to daily life, not solely to the lives of teachers or book-lovers. =)
I also think it is interesting how your post places society and morals as the main reasons for censorship. I had always thought that the society was the reason for the morals, and that is why the book was banned- that is, because society had morals. Your post really made me think about why books are being banned and made me realize that it may not be society’s morals that are banning it, but maybe just because the topic makes us squeamish and possibly people don’t know how to talk about it in a politically correct manner. Great post!
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bisardm said,
March 28, 2007 at 7:10 pm
I have mixed feelings on censorship. On one hand I think that censorship is a ood thing becuase it keeps students from reading things before they are mature enough and ready to read them. There are some stories and books out there that are just ment for an older or a more mature crowed, things that should not be read by young children. On the other hand I think that the choice of weather or not to read something should be made by the students and there parents. They should preview the written work and then be able to choose for themselves weather or not to read it. And if they chose that it is nt something that they wish to read or have read by their child, there should be a different book that is similar but it less controverscial. All in all I really think that censorship should be a choice.
ENG 311 Comments « The Mechanic’s Daughter said,
April 15, 2007 at 8:12 pm
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