Banned Books Week flies by way too fast. So many banned books, so little time.
Was it appropriate for Sarah Palin’s only debate with Joe Biden to come in Banned Books Week? Or, was it fate?
Liam Sullivan at Panorama of the Mountains had a great idea, running a list of good blog posts on banned books, “Banned Books Week 2008” — I’ll try to encourage readership at his blog by not repeating any of his listings here. That will make this little impromptu carnival shorter by a lot, and challenging to me to compose.
Let’s start with some of the big dog blogs.
Window display at the Twin Hickory Public Library in Glen Allen, Virginia, for Banned Books Week. via Boing Boing
A display showing live humans reading may become even more rare over the next few years, as the No Child Left Behind Act begins to affect Americans.
Jesus’s General noted the same display, but with a banner that shows the necessarily political character of standing up for books and knowledge in an era that tries to discount education as “elitism,” and smart and educated people as “elitists,” as if “elite” didn’t mean “the best.” Which brings up a sore point with me: How have the book banners been so successful in stamping out dictionaries? Dictionaries are great books to promote freedom — but just try to find a good one in most homes, or in school classrooms. My father and mother kept a dictionary on their desk at the store they owned; a good dictionary used to be a great high school graduation gift for a student off to college. When was the last time you saw such a thing used as such a gift? I digress.
Banned Books Week banner found at Jesus' General
Jesus’ General said:
Books can be dangerous. Many contain ideas. Sometimes unpopular ideas. Ideas that may make one think. Ideas that engage and transform us. Ideas that set off our imaginations. Ideas that can change the way we see the world. Ideas that may make decide to help change the world for the better. Clearly books can be subversive. And we can’t have that! An informed and imaginative people could do incredible things.
Paper Cuts, a book blog at the New York Times site, asks “What are you doing for Banned Books Week?” it features a nice photograph of the public library in Wasilla, Alaska. Barry Gewen offers great insights into Banned Books Week.
One of the most informative of these lists is “Banned and/or Challenged Books from the Radcliffe Publishing Course, Top 100 Novels of the 20th Century” — because it provides background on various censorship efforts over the years. It’s also the most amusing list, though it’s hard to laugh after your jaw has dropped.
George Orwell’s “1984” was challenged in Jackson County, Fla., because it was considered “pro-Communist.” Who would have imagined that the Wichita, Kans., public library would, ayatollah-like, challenge Salman Rushdie’s “Satanic Verses” for being “blasphemous to the prophet Mohammed”? In 1973, “Slaughterhouse Five” was actually burned in Drake, N.D. And Lindale, Tex., banned “To Kill a Mockingbird” from a school reading list in 1996 because it “conflicted with the values of the community” — leading one to wonder just what Lindale’s values are, and why anyone would want to live there.
Farm School, in honor of Banned Books Week, does a bang up job of nailing down the facts on the charge that Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin tried to ban books, when she was mayor of Wasilla (not exactly, but the details — truth is in the details).
Abby the Librarian carries another rundown of posts about Banned Books Week, including one from Mommy Madness that notes that banning books takes away a parental responsibility, giving it to the government. (Did you catch that, Joe Leavell?)
Everybody’s Libraries carries an explanation of “Why Banned Books Week matters.”
I’m Here, I’m Queer – What the Hell Do I Read? notices an uncomfortable trend, that several of the most-challenged books are challenged because they discuss homosexuality in non-condemning terms.
Cover of Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451, via Maia's Blog - Just Add Coffee
Maia’s Blog – Just Add Coffee discusses Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451 and the irony of banning a book about banning books, in “Banned Books Week, Day 6.” As you might imagine, this is the sixth in a series of posts. The other books covered are Brideshead Revisited, Ivanhoe, Sons and Lovers, The Phantom Tollbooth (challenges coming, I presume, from the Taliban, al Quaeda, and Dick Cheney), and The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.
Another roundup of Banned Books Week posts, at Books Worth Reading.
Chez Namastenancy rounds up even more, and points especially to a quiz about banned books at the venerable on-line site of the venerable British newspaper, The Guardian. (English teachers: Can you say “bellringer?”)
Notes from Evil Bender discusses the importance of keeping ideas on the shelves of libraries, especially those ideas that some find “offensive” to “family values.”
School Library Media Activities Monthly carries this simple quote:
“Banning books is so utterly hopeless and futile. Ideas don’t die because a book is forbidden reading.”- Gretchen Knief, librarian, protesting a proposed 1939 ban against The Grapes of Wrath
Which posts about Banned Books Week sang out to you, that I’ve missed noting here? Comments are open — please share.
Posted by Ed Darrell 
Millard Fillmore's Bathtub 