Banned Books Week is an event "celebrated" in September. This year, it takes place from Sept. 21-27. Banned Books Week was founded by Judith Krug who: "was an American librarian, supporter of freedom of speech, and prominent critic of censorship. Krug became Director of the Office for Intellectual Freedom at the American Library Association in 1967. In 1969, she joined the Freedom to Read Foundation as its Executive Director. Krug co-founded Banned Books Week in 1982." In case you are unfamiliar with the importance libraries have had in fighting for rights, librarians and libraries have long been known to stand up against invasions of privacy and rights and have continued to carry the banners of freedom of information, freedom of privacy, and freedom of speech into the digital era.
Each year, more and more people become aware and participate in Banned Books Week. Twibbon offers an easy way to show your support by adding a banner to your Facebook and/or Twitter profile picture. Authors and celebrities are posting their support. The Columbus State Community College (CSCC) in Ohio developed a quiz to see which banned books you are.
But what exactly are we celebrating? Why would we "celebrate" banned books week? Book Riot offers an interesting take on this issue:
"While it may seem like it’s a small quibble, it’s not. The way we use and apply language is important, and when it comes to talking about the issue of censorship, the way we focus our attention matters significantly. Celebrating banned books week is a marketing opportunity in many corners of the book world, and not without reason. These books are important. They deserve to be talked about. Talking about these books matters because it’s how we talk about reading, about the sharing of ideas, and about why books and words are tools for growth.
But there’s a fine line between celebrating banned books week and marketing books because they’ve been censored. This isn’t a week about profits or how to sell these banned books."Shifting from "celebrating" to "awareness" would be more appropriate. They go on to say:
"Being sponsored by book-advocating organizations including the American Library Association, the American Booksellers Association, and others, it’s natural that banned books would be front and center. Creating displays, offering events, and opening up discourse about these books and why people fear and seek to ban them is important in advocating for them — and it’s important for advocating the most crucial component of Krug’s vision: drawing attention to the danger that exists when restraints are imposed on access and availability of information.
When we “celebrate” banned books week, we strip the context of censorship from the equation. Books are the conduit for discussion, but they aren’t the purpose. Their being banned isn’t the celebration.
The celebration is intellectual freedom."Fear and lack of control as the root cause of banning
There are many who oppose banned books week because they feel that it is mis-characterized in other ways. They feel that it IS their right and freedom to say that a book is not fit for their children or that it is offensive to their being or beliefs in some way. They point out that banned books are frequently only challenged, not actually banned, but fail to realize that successful removal of a material from a library or curriculum is effectively banning the material and stripping it from all individuals' access. However, this, too, does not encompass the point, either. While it is every person's individual right to decide whether they want to read a book or not, parents sometimes find this notion disturbing. That their parental rights are being taken from them by the very children they bore and who are supported by the caretakers of these books, materials, and information. This root fear is the lack of control. If they cannot instill this fear, idea, or belief in their child or their child is in a place that is beyond their constant monitoring, such as at school or in a library, then they feel the only other option is to attack the material. It is far too hard for many humans to accept change and confront our own fears. Hence, books were and are challenged, removed, or banned.
What these types of parents/readers seem to forget, though, is that there are mechanisms in place for presenting material to children who are able and capable of understanding it. It is termed as "age appropriate" and there are focused librarian studies for each kind of age appropriate reading group. (This is after publishers have had their ways with the material and content for suitability, too.) A children's librarian will have specific training for presenting age appropriate material to children, as will young adult librarians. Within these groups, even more focus of what "age appropriateness" is and can cover is understood, too. There is an enormous difference between what is age appropriate and the outright banning of a book because an individual or small group does not like the contents. In America, the differences should be stark and clear, especially in relation to our first amendment rights.
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This is the point that librarians will have to keep coming back to. They are specialists when it comes to the materials they choose to accession into their collections after taking a look at what their individual communities need, want, and ask for. It is not their place, in fact it is in direct opposition to their profession, to withhold materials from their patrons. Parents, if you do not want your child to read something that is your burden to bear. It is not at the disposition of your library's time, money, and resources (which ultimately come from the community you are trying to ban access to) to place your individual needs and wants above that of their patrons and community as a whole, the materials they offer, and the missions of literacy, access, and freedom of information.
Solutions?
It is not intended to sound harsh, but instead to encourage rational thinking and contemplation. No one has the same capacity for learning, understanding, and comprehending as another person. Age appropriate materials are a general guideline. If someone feels that a material is not appropriate for their child, then that is their responsibility to explain why they feel this way to their child or, alternatively, to be a resource of understanding and knowledge when their child does read material a parent might not agree with or think their child cannot handle. It would be in the library's best interest to try and tackle the problems with censorship and parents in this manner. Offer free programs for parents and adults on how to help their child through a difficult book. Encourage the parents to read the book along with their children so that both develop their own opinions directly from the material and their experience with it themselves. The same can be said for teachers that face upset parents over the content of chosen works. Talk it out with the parent. In the case of Josh Corman's AP English Language challenge to Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale, he explains in his statement that:
"In Atwood’s attempt to capture the horrors that exist in places where women’s rights are ignored and women themselves treated, as Atwood’s narrator puts it, as “incubators with legs,” she uses graphic diction. Rape is horrific, obviously, and Atwood’s words reflect that. Though the image is explicit, it is not arbitrarily so. Just as pictures of the naked, starved, tortured victims in Auschwitz are explicit, yet may edify our understanding of their plight and our resolution to steel ourselves against the possibility of their reoccurrence. Exposure to a shocking thing is not equivalent to promotion of that thing."
"Exposure to a shocking thing is not equivalent to promotion of that thing" would make a great Banned Books Awareness Week line.
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