I’ve never understood book banning. In my opinion, once a book is labeled as “banned” it only entices people to want to read it more. To discover for their own sake what all the fuss is about.
The most often banned book is The Catcher in the Rye by J. D. Salinger. According to Bookstr.com:
“From 1961 to 1982, JD Salinger’s hit novel, The Catcher in The Rye, was one of the most censored books in US schools and libraries.” Mainly for its “offensive language, sexual content, violence, drug and alcohol abuse.”
I wonder if these people banning such books ever read horror books or listened to rap music? Do they watch the nightly news which is full of violence? Have they ever seen movies like “Friday the 13th,” “Halloween,” or “Texas Chainsaw Massacre?” Having read The Catcher in The Rye about a dozen years ago, I can’t seem to find what all the hype is about. It’s quite tame compared to some other titles I’ve read.
According to an article from Time.com, Salinger once said: “Some of my best friends are children. In fact, all my best friends are children. It’s almost unbearable for me to realize that my book will be kept on a shelf out of their reach.”
In February 2022, the NY Daily News reported:
“Greg Locke, a Pentecostal pastor. . . claimed that God himself had told [him] to cancel Communion scheduled for that night and instead torch some young adult fiction. Locke said the gathering had a ‘biblical right’ to burn cultish ‘materials that they deem are a threat to their religious rights and freedoms and belief system.’”
Locke gathered his parishioners around a bonfire and they threw copies of Harry Potter, Twilight, and other titles into the flames. The event was live-streamed on Facebook.
The burning of Harry Potter was not new. The NY Daily further reported that, “Harry Potter books were also burned when they were first released, with similar religious figures claiming they encouraged witchcraft. In 2019, an evangelical group in Poland also torched some of J. K. Rowling’s work.”
Even the Bible has had its share of being banned/burned in many countries throughout history. Without going into a lengthy list of where and when, I will mention that in 1842, there was a Bible burning in the United States. Telman, a Jesuit priest, burned a number of Protestant Bibles in Champlain, New York.
Fast forward a hundred years, and comic book burnings occurred. In 1948, children, being overseen by priests, teachers, and parents, burned several hundred comic books in Spencer, West Virginia, and Binghamton, New York. As the event was picked up by the national press, similar events were quick to follow in other cities.
Will the craziness ever end?
If Markus Dohle, CEO at Penguin Random House, gets his way, there will be at least some pushback. Pen America announced in February 2022, that Dohle has “pledged at least $500,000 for the free-speech organization to combat threats of book bans and educational gag orders across the US.” The New York Times reported, “the newly created Dohle Book Defense Fund. . . will provide support to communities where books are being challenged.”
Here are the Top 10 Banned Books listed by Time.com (2012):
The Hunger Games – Suzanne Collins
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn – Mark Twain
Lolita – Vladimir Nabokov
The Catcher in the Rye – J. D. Salinger
Harry Potter series – J. K. Rowling
The Anarchist Cookbook – William Powell
Candide – Voltaire
1984 – George Orwell
The Satanic Verses – Salman Rushdie
Brave New World – Aldous Huxley
My take is it’s up to the parents to parent. If you have young children, it’s your discretion what your child reads and doesn’t read. If you feel your child shouldn’t read a certain title, that doesn’t mean all children should not read it. As your child becomes a teen, let them read what interests them. One of the best things for children, teens, and adults alike is to read, absorb different perspectives, and share knowledge. That doesn’t come about by banning and burning books.
T.M. Jacobs, a native to the shoreline area of Connecticut, now resides in various locations along the east coast with his wife traveling and working from their RV motorhome. He has written and published 15 books (one of which was featured on C-SPAN), over 450 articles published in various newspapers and magazines, teaches classes on writing and publishing, and is currently the owner of JWC Publishing. He is the founder and former editor for Patriots of the American Revolution magazine and has been a freelance writer since 1988.
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/timjacobsghostwriter/
Website: www.jacobswc.com
Email: [email protected]
